Hit the Ball Out of the Park

Here's how to hit a home run for your team

Eric, Safety Director at MEI Group, one of the largest excavation and heavy civil contractors in the Portland Area, told Session 4B of the Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

"It was spring of 2006 and I was in my sophomore year playing for the University of Oregon Club Baseball Team. I was extremely excited because I missed try-outs my freshman year. There was only one problem, I was the backup third baseman to a three-year starter. I struggled with this fact because all my life I was always the star. My senior year in high school I was a three-sport football, basketball, and baseball, first team, all-state athlete. The bigger problem was I knew I was better than the guy who started ahead of me. This really got me down, but I decided to make the best of it, keep my head down, work hard, and wait for my opportunity.

We were a top five nationally ranked team, ready to make a long post-season run. It came down to the last game of the regular season. I finally got my opportunity to start. Boy, did I make the best of that opportunity! On the defensive end, I made play after play, and accounted for eight put outs on defense. At the plate, I went three for four with a double, triple, home run and six runs batted in. I was a single shy of a cycle. The one time I got out was a hard-hit line out that the short stop made a great diving defensive play on. I rocked the game and opened our manager’s eyes to my potential. Due to that game, I earned the starting spot. It was a big role in our playoff run where we finished second in the National Club Baseball World Series.

"The lesson I learned from this experience is to work hard, keep my nose to the grindstone, be patient for my time, my opportunity will come.

"The action I call you to take is keep pushing, stay patient, and give every day your very best.

The benefit you will gain is your talent will be recognized and you will be invited to play in the big game, and you will realize your goals."

This is an important story. We live at a time when everyone wants it all right now! The Law of Compensation makes it clear that you will always be rewarded for effort that goes beyond the call of duty, for going the extra mile, for delivering more than you are paid for. You can’t give, give, give your best without some day in some way being fully rewarded for it.

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson