I’d Rather Be Right Than President

So said Henry Clay, Sr. (1777-1852), a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives.  He was also Secretary of State from 1825 to 1829.

The question in my mind is not whether I would rather be right than President, because who in their right mind would want to be President?  (With due respect to Barack, George W., Bill, George H., etc.)

My question is:  Would I rather be right, or would I rather succeed?

Many of us, perhaps most, often predict our own failure.  “I can’t climb that mountain.”  “My speech will be terrible.”  “I don’t suppose you’d like to go out with me.”

So would you rather predict failure ten times and be entirely correct, or would you rather predict success ten times, succeed 5 times, and be “wrong” in half of your predictions?

I would rather succeed than be “right” about my forecasts of failure.

On November 5, 2013 the Los Angeles Times ran an article about the orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache.  He performs surgery on folks like Kobe Bryant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone.  Tough surgeries.  Great results.

His wife asked ElAttrache if he ever got nervous.  He said “no,” and she asked him “Why?”

According to the Times article, “ElAttrache told her it was because he was always thinking ahead 10 steps.  ’If this goes wrong, here’s what I do.  If that goes wrong, I do this.’  He always feels confident he can solve the problem.”

Me too.  I’m not always right, but I am always confident I can solve the problem.  And I’m successful most of the time.  Heck, the highest major league career batting average of all time belongs to Ty Cobb.  His lifetime batting average was .366 (1905-28).  This means that out of 1,000 at bats Ty Cobb, the best major league batter of them all, failed to get a hit 634 times out of 1000.

The story, perhaps apocryphal, is told of the Detroit Lion quarterback Bobby Layne, who is reported to have said, “I’ve never lost a football game.  Sometimes my team was behind when the clock ran out.”

Next week I plan to create a one minute video for Amazon about my book People Tools.  The person in charge has told me five or six times, “This is very difficult.  I don’t know if the four hours we have will be long enough,” I respectfully disagree.  I will be surprised if we don’t find the one minute we want during the first half hour of shooting.  Read my blog next week and I’ll let you know how it turned out.  But even if I turn out to be wrong, today I am absolutely confident.

Rather than go with Henry Clay, I’d rather agree with Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

“There’s no use trying,” she said:  “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen.  “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day.  Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

So why don’t you tell yourself that you can do it, that you will succeed.  Impossible?  Not at all.  And before breakfast is a good time to be optimistic.  Martin Luther King had a dream.  Henry Clay, Sr. lost his three campaigns for president in 1824, 1832, and 1844.

Alan