Trying to build a team over the course of the winter to put on the field is really just half the job. Because if your best players go down, it's not so much him going down as who you replace him with, which ultimately might have the biggest impact on how you end up finishing. So you want to have both a belt and suspenders for support.
Interpretation
Building a strong team requires having good backups for key players.
This quote emphasizes the importance of not only assembling a talented team but also ensuring that there are capable replacements ready to step in when needed. Billy Beane highlights that the success of a team hinges on both the skills of the star players and the depth of the roster, suggesting that preparedness is as crucial as front-line talent.
In practice
In a motivational speech to sports teams emphasizing the importance of backups.
The idea that you can create a template that will work forever doesn't happen in any business. There's some really, really bright people in this business. You can't do the same thing the same way and be successful for a long period of time.
When I first came into baseball, people didn't want to hear that a team was a business. But it is. And the better the business is run, the healthier the team on the field is going to be.
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
He that thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.
A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
What I always say is, 'Do every job you're in like you're going to do it for the rest of your life, and demonstrate that ownership of it.'
The energy you create around you is perhaps going to be the most important attribute - in the long run, EQ trumps IQ. Without being a source of energy for others, very little can be accomplished.
Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.
If you're looking for the safe choice, you shouldn't be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.