| Have you heard anything about Luther Haden “Dummy” Taylor? Well, me neither… not until I stumbled across an article about him. Turns out, he was the highest-paid hearing-impaired person in the United States, in the 1900s… and a role model for the American deaf community in the early 20th century.
What do you think he did for a living? He was a pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1900 to 1908. Mostly for New York Giants (except for a short stint for Cleveland Bronchos in 1902).
Accomplishing something like that in the 1900s couldn't have been an easy feat. I don’t know of many hearing-impaired major league pitchers today, either.
They wrote a book about him, too. It won an award in 2000 as “the most important baseball book” published that year.
Originally, Luther wanted to become a boxer, but his parents said no… so he opted for baseball.
The rest is, as they say, history. (In this case, quite literally.)
Why is this important?
Two things.
First of all, while not all that much is known about Luther’s early life, there’s an important lesson hidden in the few things we do know. Here it is:
He was constantly spending time in the gym (and bear in mind - what passed for a gym back then was way different than what we’re used to today), and boxing everyone who would agree to it.
Note that he didn’t go to the gym once and, because the results weren’t all that impressive, quit.
He didn’t box just one person… but everyone who he could.
When you’re building your business online and something doesn’t work out, what do you do? Do you try something once and then, when it doesn’t quite go your way (as in, instantly gives you 7 figures in profit), do you quit? Or do you get back up and try again?
Just an example, if you’ve decided you’re going to leverage Amazon’s reach and build your business around selling products on Amazon… do you just list one product, and when it turns out not to be a winner, you move on to dropshipping and then to information products, and then to services, and so forth?
Most people do exactly that.
However, from what I’ve been able to observe… the difference between success and failure online is often just about who tried more times without quitting.
Doing the wrong thing over and over is not going to help, either. You need to act, then assess, and adjust. But all the acting and assessing and adjusting will be in vain if you just give up at some point.
That brings me to my second point.
When boxing didn’t work out for Luther (because “Ma and Pa objected”, he said in a 1942 interview), he pivoted to baseball and made his mark there.
You see…
You’ll run across these situations when you’re building your business, too.
Maybe Ma and Pa won’t object to what you’re doing, but often it will be the marketplace that will send you signals to pivot.
It’s up to you to hear them and adjust your course.
For example, writing and publishing articles on article directories was a great way of getting traffic 10 years ago. Now, if you tried that, no matter how hard you worked, you probably wouldn’t see much return on your efforts… just because the marketplace has shifted.
If Instagram organic marketing was hot just a few years ago, now, in most cases, you’re better off just paying some influencer to promote your stuff.
It’s up to you to listen to market feedback, to see what your customers are doing, and where they’re hanging out… and then pivot accordingly.
In other words… when the world tells you to stop boxing and try baseball instead, maybe don’t be all too stubborn. See things through when you feel that they are right… but pivot when you don’t.
Oh, and one last thing… Why I love the story of Luther Haden “Dummy” Taylor.
He achieved everything just like anyone else would. He worked hard, did his thing, pivoted when it was necessary, and as a result, left a lasting mark in baseball history. Deaf or not, he wouldn’t let anything stop him.
Which is something every one of us should remember.
Like it or not, for the small entrepreneur, the help is not coming. We’re in this together, but it’s your responsibility to put in the work if you want to succeed.
So what’s your action item #1 for today?
To Your Success, Paul Hanson
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