In a recent game of Pickleball that I played, one of our opponents did something interesting. He was a very good player, but not particularly nimble on his feet. A few times we dropped a very short ball over the net and he’d simply let it bounce twice and lose the point without really making much of an effort.
This was wise, because I always go after those shots, which usually means falling to the ground and still failing to hit the ball. He knew well enough to let that one drop and get us on the next one, which worked out well for them — they smoked us.
While I’m not one to advocate for giving up, he reminded me a lot of the lessons from Annie Duke’s book “Quit“. Among other things, she said:
“Success does not lie in sticking to things. It lies in picking the right thing to stick to and quitting the rest.”
Or perhaps more closely related to Pickleball, Duke says:
“When people quit on time, it will usually feel like they are quitting too early, because it will be long before they experience the choice as a close call.”
When I saw a short ball, my instinct was to go for it even if I had no chance of getting to it (but a non-zero chance of hurting myself in the process). He knew his limitations ahead of time and responded appropriately.
More closely related to business, it made me think of Jeff Hilimire’s new book “Dream Small“. To paraphrase, Hilimire encourages us to take our time and make the steps we can, rather than going for broke right out of the gate. Start small, and over time perhaps you’ll grow.
It’s ok to sometimes let the ball drop so that you can keep playing the game.
