Day 336 – I swing for the fences every time.

I get asked about my Shark Tank experience all of the time.

I suppose people are curious about TV and it has been one of the popular shows on for a couple years. During the conversation, inevitably they always ask, “Would you do it again?”

Well, they flew me to Southern California, put me in a hotel for 3 days and gave me some spending money. I got to go onto the Sony Studios lot and hang out with several like minded entrepreneurs. So, from that standpoint I would go again in a second. Just being around so many positive and excited people all of the time is amazing. And Southern California in July wasn’t bad either!

I met people with amazing ideas and some seemed a little out there but I could see the market they were going for and I respect that they were taking a swing. It is a good things that people like me don’t listen to the people that say their idea is dumb. For every one of those, I can guarantee there is another who thinks its awesome. Where would we be if the Wright brothers listened to the people who thought man flying was dumb. Where would Babe Ruth be if he listened to the people who focused on how many times he struck out. 

Babe Ruth used to go back to the dugout after striking out with a big grin on his face. When others asked him why he was smiling after striking out he just smiled bigger and told them to wait because that strike out meant that he was closer to his next home run. “It’s coming, just wait, I will knock one of the next ones over the fence. ” he would say.

That is the mindset that separates the winners from everybody else. It is the ability to get up and swing for the fences every time you get up to bat. There have been roughly 400 people on Shark Tank over the last several Seasons. There are too many success stories to name. What a lot of people do not realize is that these people were going to be successful with or without the show.

Those 5 Sharks do not make dreams come true. The entrepreneurs work their butts off to make that happen. the people who have been successful without a deal FAR outweigh the people who have made a deal, and it is not always about the exposure, although 8 million people seeing you does not hurt. A lot of these Entrepreneurs made big deals before ever airing on the show.

Even those that did not do well off of the show, myself included look at the experience as an “at bat”. We walked up to the plate and we swung. We swung for the fences and it felt good. We may have not gotten a deal but, I know these people, some of them closely and we all smiled on our way back to the bench. We are all just that much closer. Just wait because one of the next ones is going over the fences.