Fat Pitches

I’m on a Charlie Munger kick this week.

Fair warning – I’m working my way through Poor Charlie’s Almanac, and it is chock full of incredible life and business advice, simplified into digestible sound bites.

It contains some of Charlie Munger’s best speeches and lectures, along with his back story and how he became partners with Warren Buffett.

So I’m going to bring you some Charlie-isms this week, starting with a favorite saying of both Buffett and Munger: “wait for the fat pitch”.

Baseball is a bit of a head game. Pitcher versus Batter is chess, not checkers. When a batter is facing a pitcher that throws a lot of breaking balls (curveballs, sliders, splitters, etc), patience is key. That’s because breaking balls are about deception: they look like a strike, until they’re not – but your swing is already in motion so it’s too late.

To hit a ball off of a breaking ball pitcher, you have to lay off pitches that look good, until you get the one that actually is good: the fat pitch.

Even breaking ball pitchers have to throw strikes, so you just have to wait.

Life is like that too.

We all get opportunities. Conversations that lead to doors, or open doors for you. Doors that open on their own. All of the best business founder stories are about someone who had an open door, and instead of walking by it like everyone else, they went through it.

The wisdom is in the waiting.

There is certainly an art to acting on the right opportunities in life. I’ve been guilty of chasing down every opportunity that’s in front of me, without trying to really discern whether they’re good or bad for me. Lacking patience for that one fat pitch right down the middle that I can crush to Kingdom Come.

I’m learning how to figure out what’s good for me, and at what timing. It’s a process.

What about you?

What fat pitch should you be waiting for?

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.