On Deck

"The thing I love about baseball," my friend Nichole once said as we sat in the stands at a Triple-A game, "is that everyone fails two-thirds of the time they're at bat. It's about trying." She had just put words to one of my deepest convictions: Creating anything worthwhile requires lots of swings that don't connect.

When I was a kid, I believed grades were everything: The higher my GPA, the better a person I was... or so it seemed. It wasn't until I was out in the real world that I realized accomplishment depends much less on never failing than on continuing to contribute after failure. If you're trying to build something meaningful, whether it's a business, a career, a relationship, or a life, you have to become comfortable striking out.

That's one reason I love summer: It quietly teaches what report cards can't. Summer gives us room to experiment without worrying how others perceive us. We plant gardens that Nature cheerfully redesigns, paddle kayaks into the cattails, cast fishing lines that never get a bite, and tackle projects that need a second (or fifth) attempt before they come together. It's the season for trying things that may or may not work.

Now the school year is waiting in the on-deck circle. Grades matter, of course, but they aren't the whole game. What matters most is learning to think, to create, and to keep stepping back into the batter's box.

As I write this, Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros leads Major League Baseball with a .330 batting average. So as your kids prepare to shoulder their backpacks again, help them see school as just another season for taking swings. And let them know you'll be cheering from the stands.

—Debra Ross, publisher

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