Lessons on Failure From "Moneyball"

On Friday night I re-watched the movie "Moneyball," starring Brad Pitt.  It is the story of Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's baseball team.  I took away seven lessons on failure.  

First, failure is a fact of life.  Before becoming a successful major league GM, Billy was a standout baseball player in high school who was predicted to be an All-Star in the majors.  He was drafted out of high school and chose to go pro rather than accept a full-paid scholarship to Stanford University.  Unfortunately, his pro-career never took off.  He was a big disappointment.  Everyone has to face failure.  

Second, failure isn’t fatal.  Despite failing as a pro baseball player, he went on to become a very successful GM.  Failure doesn’t have to be the end.  It doesn't have to define you.  Failure won't kill you, and it won't prevent you from succeeding in the future.

Third, be willing to be different.  Billy’s story is interesting because he departed from conventional baseball wisdom and built his team on analytics.  Instead of building the team with the best players, he sought out players who would collectively earn the most runs.  As the season began, the team looked bad.  Really bad.  They kept losing.  But Billy stuck to his vision, and by the end of the season, the A's were one of the top teams in the league, tying the all-time American League record for consecutive games won at 20.

Fourth, don’t let the critics discourage you.  As the team kept losing at the beginning of the season, everyone criticized Billy’s plan and wrote it off as a failed experiment.  He was a fool even for trying.  But Billy dug his heels in and kept going, and his determination paid off.  

Fifth, success isn’t instant.  Billy’s team struggled during the first part of the season.  It looked like they had made a mistake.  But they kept going, and eventually they found success.  

Sixth, adversity leads to innovation.  The reason Billy tried something new and out of the box was because he ran into a dead end.  His team hit a ceiling.  They would develop top talent, but the richer teams like the Yankees would steal their best players before they could win it all.  They couldn’t compete with the big teams financially, so he had to look for a different solution.  Don't let hard times drive you to quit, let them drive you to innovate and think outside the box.  

Seventh, money is not the answer to all your problems.  Billy knew the A's couldn’t compete with the richest teams for top talent, but he didn’t give up.  He looked for a different way to win, and he found it.  It's easy to blame failure on a lack money.  But you can win with what you have.  You may not be the richest, but you can be the smartest, work the hardest, and treat people the best.