Why You Should Emulate David Eckstein

Is there anything more dangerous than emulating the wrong people? We know that all human efforts from art to sport to business and beyond starts in the mind with a mental representation. 

You want to make a lemonade stand?

You take on that endeavor by first imagining a lemonade stand in your mind. That’s a mental representation. 

As a kid, I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player and that means looking up to players that you want to be like. I find that it’s hard to emulate the ridiculously talented players. When the player’s abilities became otherworldly, like they were touched by God, I found it less helpful than admiring the “grinders” who found a way to be successful with less. 

Rarely was I star struck in my short career, but when I showed up at Spring Training with the Padres in 2009 I went in to the battling cage area for some extra work and stumbled upon a guy named David Eckstein. If you know, you know. 

For everyone else, David Eckstein was a player that forced his way into Major League Baseball. Just like he forced his way onto his college team, the Florida Gators. At Florida, they actually asked him to leave the tryout facility several times. Nonetheless, he persisted. 

David is five foot nothing, weighs a hundred and nothing. He’s got no arm. He’s slow. He can’t hit for power. With no desirable attributes, Eckstein played nine Major League seasons, was an All-Star twice, a World Series Champion twice, and he even won the World Series MVP. 

My jaw dropped seeing him in uniform and it felt like a celebrity sighting. Everything he did was pure gold, like he had all the secrets to doing the impossible. 

Now, I think about looking up to people with the same criteria. If you want someone to emulate, looks for low talent, high achievers. That’s where the juice is!