Yogi Berra
The well-known baseball player and manager Yogi Berra was famous not only for his baseball prowess and history, but also his sayings. He called them truths. Others called them Yogiisms.
Sometimes paradoxical, and sometimes contradictory, they always seemed to get to the nub of what he was saying and as such became instantly understandable.
This one is no different. It says it all.
And it can be applied to more than baseball. It can be applied to business and free enterprise. You have to give free enterprise effort - mental and physical. Can they add up to more than one?
Maybe. Sometimes the effort is more mental and sometimes it may be more physical. But you have to give the effort. And no matter what the effort is.
And in all phases - idea development, product or service development, implementation, market and market segment, delivery, product differentiation, whatever! Certainly, it's ninety nine percent mental and the other half is physical.
This Yogiism might just as well be a free enterprise-ism as well.
Not paying attention to the mental or the physical will not usually lead to success in anything, be it baseball, or a free enterprise undertaking. But that only states the obvious.
After all, how did people get to the stadiums and ball parks for baseball games. Free enterprise brought them there! From the subways, to buses and trains, to cars. With hopes of souvenirs and food and drink. And a venue with lights and loudspeakers. And on an on. Baseball happened along with the free enterprise that contributed to its happening.
Free enterprise is certainly ninety nine percent mental, with another half of physical and the rest thrown in.
Free enterprise happens because the mental and physical happen.
This may be the most revealing portrait of the man, Yogi Berra. You can see it here. An excellent children's book on Yogi can be read here. It is very popular!
