Quality is much better than quantity...one home run is much better than two doubles (Steve Jobs)

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Steve Jobs' baseball analogy is very apt. I agree with him.

It's better to get one home run success, than two almost successes. A double, or two-base hit, in baseball is making it to second base, so, in effect - half way, but without any end result.

In the business world, it often appears that it is all about quantity; about making sales, to the exclusion of all else. As many sales as possible. obviously. Sales figures equal rewards in many businesses. More more more.

In education there is a lot of satisfaction around quality: around getting a student their stretch goal; or watching a student have an important learning moment. That might be an 'achieve' grade in a unit standard, or a sporting success, or even an 'oh, I get it' moment.

Yesterday, at our school assembly, a student with a severe genetic disorder read a poem and that moment was a brilliant home run that I will remember for a long time, but it won't figure on any stats.