Categories: Paul HennyPerseverance

Overnight Success Takes Years to Accomplish

Joe DiMaggio is well known as one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball, with his 1941 hitting streak of fifty-six consecutive games standing as a benchmark which no one else has ever attained.

The casual observer might assume that Joe’s success was primarily attributed to him being a “natural hitter”, but the truth is that DiMaggio would relentlessly practice his swings over and over again, often in the basement of Yankee Stadium, and then scribe on the walls the number of reps he had completed.

In fact, the “natural hitter” moniker became so prevalent (and DiMaggio so frustrated by the over-simplified perspective associated with the phrase), that he took a reporter to the basement one day and showed him his routine and the marks on the wall. And after doing so, DiMaggio reportedly said, “Don’t you ever tell me that I’m a natural hitter again.”

The same pattern of success being followed by outsider’s assumptions regarding how it all came to pass, is present in dentistry as well. The assumption is that “some people just have it”, “she is just lucky”, or “this all happened after he bought and started using X.” And that of course, is just an illusion in the same sense that reporters used to think that DiMaggio largely just popped out of bed each day and performed almost flawlessly.

In successful relationship-based / health-centered dentistry, there is a confluence of talent, practice, commitment, and clarity of purpose, much like that demonstrated by “Jolt’n Joe”. Success slowly emerges out of the repeated practicing and refinement of the most important things – identified and defined by the Mission.

Excellence is a process. Excellence is a commitment, and as Seneca said, “Excellence is a habit.” So most accurately it is not that “practice makes perfect”, but “focused practice moves us toward excellence, and through our commitment to excellence -we succeed.”

Clarified Values ➡️ Clarified Purpose ➡️ Faithful Relentless Practice, Growth & Development = Repeated Positive Patient Outcomes = Success

And you can scribe that equation on the wall as it will always be true.

Paul A Henny DDS