This is the quote I have above my computer. It’s in a font like what you might see in a really trendy fortune cookie. I believe this is true.

My mother and I watched “The Martian Child” the other night. I’d already seen it, but she wouldn’t watch “Charlie Bartlett” with me, because the back cover said “brief nudity.” Sometimes my mother cracks me up. And sometimes I want to drop her off at a nudist colony for the day, just to see what happens. Yes, I’m evil and horrible.

Anyway… I’m digressing. The point is, John Cusack’s character tells the kid that in baseball, you just have to hit 3 out of 10 to be good. And if you do just a LITTLE better, you’re great and you get hot coffee.

I believe this is true in life. You just have to hit 3 out of 10 to be good. I guess it could be much higher, but we often don’t set very high goals for ourselves. We have a box labeled: “mundane shit that has to get done” and a box labeled: “dreams.” But we very rarely make dreams goals, because what if we fail? Then we just look stupid for investing so much emotionally in it.

But you’re going to get invested emotionally in it anyway, so whatever it is you want, you may as well be “all in.” Step out and do the scary things, because you can never get a ‘yes’ if there is no chance you’ll get a ‘no.’ It just doesn’t work that way.

So pick a goal (not a dream, a goal, own it.) Pick a goal, and do something brave. If you hit 4 out of 10, I’ll buy you a hot coffee. If you fail, and I’m also preaching at myself here, then you had the experience of making the effort and when you’re 90 you don’t have to sit with your teeth in a jar, wondering what might have happened if you’d tried.

Fortune favors the brave.