I was blacklisted from major league baseball for ten years.
I Rose from the Ashes of the Disco Records
by Mike Veeck
Sometimes a great idea can seem like a bad idea for a really long time. I was blacklisted from major league baseball for ten years. Eventually, my infamy turned into notoriety. One day, some ten years after the end of my first baseball career, I was finally granted a reprieve. VH1 aired a Rolling Stone magazine special on the history of rock and roll. My idea, an idea my father, infamous for his crazy ideas, deemed one of the worst ideas of all time, was declared the event that marked the end of the disco era.
I was finally somebody. I was the destroyer of disco.
I could work with notoriety. I headed back to baseball with a new purpose: to create a fun place for people to enjoy themselves, no matter who won the game.
Give up doing this: being afraid to do something wrong, especially publicly.
Do this instead: Find a mission, proceed with passion, take some risks, but maybe not as many as I did. Above all else, remember that sometimes your biggest mistakes turn out to be your greatest legacy.
If you focus only on a concept’s weaknesses, you miss the great idea. But if you see only the good, you can get whacked. This book shows you another way. Keep the great idea, but find the people what can show you what flaws to fix.