The most underrated term or concept in small business is positive consistency. Positive consistency gets pushed aside in favor of rapid or hypergrowth. However, small, growth-centric businesses cannot always increase the top line by double digits. A plateau will occur. Once the plateau hits, the business can either falter or master positive consistency.

My favorite way of describing positive consistency is to look at the stats of one of the best baseball players ever to swing a bat. Even if you know nothing about baseball, Tony Gywnn can teach us much about being a great business through positive consistency.

Tony Gwynn’s Jawdropping Batting Average

Tony Gwynn finished his career with a lifetime .338 batting average. If you do not follow baseball statistics, he reached base safely with a hit nearly 34% of the time in about 9,300 at-bats. Only 15 other players in the game’s history hit better than Gywnn, but not by much.

While the career batting average is remarkable, his consistency amazes me the most.

Gwynn experienced a five-year period during which his average soared above his career average. One of those seasons saw him flirt with .400. Close, but he couldn’t pull it off.

Regarding positive consistency, he hit below .300 in his first year in baseball as a rookie. He never hit below .300 for the rest of his career.

For his career batting average to slip below .300, Gwynn would have needed to add 1,183 hitless at-bats to his total — roughly the equivalent of two full seasons.

By the way, I’m just getting started.

Gwynn and the Three-Headed Monster

As a long-time St. Louis Cardinals fan, I can say that the Atlanta Braves were far too good for many years. They consistently beat up on my team. They were so good because they had what was referred to as the three-headed monster, one of the best pitching rotations in the game’s history.

Their names are Smoltz, Glavine, and Maddux. Combined, they have seven Cy Young awards (the prize given to the best pitcher in their respective leagues). All three are in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

While prepping for this article, I wanted to see how well Gywnn did against this trio. I was shocked by what I learned. Below are the three pitchers, their career win totals, and Gwynn’s stats against these three pitchers:

Maddux 355 wins – 39 for 94 in 107 PA and 0 Ks
Glavine 305 wins – 30 for 99 in 105 PA and 2 Ks
Smoltz 213 wins – 32 for 72 in 75 PA and 1 Ks

Gwynn’s career batting average against this trio was .381, which seems unthinkable. And just three strikeouts in 287 plate appearances. That’s positive consistency.

Regarding those strikeouts, he didn’t do that very much either, as shown in the graph below:

A high number is the objective. For instance, Gwynn played from Monday to Sunday without striking out. On the eighth day, he would. That’s one way of thinking about 38 plate appearances to one strikeout. While variability exists, he was positively consistent compared to his peers. Gwynn was a hitting machine who rarely struck out.

Longevity and Positive Consistency

Tony Gwynn played in the Major Leagues for 20 years. For 16 years, he played 100 games or more, which is an astounding feat. Let’s compare these numbers to the average tenure of a professional athlete in the following four leagues:

NFL – 3.5 years
MLB – 5.6 years
NBA – 4.8 years
NHL – 5.5 years

Gwynn couldn’t just hit a ball. He showed up with regularity, another instance of positive consistency.

Business and Positive Consistency

Gwynn’s batting accomplishments are hard for baseball addicts to fathom. He’s an outlier. But he was consistent. We need more Gwynn-like consistency in every part of our business.

Scan the landscape of your business, from marketing to sales to operations to customer support. Does positive consistency exist in your support functions?

What is your next move if positive consistency is not happening in your business’s most vital areas? Contact me if you need a sounding board.

Title photo by: Deejay, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED