01/10/2023
Shoot for the stars! It never hurts to ask! Put your best foot forward on the interview and figure it out later! Fake it, till you make it!
If you haven't heard the above, you probably have not spent much time on LinkedIn and certainly have not heard many speeches on interviewing or entrepreneurship. Usually good mantras, but there are exceptions to every rule.
In walks, shortstop Carlos Correa, ordinarily, with a team sports athlete, I would list the team for whom he plays. For the instant and last season, he is a Minnesota Twin, however, this by no means may be the end of this saga.
To put things in perspective, at 23, he won the World Series with the Houston Astros. If you ask historic baseball fans who are the five greatest hitters ever, most will mention two on the list are Ted Williams and Ty Cobb. Both men never donned a World Series ring. The greatest shortstop ever, according to many, Ernie Banks, also never got that ring.
Correa has also won awards as an outstanding fielder (including a Platinum Glove his last season, as an Astro, 2021), has two all-star appearances and just turned 28, not a bad resume. While in general a solid hitter, he is especially known for clutch hits, in moments where his team needs them most.
His background is so attractive that on Dec. 14, the Giants offered him more than 1/3 of a billion dollars to wear their uniform for 13 years. Six days later, he failed the physical and lost the agreement. The next day, the Mets made him the same offer minus $35 million, not too shabby.
Three days later, he hits the same snag with his new team.
Today, he signed with the team that signed his checks in 2022 for 6 years worth $200 million, pending a physical. Will history repeat itself? Only time will tell. However, his legacy will forever be tarnished.
If he had started negotiations with, hey, I've got a bummed leg, what's the best you can do for me? Someone would have paid him a lot of money for a long time, without the negative spin. Sometimes in business it pays to only solicit reasonable expectations and it almost always pays to be transparent.