The danger of unchecked ambition

In 2018, Jarred was only 18 years old. He had recently graduated high school, and was dreaming of someday playing Major League Baseball. In June of that year, Jarred was drafted to play baseball by the New York Mets. This wasn’t any ordinary signing. The Mets took a chance on Jarred by choosing him in the first round of the draft. This means, out of the thousands of players they could have chosen, they picked Jarred first. 

Being taken in the first round out of high school? That’s a big deal. It also meant there was a lot of pressure on Jarred to perform well. 

Jarred played for the Mets’ minor-league teams for the rest of 2018. He did fine. He worked his way up a few levels. But by the end of 2018, the Mets realized they needed better pitching, and weren’t totally sold on Jarred anymore. 

They traded Jarred to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for their best relief pitcher. 

Now, Jarred was on the Mariners. He still had his dream to play in the Majors, even though the Mets didn’t believe in him enough to keep him. So he kept working his way up through the minor leagues in 2019 and 2020. 

Finally, in May of 2021, The Seattle Mariners called Jarred up to play on the Major League team. It was a dream come true—but it didn’t turn out very well. Jarred only hit for a .188 average. By some metrics, he was as much at 28% worse than the average Major League ballplayer. 

Jarred always played with an intensity. Watching him take his at-bats, you could see a stern and determined brow. When he struck out, he walked back to the dugout with a look of pure disgust, flabbergasted that he didn’t get a hit. 

Things didn’t get better in 2022. Jarred was sent back down to the minor-league team more than once. His batting average got even worse, an abysmal .141. 

In 2023, Jarred started to get a little better. But the weight of expectation was heavy. Even though he was improving, Jarred looked more and more disgusted with himself every time he struck out. He sulked in the dugout. He never looked like he was having a good time. 

On July 19th, 2023, everything came to a head. The Mariners were down by three runs in the 9th inning. Their first batter reached base safely. So did their second one. The Mariners had two runners on base with nobody out. This was their chance. Jarred came to the plate. After a grueling at-bat that lasted nine pitches…Jarred struck out. 

In the dugout after the at-bat, Jarred kicked a water cooler in frustration. 

He fractured his toe. 

Jarred had to miss almost two months of the season recovering. The Mariners had to replace Jarred with a player who wasn’t as good as him. That season, they missed the playoffs by one game. After the season, the Mariners traded Jarred to the Atlanta Braves. 

There are a few lessons in this story. The importance of controlling your emotions. The curse of big expectations. The one I’m thinking about is that perfectionism is harmful. 

As creatives, we know perfectionism is harmful. It keeps us from creating and sharing our work. It keeps us from getting better. It ruins our creative state of mind, and sabotages our work with nasty thoughts. 

Our culture values ambition. It values grit. It values people who work hard, and it values excellence. No one could fault Jarred for lacking any of those things. But in the end, it was his unchecked ambition, his rampant perfectionism that caused him to break his own toe, and probably cost the Mariners a trip to the playoffs. 

Creative careers (and baseball careers) are defined by longevity. Unchecked ambition and rampant perfectionism ruin longevity.