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Christy Mathewson
Confidence is important to success. But is it important enough to prop up with alibis?

Christy Mathewson thought so.

Christy Mathewson was one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time. With the NY Giants for virtually his entire career, from 1900 to 1916, he won 373 games, tied for third on the all-time list, and had a career ERA of 2.13. In 1908 he won 37 games. In the 1905 World Series he pitched and won three games in six days—all shutouts. It was no surprise when, in 1936, he was among the famous 'first five' players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame--Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson.

Christy Mathewson believed confidence was critical to success, so critical that he dare not admit he could be beaten fair and square. When he lost he always had an alibi to preserve his confidence. 

"An alibi," Mathewson told Grantland Rice, the premiere sports writer of his day, "is sound and needed in all competition...One of the foundations of success in sports is confidence in yourself. You can't afford to admit that any opponent is better than you are. So, if you lose to him there must be a reason--a bad break. You must have an alibi to show why you lost. If you haven't one, you must fake one. Your self-confidence must be maintained."

We tend to disparage alibis as being, well, the sign of a wimp. But Christy Mathewson was no wimp. He was a remarkable competitor who insisted it’s important to have an alibi, to convince yourself the opponent got lucky. He goes so far as to say, if there isn’t a good alibi, make one up.  "Your self-confidence must be maintained."

When I first read this I thought convincing yourself that the other fellow got lucky is deluding yourself. Mathewson didn’t care. He needed that confidence to compete and his livelihood depended on competing at a very high level.

And there is more to Christy Mathewson’s alibi theory that might make it seem more attractive to you. Grantland Rice quotes Mathewson as saying, "Always have that alibi…But keep it to yourself. That’s where it belongs. Don’t spread it around. Lose gracefully in the open. To yourself, lose bitterly—but learn. You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat."

Mathewson was talented. He built a Hall-of-Fame career on talent bolstered by confidence and the ability to learn from his mistakes. So, when you strike out at work, maybe it's OK to knit an alibi or two to prop up your confidence. But keep them to yourself and learn from the mistakes that made the other guy lucky enough to win—this time.
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