In boxing, there is a term known as a “lucky punch.”

It refers to a situation where a fighter, clearly at a disadvantage, lands a single unexpected blow that turns the fight around.

In business, similar moments happen—when a deal is won not purely through skill, but through timing or luck.

The danger, however, lies in misinterpreting that success.

If one mistakes luck for ability, growth stops.

Shohei Ohtani approaches success differently.

During his second season in Major League Baseball, reflecting on his home runs, he said:

“There were good ones and bad ones.”

Among them were home runs that came off swings he wasn’t fully satisfied with.

“A home run that just happens by chance… it’s not necessarily bad—but actually, maybe it is.”

The result—a home run—is undeniably positive.

But for Ohtani, the quality of the process matters more than the outcome.

If the swing wasn’t right, then the result cannot be fully accepted as “good.”

This mindset allows him to keep learning—even from success.

Because true growth doesn’t come from results alone.

It comes from understanding how those results were achieved.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Shohei Ohtani: Baseball Youth II – MLB Edition 2018–2024 Long Interview, p.93