Judy is our books-on-tape. She reads out loud when we drive any distance from a book we choose together. We spend pre-dinner moments occasionally on our lanai in similar fashion, fortified with wine and snacks.
River Town, Peter Hessler’s book about his time in the Peace Corps in China in the 1990s, is one we have read. He told the story about how Deng Xiaoping, credited with opening China to capitalism “in its Chinese form,” answered questions about Mao Tse-Dung who, seemingly, would not have pursued the same course as Deng.
“Mao was 70% correct, 30% wrong,” Deng would say. Hessler reports that Chinese students quote Deng anytime they are asked to compare and contrast these two larger-than-life leaders of China since the revolution in 1948.
Baseball fans would observe that .700 is an unbelievable batting average, a poor fielding percentage, and an epic winning percentage for a team. Being correct 70% of the time on a test earns one a low average grade on most grading scales. Picking the right stocks seven out of ten times could make you wealthy if you picked seven really good stocks to offset the three stinkers. Any U.S. President would welcome a 70% approval rating, and only one has ever gotten anywhere near that level of support in an election.
Presumably, Deng Xiaoping would have lumped the Cultural Revolution and the devastating Great Leaps Forward that resulted in famine as among Mao’s 30%. Leading the 1948 Revolution, molding a strong state, and writing a Little Red Book that promises a communal Utopia would be in the 70%. I wonder where the fact that a lot of people were killed along the way fits into the 70%-30% rating?
People of a Certain Age, how does 70%-30% work in your life?
Were you ever responsible for hiring? An early mentor cautioned me not to expect to do better than pick the right candidate who would excel in the work and stay a long time 50% of the time. I remember scoffing (privately; he was my boss). Looking back on all the hires I have made, I can’t say whether he was right or I got to 70%-30%. I am not foolish enough to think I got it right 100% of the time. I had to let go too many mistakes I made.
What about financial decisions? In terms of housing purchases, the percentage of homes that Judy and I have sold for a higher amount than we bought, an aspiration most home buyers have, is about 70%. At least we are among the fortunate for whom the 30% consists of houses sold for the purchase price, though we often joke about being in the “buy high, sell low” category of investors.
Parents, were 70% of your decisions about your kids the right decisions? Maybe you earned a better score. Maybe not. Maybe your kids would be as diplomatic as Deng if asked to rate your record of success.
The 70%-30% measure will annoy those who see things in black and white. If you are like me, the color palette of your life features lots of gray, too. Professionally and personally, I have too often had to decide about something without being certain that I had all the information germane to the issue. I advise graduate students aspiring to school leadership that “I believe I am right, but I could be wrong” is not a bad or weak way to present oneself to one’s followers. I hope I am judged to have followed my own advice.
I find myself in good company. New York Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand once wrote, in his book, The Spirit of Liberty, published in 1944 that, “…the spirit of liberty is the spirit that is not too sure that it is right; the spirit liberty is the mind which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women.”
I have known folks, and you have, too, who say that no human is perfect and then proceed to pontificate with the certainty of their rightness. Likewise, I know people whose sense of self is that they are seldom right or qualified. I prefer the company of people between those extremes, those closer to the 70-30 measure.
Of course, if one’s 30% includes conducting a holocaust, all bets are off. There are moral dimensions to 70%-30%.
I don’t think any of us start out striving for anything less than 100%. “Anything worth doing is worth doing well,” I hear my Dad talking in my head. The kicker is how you define well. His criterion was “your very best effort.”
It has worked for me to keep baseball in mind. Hall of Fame batters failed nearly 70% of the time and Hall of Fame teams have won 70%. One day you lose and the chance to win comes again the next day.
Deng Xiaoping gave Mao a really big break with the 70%-30% deal. What comprises the 70% and the 30% matters, of course. Maybe, though, the proportion of Deng’s measure of Mao is not far off the reality of our lives.
Of course, I’m not 100% sure about all this…
Kung hei fat choi!
Daniel E. White
February 8, 2016