RUN YOUR OWN RACE
Wednesday Aug. 15, 2018
Some people are planners, they’ll spread-sheet you to death with detailed scenarios, but do they really start much?
These dog-days of summer when half the marketplace is on vacation, coming back from vacation or leaving on vacation, it’s too hard to start – right?
What about the other half of your market?
If half our competitors are away and the other half are summer-snoozing, isn’t there a market to pursue?
There isn’t much traffic on the high road …
Each time I contemplate new things, wrapping up some old ones, calculating next-moves I can’t help wonder how many people have talked themselves out of doing something important and/or inventive because ‘someone else is doing that’ or ‘this is too small to matter’ or any other thing we easily tell ourselves when things sound difficult or require spark + sweat + patience + planning + some luck?
We don’t start like a marathon group, huddled, awaiting that ear-piercing starter’s pistol crack, we start at different places. Different times. Launch off in different directions and most of us don’t have a map (or clue …) which way will hold true.
Whenever I hear someone complain that their marketplace is too crowded – not enough business, too much competition or too many established competitors owning too much market share – I am reminded of my own start. It was in the summer. Poorly timed, insufficiently planned – no roadmap and the business plan was a lame rationalization convincing enough for a banker to lend some money (secured by a 2nd mortgage), so there was an illusion that a banker was taking some risk. Risk, however, was entirely mine.
Every race we run has some end-point. A finish line or tape to break – as if success is defined by completion or ‘reaching the end’.
In road races, easy. In human races, not so much.
Reader feedback:
ALL STUFFED
With all the un-inspiring news these days, I need some thoughtful writings, CG, Cobourg, ON
DEPTH PERCEPTION
Very appropriate statement, we the emphatic beings are sometimes underappreciated, to no one fault but ours. Asking for help is ok but you might have to ask very clear to be heard, AG, Cancun, Mexico
