Sometimes slowing down
is as good as accelerating.
The majority of us
find ourselves working in competition with others. Everyone has targets to hit,
and when times are good, there are enough readily accessible targets for
everyone. However, every market has its limits, and because everyone is
sprinting from opportunity to opportunity, there is nonetheless a limit to what
can be achieved. If you are accelerating at the same pace as everyone else, you
will all earn yourselves a decent amount of money, but you won’t take too much
more market share.
It is when times get
tough that distinctions can be made between the winners and losers.
Competitors who were
gorging themselves on the “easy wins” in times of plenty simply don’t know how
to react when obstacles come into view. They stop, scratch their heads and
hunker down for a while, waiting for the storm to blow over. Why go out there
and get wet when nothing can be achieved anyway? When you stop moving, you stop
seeing the few opportunities that are still out there.
Others decide to stay
out in the tempest, slowly placing one foot in front of the other, shielding
their eyes to make out the next potential opportunity. It might seem like a
fruitless pursuit to an observer, but gradually they become hardened to the
conditions, and little by little they stay the course. They might have a far
smaller proportion of the opportunities that they had in the good times, but
they will nonetheless be making their difference.
When many others are
not making theirs.
Fates are decided when
the winds of change blow in. Some companies aim not to be blown over, which in
itself is a sensible approach, but others aim to keep trudging on. They may
well be blown over a few times, but this doesn’t stop them picking themselves
up and keeping going. With the fabled rule of “marginal gains,” every step they
take ahead of their competition will give them that extra bit of oxygen when it
really matters.
For me, this is the
story of any good business owner working in a cyclical market. Of course, make
hay when the sun shines, but when the rain starts to fall, you simply have to
turn your field into a rice paddy. Doing the same thing in different
circumstances is madness. To keep moving you have to do things differently. The
pace of movement will slow, you will have many false starts, but you will keep
moving.
Even moving slowly is
incredibly motivatory for your team. Every win will be celebrated that little
bit more, and the positive intent will bind you together in your mission. There
is no motivation to be found in standing still and waiting.
If you keep going when
everyone else stops, you will slowly but surely move off into the distance.
Getting “one step closer” is my goal when I wake up every morning.