“It’s not how fast you run or high you climb, but how well
you bounce that leads to achievement”
I have not blogged in some time. I have been heads down with
my latest venture and have greatly enjoyed the last 9 months. I was reflecting
a bit over the last ten years, which have been the best years of my life. They
have not been easy years, but they certainly have been meaningful ones.
When I was young, my father insisted that I play sports –
especially team sports. He inherently knew that sports help you adjust to
losing and winning. Losing is something we all experience. We need to find
courage to learn, dust ourselves off and get back up to try to win. Winning is
a moment when we need to demonstrate modesty and acknowledge credit to the
team. My father told me, “When you win, look like you have done it
before - when you lose, look like you have done that before as well”. Watching
the Olympics this year, we could see everything that is great about competition
and all the emotion that comes along with winning & losing.
I have done a lot of reading on start-up success. However, I
think the truth is somewhat fuzzy. At the end of the day, the difference
between success and failure comes down to human judgment. Of course, there is market timing, great
teams and luck that play a role. But along the way, decisions have to be made
based on imperfect information by imperfect human beings. It’s not a roll of
the dice at all, but there is a lot of intuition & gut backed up by data
points that are at best directionally helpful.
Here is where you bounce…
Every startup will make a change to get it to work. Some
changes will lose and some will win. You may have to try a couple times to get
it just right. This is not surprising as it is the same with life. You have to
work with your kids and adjust to help steer them the right way – same with all
your relationships and career choices.
It’s the ability to take an educated bounce that moves things into the
win column.
Everyone needs a good butt kicking in life to get it right.
Also, victory is that much better having tasted defeat... like the feel of a hot fire after hiking on a cold, cold night.
Happy Labor Day.
