3 Revelations on "restarting"
Have you ever tried to go back to do something that you used to be good at or thought that you are still good at? Well, today's jogging revealed to me three lessons that have implication in business and life! Read on if interested...
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Got up earlier than usual this morning and was compelled to go jogging in my neighborhood park. For the last couple of month, the exercises of choice have been to play badminton twice a week and golf once a week. Last year was Yoga and the prior year was Hiking. Few years back was basketball.
I used to do cross country in high school so jogging was something I used to be good at. It's just something I haven't done in a very long time. Today because I am traveling to SF on business during the usual time I played badminton, I decided I need to find another way to get my body in motion and "sweat" it out. Jogging is the easiest replacement.
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First revelations: what you thought you are good at may no longer be.
Well 15 minutes into jogging, I wasbreathing heavy. The first 7 minutes were great - easy strides but the last few were getting tough. Quite disappointing since I used to run for 45 minutes or an hour and even did 10K.
See the thing with memory is that it doesn't have a timestamp. A memory of 20 years ago feels as freash as a memory of 1 year ago. But our body won't lie - that we are no longer the youth we were.
In a similar way, one may start in business and be quite good at something (say writing computer programs, doing rentals, investing in foreclosures, auditing, etc. - substitue with what you used to be good at but haven't done for many years to make this piece more personal.)
Yet the market environment, the tools you used to do your jobs, like your body are constantly changing and no longer the same. So you should be prepared not to be surprised the business result didn't pick up as quickly as you wish or succeed as you thought you could be.
Encouragment of possibility: yet if you decide you want to excel in it again, you will have a shorter ramp up period than a brand new beginner.
Encouragement of widsom: The wisdom here revealed to me is don't assume what you used to be good (esp. when you haven't maintained or kept updated/practicing) would still be as good. What you neglect will have consequences of being neglected.
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Second revelation: health is not something you can delegate to someone else.
I can tell everyone why jogging and exercising at least 3 times a week is good and if everyone does it but I don't, I am not going to have the physical benefit. I think that's obvious.
In a similar way, while I am fond of delegating in business, there's something that you cannot delegate - your core competency. If you delegate it, it may likely no longer to be your core competency.
In health if you "delegated" your children and spouce to jog and we ourselves become couch potatoes thinking of ourseves as the next Armstrong or UFC MMA fighters in mind but not actually doing any training, we are still couch potato! It is who took your advice to train that become healthy and never you.
Similarly, you can delegate your core competency (something you used to be good at but you no longer practice or hone your skill) to your employee. And at a later point, your employee leaves, you have just invested a lot that leaves with the departure. There are replacible skills/commodity skills where you can easily hire to replace. But what's unique about your business, what's your core, if not taking cared of, you will lose who you are as people come and go,
This may sound discouraging from entrepreneurs just beginning to learn to delegate and have to go back to the days of DIY (doing it yourselves.)
Encouragement of possibility: Actually, no, you can build your core competency into system, process, or more broadly speaking your company culture. But you got to do this part of work like exercising and you got to own your core comptenecy and keep honing it.
Encouragment of wisdom: know thyselves and what strategic core competency you want to cultivate. Be careful of "laziness" or "convenice" and accidentally "neglect" or "delegate" away.
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Find revelation: consequencing of rushing when you are not prepared or warm up will cause cramp and even injury.
some 30 minutes into my morning exercise, my quadriceps begun to tighten and cramp up.
Strong willed people will "force their will" on themselves even if they are not ready. For instance, people like to make new year's resolution. Someone who has not exercise for a whole year may decide to spend the first week exercising 10 hours a week and burn themselves up - ends up hurting themselves than building themselves up.
In business, even if you are going back to what you used to be good at, don't rush and assume you were as fast the gunslinger you were of the past. You will get hurt if not shot dead if you haven't practice shooting for 20 years and your gun was all rusted and your sight misaligned.
Warm up. Give yourselves enough time. Your edge is you will ramp up faster than someone starting out but it's not going to be instantaneous.
Encouragement of possibilities: you will be strong and even stronger again and will ramp up faster and have better insight.
Encouragement of wisdom: don't rush, warm up, equip, prepare, stalk patient then strike!
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Finally, despite many lessons, as you can see from above revelation why "action" combined with "reflection' is so important. I have been so busy in business that it's been more than a year since I posted here. But today's revelation from God is so inspiring to me that it overflows and I jump at the chance to write and share with you. But it won't have if there's "no actions" even if the action is imperfect.
God bless! May we contineu to encourage not just possibilities but also wisdom in both life and business.
Labels: assumption, competency, core, delegation, jogging, rushing
posted by YesInvestor at
8:32 AM
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