business grand prix — stamina

Stamina and endurance aren’t necessarily the same. Endurance defines the physical ability to keep performing at maximum output, throughout one race. Stamina defines the ability with which a racer can perform throughout the entire season or championship. Meaning, stamina entails physical capacity, as well as mental capacity.

Obviously, physical and mental capabilities go hand in hand and reinforce one another.

Stamina, the mental capacity to endure, time and time again, is the singe most important characteristic for entrepreneurs. There is no such thing as overnight success.

Throughout the season, you might win some races, you might lose some. The capacity with which entrepreneurs refuse to give up is crucial.

business grand prix — endurance

Breaking a collarbone on Friday during practice, have surgery a couple of hours later, to appear at the start of the race on Sunday. Athletes, supernatural ones, have been known to do it. Even though racers should avoid crashing, it’s not always possible.

Endurance, the ability to sustain an (athletic) activity, can be improved, both from a muscular and cardiovascular perspective. How so? By training. Put simply, repeatedly doing a particular activity while trying to get better at it counts as trying.

How does all this translate to entrepreneurship?

Improving at running a business can be trained by doing precisely that. Even though the physical pain is significantly less than the above-mentioned athletes, long days and long nights certainly leave their mark. Long hours put a strain on your mind, body, and relationships.

World champions start training right after they can walk and proceed to pocket bikes or go-carts. By the time they take home the title, they have trained intensively for twenty years. Making tons of sacrifices in the process.

Young racers are often more aggressive, hence take more risks, and subsequently crash more often. The same is true of entrepreneurs.

Improving entrepreneurial endurance doesn’t happen overnight. Keeping your head up in the face of adversity isn’t easy. It requires thick skin. Finding the right balance between input, output, and recovery is a lifelong process.

business grand prix — crashing

Six liters. That’s how much a Formula One driver loses in sweat throughout the course of one Grand Prix. Moto GP riders, crashing at 300 kilometers an hour, brush the gravel off, pick their bike up, and resume their race. Like it’s nothing.

This type of athleticism is truly astounding. I see nine parallels between these types of athletes and entrepreneurs. Namely, crashing, endurance, stamina, aggression, tweaking, broad knowledge, deep focus, fearlessness, and sportsmanship. Not necessarily in that order. Throughout the following days, I’ll highlight one resemblance at a time.

Crashing.

Sooner or later, accidents are bound to happen, even without making any mistakes. Another driver or rider could brake no more than one-tenth of a second later, touching your rear wheel ever so gently. At high speed, even the faintest touch can alter one’s course dramatically. In motorsports, racers are not allowed to touch each other’s vehicles deliberately. Racing incidents get investigated. Should the race committee think that there might be foul play, the racer will get penalized.

In business, even with the maximum amount of focus, the best team, and crystal clear strategic vision, you might still crash due to a competitor. It’s not always you. Without committing fraud, a rival business might start to target your market or geography. There is no committee deciding who should get penalized. Luckily. Otherwise, the free market would be compromised. In short, your business might crash, even if you play all of your cards right.

It is, however, always you who has to pick up the pieces and get back up. Fall down seven times, get up eight.

In order to learn how to crash and consequently how to get back up, crashes have to be experienced physically. As with many things in life, the more you crash, the better you’ll get at it. Convincing your mind that it’s okay to crash a bike at 300 kilometers per hour requires truckloads of courage.

Crashes should be avoided at all costs. They will, however, occur. When they do, it’s a matter of getting back in the saddle to keep on riding.

choices made for us

A muffled “krak”-like sound. That’s what I heard when I landed out of a jump in rehearsal. With that sound, something in my knee snapped. Finishing my dancing career in the theater in the blink of an eye.

One lousy landing wiped away everything I had vigorously worked for in an instant. All the holidays sacrificed. All the things regular kids were able to do. Had it all been for nothing? Training to be a dancer is similar to training to be an elite athlete, with an added layer of artistry.

From the outside in, it may seem like entrepreneurs always are their own bosses and that they’re able to make every little choice in their career for themselves. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

This one goes out to all the entrepreneurs who had choices made for them. Entrepreneurs forced to quit due to road works in the street of their shop. Restaurant keepers taking heavy blows due to lockdown regulations. Co-owners who have no choice but to forfeit because their partners decide to quit.

If you ever have a choice made for you, know that the sparkle, your unique ability to do what you have been doing in your entrepreneurial career is still there. You must find a way to re-apply it, perhaps in a different domain.

Choices made for us impact us differently as opposed to choices we deliberately make for ourselves.

i could never do that

Fifteen years ago, I was about to leave the country for work, without knowing when I’d be back. In the last week before my departure, I met up with a friend. He told me: “I could never do what you do. There are too many things for me here to leave behind”. I always assumed he didn’t mean to imply that I had very little to leave behind.

Muslims fasting for Ramadan often get asked: “so, not even water?” After confirmation that water is indeed excluded, the follow-up statement usually goes something like this. “Whoa, I could never do that.”

Of course, you could. You can leave everything behind, start all over, abstain from food and drinks during the day for a month. Overcome trauma. Heck, you might even be able to move a mountain.

Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, It’s also the cause of it — Mark Manson.

With enough intrinsic motivation, there is nothing we can’t do.

bye bye bear

Make more profit then. That’s what the virologist said. Advice provided freely in response to businesses complaining they’re suffering. While the advice in itself isn’t wrong per se, it definitely lacks a whole lot of nuance.
If you are prevented, or even worse, prohibited from operating (part of) your business, increasing profit is impossible.

When a bear hibernates, it prepares for eight months, give or take. It can’t magically prepare for two years. If the circumstances somehow don’t allow for the bear to wake up after eight months, it’s bye bye bear, unfortunately.

What’s true of nature is also true of businesses. Running a company is like driving a race. You’ll have to know precisely how much fuel is left in the tank. Take on too much fuel, and the excess weight will slow you down. Take on too little fuel, and you might end up running on fumes, causing you to have to forfeit.

Prepare the best way you can. No more, no less.

very very long term

It’s not necessarily a problem if the people surrounding you don’t fully grasp what it is you’re trying to get at. While it’s certainly not a nice feeling to be misunderstood, it’s potentially powerful. All great innovators were ridiculed at some point, only to be revered later.

Don’t be discouraged if your entourage doesn’t understand what you’re trying to achieve. As long as you know, have a crystal clear vision and roadmap towards that vision, it’s all good baby baby, as Biggie said.

Years later, they will say, I was with them all along. I was a fan of the first hour. I always knew they would make it.

That’s your aim. Play to win in the long run.

not in it to win it

An exceptional ability to cope with the prolonged absence of wins. That’s what entrepreneurs are made of, among other qualities.

People not getting a proverbial pat on the back now and then are bound to feel unappreciated at some point in time. With burnout at an all-time high, people feeling undervalued in their jobs is both tragic and risky.

It’s lonely at the top. At the end of the day, when everybody has left, who is there to motivate you? Without superiors offering you a raise, complimenting you on a job well done, it all comes down to you. Be extra kind (to yourself).

how many days

In how many days was Rome built? Not in a single day, that’s for sure. Ten thousand? Is Rome even finished? Probably not, so there is no right answer to that question.

When entrepreneurs struggle in a business, they persevere. Everybody knows Rome wasn’t built in a day, so they push through for many (consecutive) days.

Set goals with what you wish to achieve, and connect a maximum amount of days to the plans. You can always adjust as you go. It’s crucial to create perspective beyond “a single day.” Be specific in manifesting your goals.

keep climbing

Reaching a summit is rarely easy. Vince Lombardi Jr. once said: “The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.” Climbing a traitorous, icy road with a vehicle that’s perhaps ill-equipped to do so can be scary. With rear-wheel traction, no snow chains, or winter tires, you’re (literally) up for quite the challenge.

Don’t stop moving. Whatever you do, keep the momentum going. Slowly but surely. Once you come to a standstill, it’s tough to beat inertia, regain traction, and start moving again.

Always keep climbing. In an entrepreneurial career, many challenges will manifest themselves. Common says in the intro of “The Food,” “slow-motion better than no motion.”

Even if it’s a tiny baby step, don’t give up and keep on moving.