Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Vaulting to Success, Part 3 - The First Step

Whenever the fact that I pole vaulted in college comes up in a social setting, it’s a great conversation starter. It seems like everyone is interested in the event, though very few people know much about it. As I’ve explained the steps of a successful vault over the years, I’ve realized that there are some terrific business lessons buried within the process that apply to both entrepreneurs and small business owners alike. In part one of this series, we talked about making sure you’re on the right track, because the last thing you want to do in sports or business is to start climbing a ladder only to find that it’s leaning against the wrong wall. In part 2, we discussed the importance of having a safety net to help protect you from the unexpected. In this post, I want to address the biggest obstacle to success that we face in just about any area of life, and that is taking the 1st step.

A few years ago I spent some time traveling and teaching at real estate seminars throughout the southeastern United States, and without fail the most attended workshop was always, “Getting Started”. There is no question that the first step in virtually anything is always the hardest, whether dieting, relationships, or business. In the pole vault, when your name is called and you step out on the runway, looking ahead at what you are about to attempt can certainly be an intimidating sight. Many good people (and otherwise “tough” guys) have been frozen in fear by the task at hand, unable to take that all important 1st step. The key to a successful vault, however, is to push those negative feelings aside, aim towards your goal, trust your training, and start moving forward. Speed is not important at the beginning of your approach (you’ll get to that at the end), it’s simply time to get moving, and begin building momentum.

Many entrepreneurs are oftentimes too worried about having everything perfect, with every single kink worked out of their new idea or business that they spend years “perfecting” it, but never actually get started (check out my post on perfectionism here, and how it limited me for years). I’ve seen timid pole-vaulters unwilling to take a jump because the wind wasn’t right, or they needed powder for their hands, or the coach wasn’t there spotting them…and that same attitude is pervasive in many aspiring small business owners. You have to understand that the conditions will NEVER be perfect, and you can’t keep waiting for your website to be “just right” and the economy to be “just right” and your new business stationary to be “just right”. Give me a break! Everything is never going to be “just right” and it’s time we stop letting these excuses keep us stuck in park, never moving forward to accomplish our dreams.

When I got radically saved (of course, isn’t it always radical when someone finds Christ?) after my freshman year of college, I didn’t want to return to my secular school for another semester. I knew the pitfalls that were awaiting me there, and as a young believer, I was terrified that I would backslide and lose the new freedom and peace I had found in this spiritual awakening. I knew I wanted to do something for the Lord, but I didn’t know if that meant full-time ministry or something else, and so I went back and forth for months trying to figure out my next step. I allowed what is commonly referred to as the “paralysis of analysis” to cost me the entire fall semester as I tried to decide where God wanted me next. This indecisiveness kept me from doing anything PERIOD, much less anything worthwhile for the Lord.

After watching my trepidation keep me immobile for far too long, my pastor finally stepped in and shook me out of my fruitless funk with one very simple phrase. He simply stated, “Son, you can’t steer a parked car.” Boom! The light bulb switched on, fireworks went off in my heart, and for some reason that analogy is all it took to get me off the fence to finally make a decision. All I needed to do was to get the wheels rolling, and even if I began to notice I was steering in the wrong direction, as long as I was moving forward I could easily make adjustments on the fly.

A lot of aspiring entrepreneurs have a passion for something, or a leading in a certain direction that they feel is inspired of God. Yet they have waited years, if not decades, waiting for some kind of prophetic confirmation or lightning bolt from the sky to see if it’s REALLY Him. They are stuck in park, and rather than start moving forward with a sincere heart, allowing God to shape their direction as they go, they simply sit idly by doing nothing as life (and opportunity) passes them by.

Nike had it right with their now infamous slogan, “Just Do It!” Woody Allen is often quoted as saying it in a slightly different way, “80% of success is just showing up.” When asked about that quote in a 2008 interview for The Collider, Woody elaborated, “I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up. People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a play, they wanted to write a movie, they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it were 80 percent of the way to having something happen.” A lot of people TALK about doing something, but Nike’s slogan isn’t “Just Say It.” Woody’s point was that if you just do it, you’re 80% of the way to having success with what you’ve done. Yet so many people with that next big idea, or a best-selling book in their minds, never actually act on them.

So, the question is now left with you…what kind of person are you going to be? Will you be another silent tree in the forest of mediocrity, with “perfect” rattling around in your mind, but no one ever hears it, and nothing ever comes to fruition? Or will you take that first step, and actually get something done, even if it’s just “good” and not exactly how you wanted it? You’re on the runway and your spikes are on, you’re pointed in the right direction. Now let this post officially serve as your friendly “nudge” to start moving! Today is your day and now is your time…so take your idea, and get started.

Then you can work on making it great.