Last week, I fell off my bicycle. It wasn’t a major accident, but it was enough to create a chain of actions that made me think that cycling is a great metaphor for business.
First of all, as a child I had no fear at all – I would cycle off at hair-raising speeds, with not a second’s thought to the possibility of crashing.
How many of us did just that when starting a new business, or a new project that we didn’t know much about. Less knowledge sometimes means we dive into things without worrying too much about the risks.
But then we crash a few times, and we learn that it can be dangerous and painful – so we take a lot more care. Sometimes so much that we lose an element of the fun we had when we were on our bikes at first.
So too in business, a few bad decisions teach us to be risk averse. In some cases, we become so risk averse that we fail to grow the business at sufficient pace. And it certainly dimishes the enjoyment we get from the work when we’re worried about failing too much.
When we have a crash that’s severe enough to damage the equipment (my buckled back wheel last week was in that category), we have to invest in new kit. I decided it was best to invest a little more this time round to get a better riding experience.
The way we approach investment in our business is key to some pretty important metrics – invest in systems to gain greater efficiency – invest in people to gain greater employee engagement.
And the most important step is to get back on the bike and keep on riding. So the things I learned from my little crash were all applicable in business:
- Learn how to take good risks
- Make investments in the aspects that will make the most difference
- Keep on going to get better all the time
- and, expect a wobbly wheel once in a while.
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Article by Vandy Massey
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