Learning About Survival from the Turtle on the Highway
I just missed hitting a turtle on the 4-lane country highway that I drive every day; no small feat of driving skill, I might add.
It’s a 60 MPH highway with hills and curves and oncoming traffic — and no barrier dividing that traffic. So to approach a slow moving creature at that speed, and then to register that it’s a turtle, and then to calculate whether you have room to inch over and avoid hitting it without endangering anyone; takes a bit of awareness.
I figure it’ll be a miracle if I don’t see a squashed turtle on the road when I come home from picking up my kids later today. There would be almost no way to avoid it unless the turtle is wise (as they say) and adept at stopping and starting, or if someone actually pulls over to rescue the thing by tossing it into the roadside field. Although I know people who would do this, I’m afraid I’m not that great a turtle lover.
But the little guy did get me thinking about being out of your element to the point that you are endangering yourself by inserting yourself into a new environment.
How desperate or stupid does one have to be to cross that proverbial highway? If you know you move slowly and must rely on the goodwill and skill of others not to cream you, do you go ahead and cross the road?
Small business owners can take better stock of their surroundings than turtles, of course, because in addition to our intuition, we can research before we leap (or crawl) somewhere new. For example, on one side of the road is a lake. But the other side is less developed. Which one makes a better habitat? We can assess the terrain, the availability of water and food and competition, and the difficulty of the transition. In the end, though, we still must take risks.
It is the capitalist’s nature to eye new markets with interest, or to gradually realize that our current location isn’t serving us well. The grass looks so green way over there, but do we have the tools and the discipline to learn if that’s really the case? If we choose to cross the highway, do we have an action plan, or are we inching along all alone, risking life and limb?
Business people calculate the potential worth of the intended outcome; it’s how they grow and survive. Getting safely to the next level without losing everything (being flattened on the highway), or ending up further behind (being tossed back into the ditch), is just as important.
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Comments
I think a very large, important, and often overlooked part of preparing for the proverbial leap into embarking on a business venture is to acquire a mentor. Mentorship is about as basic and as important as a hammer is to a carpenter, or even a handyman.
What you are offering is that very guidance and expertise those of us who are getting started with our own businesses desperately need. We have novel ideas as well as innovative products and services. Few of us, however, have the knowledge to take our ideas to the next level and to put our dreams into action.
Thanks to people like you, a lot of folks are going to start thriving instead of just surviving. The amount of knowledge you have to impart from all those years of experience is truly priceless.
As for the turtle on the road, I don’t think one has to be a turtle lover to do the right thing, and I applaud you for your compassion.
you are right about mentoring. this idea about one on one coaching is something that is needed especially during these unsure times. thanks for providing coaching which is needing for a venture to succeed. keep up the good work!
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