If you do either half-heartedly, slowly speed up, or gradually slow down, you will crash at the end of the runway.
Startups and entrepreneurs are like planes taking off. Do your team members understand this dynamic and how it’s different from driving a bus cross-country?
A plane can not only get there faster and safer if you follow procedures and are organized, but it can also cross oceans.
But if you’re 90% down the runway and going only 15% of take-off speed, for whatever reason, hit the brakes hard. Don’t try to hustle your way there against reality, no matter how many GaryV and Tony Robbins videos you’ve watched.
Entrepreneurs hope to fly at cruise altitude, where going Mach 0.9 feels smooth and effortless at 40,000 feet. But getting to cruise altitude is harder than it looks. And pros at driving cars aren’t equipped to fly aircraft, no matter how many miles they’ve driven.
Understand if you are a MULTIPLIER, where multiplying a long string of numbers by zero gives you zero. Or if you are an ADDER, where adding a zero to a long string of numbers isn’t fatal.
One is risky and the other is safe. Neither is “better” than the other. They are just different. And know whether your people are MULTIPLIERS or ADDERS. Misplace them or have the wrong expectations and your plane will skid off the end of the runway.
