Pushing Boulders

When I decide to put down the rifle, making money wasn’t the only new goal I had to pursue. I knew I wouldn’t be able to function in the real world without a college degree or a real education so in reality, school became the new priority. I didn’t know what I was going to study but luckily, as you may recall in A New Trail, Yet to Be Explored, over the summer I had the idea to start Kick Zone Media. The timing was perfect because with this new found motivation to launch this business I found myself knowing nothing about business.

In only two semesters at SUNY (State University of New York) Adirondack I’ve learned many aspects of business that I previously knew nothing about. Theories of marketing, management and economics as well as the basics of accounting. There is still much more to learn, obviously, but what I have learned so far has helped me tremendously and has given me an appreciation for entrepreneurs everywhere.

While most of my classmates are fresh out of high school, experimentally dabbling in business as if to test the waters to see if it’s right for them, I am trying to start a business, while learning how to start a business. In other words: most of my classmates are learning the basics of how to push giant boulders, preparing themselves for the day they finally come across a behemoth chunk of sediment so they can take the theoretically necessary steps and actions to push the rock with enough force that it gains enough momentum to fly off the metaphorical jump and sail across the valley of failure into the land of success. I, on the other hand, am trying to push this gigantic boulder I have already found. I see the jump ahead and know the momentum it is going to take. But every stride is accompanied with a glance at the book “How to Push Giant Boulders.”

As much of an advantage as this gives me, it has made me realize there is a crucial step to starting a business that can’t be taught in school. And that’s the motivation or will to put your hands on the rock and push! When others watch from a far and doubt your ability, when they see you trying to push an immovable object to become an unstoppable one and laugh. I have realized I don’t care if others view my goal as impossible or laugh when the look at the odds stacked against me. The thing that intimidates me the most is when approaching others for help, I wondering if they will share my values, my goals and see the same path to the jump as I do.

This applies to Kick Zone because the vision I see for the website is a collaboration of people all over the continent sharing their media and their stories of living the Nordic lifestyle. Before this becomes a familiar name and a familiar site I need to push it out there and get it in front of people. This requires me to reach out to friends and competitors and family and strangers and ask them to check out Kick Zone. Ask them to give Kick Zone a chance.

Friends and family have been outstandingly supportive and I thank every one of you whole heartedly, but I knew my reach of approximately 1000 Facebook friends (most of which I probably don’t really know) and about 600 Instagram followers (who I’m certain are mostly Russian robots programed to follow millions of random pages) would only get me so far. It’s time to reach out into the unknown.

If you’re a fan of irony then you’ll appreciate this: While writing this post I needed to take a break to go to my business management class. Today’s topic was about decision making. My professor educated us about the different types of decision makers, and my situation of overcoming insecurities to progress my business fit almost too well into the matrix. I think I am too much of a Conceptual thinker and not enough of a Directive thinker. On opposite sides of the spectrum, Conceptual people have the plan, have the idea and have the vision, while Directive people initiate, activate and “do”. There are other areas such as Analytical and Behavioral but each has its down sides. And I think I’m beginning to understand the downside to being a conceptual thinker.

I’ve seen this in my biathlon training as well. I’ve studied the training routines and methods of athletes all over the world. I’ve educated myself on proper nutrition and as I mentioned in Optimization, mental prep is my guilty pleasure. But being honest, there were many times I couldn’t discipline myself to be 100% committed. And I don’t know anyone who is disciplined 100% of the time, but to be an elite athlete requires at least 80%-85% discipline, probably even more.

I’m not saying I qualified for 4 Jr. World Championships and 2 European Championships on talent alone. I worked my butt off. But there were the late night Netflix binges, the huge bowls of ice cream and a lack of dry-firing among other things that didn’t necessarily help the cause.

So I’m just going to go for it. CEO of IBM, Thomas J. Watson once said “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” This will obviously push me out of my comfort zone. But to make my goal of running a successful business my new comfort zone, I need to step out of my current comfort zone. 

I keep telling myself it's O.K. to fail if I learn from these failures and grow. But that’s the key though: failure to learn from failure will result in what president George W. Bush once tried to say: “fool me once: Shame on you. Fool me twice: Shame on me.”

I race for fun now