Turbo Charge Your Merry-Go Round!

We all understand the concept of momentum.  We’ve all lived it.  If I am riding a bicycle, I realize that it is much easier to keep pedaling than to start pedaling. 

When I am selling, I realize that the easiest time to close a deal is right after I just closed a deal.  (It is important to pat yourself on the back for a job well done; just don’t let that pat turn into a massage!) When one of my businesses has reached new heights in terms of revenue or in penetrating a certain niche; I keep on going.  I get my staff together to share our accomplishment and to tell them we need to keep going!Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last, talks about the flywheel principal when referring to the momentum in business.  Think about it as a large merry-go-round. It will take a tremendous amount of effort to get it going.  Maybe you budge it a few inches at first.  Then things start to pick up and then the task doesn’t require as much momentum.   Slowly but surely, you build enough momentum so that it almost sustains itself with little to no effort. 

How can your business be the same way?  Perhaps you have accomplished a successful product or publicity launch.  This is when you need to keep going at all costs.  Your competitors and associates may say something like, “You’ve done so well, and you don’t need to keep pressing forward.”  That is garbage.  That’s like when I go to events where food is served.  I hear, “Oh, you can eat whatever you want, you’re in great shape!”

Ummm, no.  I am in great shape because I watch what kind of fuel I put into my body, and I make darn sure to work out at least 4 days per week.  Have you ever seen a fat motivational speaker?  Come on, kids, they’re up there trying to convince you to do what you don’t really want to do so you can be who you really want to be, and they look like they haven’t had a great sweat in years!  Pausing your television show to run to the kitchen so you can get more food is not my idea of a great sweat!

Keep moving forward.  Period.  My friend, Tony, is coming out with his next runaway bestselling book.  He will be backing the release up with a 50 city book tour.  If you haven’t seen him, I promise you he will be visiting a city near you.  If you live in the right market, he may stop by often enough that you confuse him with your Great Aunt, Fran.  (You know the one that has that unwanted patch of facial hair that she really needs to take care of).  He understands the power of momentum. 

Bill Levitt is another shining example of what happens when you have momentum, and when you lose it.  Bill is the father of suburban housing.  He began his construction business when he realized a huge demand for housing after GIs were returning from WWII. 

Most builders were building 3-4 homes per year.  Bill came up with an assembly line concept of affordable housing that could be churned out quickly.  He would build 10,000-20,000 homes per year!  In his “off time” he would run around in his shiny black Lincoln picking up nails so they could be reused.  He also had his employees sweep up and keep sawdust so they could sell it to other companies. 

He had his finger on the pulse of his business.  He ended up selling his business for a couple of hundred million dollars in stock.  When the company that bought the business (ITT) had challenges with build sites and the like, they would just throw money at the issue instead of keeping the quality of momentum going.  The stock lost 90% of its value and Bill lost everything in bankruptcy.  When asked what went wrong, he said, “I just lost momentum”.

There are 3 key points for you to take away from this article:

• 1. What are some areas in which your business has excelled in the last 12 months? How can you keep this momentum going?
• 2. What are the new challenges associated with your new accomplishments. (Keep in mind that problems never go away, rather we get a better set of problems!)
• 3. What or who are the biggest obstacles that would keep you from jumping your business to the next level?

Keep in mind, obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off of the goal.  However, they are a natural part of life and need to be addressed.  You wouldn’t expect to plant a garden and not have any weeds.  You just deal with it and move on.  Do the same with the momentum of your business.  Keep a short memory and a long pencil.  (Don’t focus on the past as much as pushing forward to the future!)

Until next time, keep pushing that merry-go-round!