Waiting at the mountaintop
Written by John Teel.
It was ninety degrees with full sun and I was pushing myself farther than anyone else I had seen on the trail that day.
And I was feeling quite proud of myself.
Surely, it was a testament to my fitness level that I made it this far on such a steep hiking trail…
Or, so I thought…
…until everything changed when I saw what was waiting for me at the top…
I like to move fast when I have a goal in mind and patience is not one of my virtues.
Honestly, I often get frustrated when other people don’t move as fast as I want.
For instance, some mornings getting my son ready for school I get so annoyed when he seems to almost move in slow motion getting out the door.
Or recently, I got irritated when a driver in front of me came to a complete stop, for way too long, just because a piece of cardboard had blown in the road.
When I was developing and bringing my product to market I got frustrated all the time that things didn’t move as fast as I wanted!
Um. I’m sure you’ve never felt this way before:)
I was obsessed with my product (just ask my wife!), and I wanted everything to move quickly!
So everyday I pushed harder and harder to make it happen faster and faster.
This is how I like to hike most of the time too. Fast.
Hiking in the mountains surrounding Tucson, Arizona is one of my favorite things to do.
It’s not only good for my body, but it’s also where I do my best thinking.
I love the steep trails, and I prefer short daily hikes where I really push myself for an hour or two.
Recently, I was doing one of the steepest, yet most beautiful hikes around here.
It’s re…lent…less with seemingly endless switchbacks. And lots of sheer cliffs.
Rarely, do I ever see anyone on this part of the trail, especially when it’s hot.
Some days I make it further than others, depending on my speed and available time.
But this day I was feeling energetic and made it further than I ever had before.
I saw a nice looking scenic ledge up ahead.
So I pushed on with that as my goal, moving as fast as I could go.
My heart rate was definitely near its maximum.
I was feeling like I did something really special that day as I came up to that ledge.
Until…
…I was shocked to find an 83 year old man with knee replacements and a history of heart bypass surgery already there waiting for me!
Instant humble pie!
As we talked for a while, and I learned about his health challenges, I was in awe of him.
Turns out he accomplished the same goal as me but he just took it slow and steady.
What took me an hour, had taken him 3-4 hours.
But we reached the same point, and he even beat me to it!
Most entrepreneurs that I meet always want things to move faster.
I bet this is you too.
We have big goals and want fast action!
So we push and push to make it all happen more quickly, usually creating a lot of stress for ourselves and our family.
But this 83 year old man gave me a new perspective on what is possible with enough time.
And, that maybe going fast isn’t always the best way forward.
When you go fast it’s easy to miss things along the way.
This weekend when I did the flat portion of this same trail as a leisure walk with my wife I noticed things I had completely rushed past on my fast hikes.
This man I met at the summit probably noticed things along the trail that day that I had completely missed.
When developing and launching a new product there are dangers of moving too fast and missing important things along the way.
I did this many times with my own product, where I pushed so fast that I turned little problems into big ones, because I didn’t see them early enough.
But with big goals like launching a new product, it’s best to have a long-term mindset while focusing on smaller milestones along the way.
At each milestone be sure you stop for a moment, get some feedback on what you’ve done, adapt to that feedback, and then move on to the next milestone.
That day on the mountain taught me that fast sprinting will never get you as far as a slow and steady pace.
In fact, if you go too fast you may miss a critical fork in the path and find yourself stuck on the wrong mountain:)
For help climbing the mountaintop of product development join my Hardware Academy.
