Shooting the Rapids

Courtesy of Jo Runny/Flickr

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m on the ride of my life.  To use a whitewater analogy (we’ll be using that throughout, so get comfortable with that one), I feel like I’m ‘shooting the rapids’.

I’m not a ‘river rat’ by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve been on enough rivers to know what it feels like as you approach ‘the rapids’.  It’s exciting and exhilarating, and if you’re honest, a little frightening.  The goal? ‘Get through it’ without flipping your boat and having a ‘yard sale’ on the river.  Once you’re out…once you’ve ‘shot the rapid’, you feel success and you feel proud of having made it and more than likely, you want to do it again or at least keep on going.  You’re having fun.

If you are familiar with Les McKeown and his book, Predictable Success, you might recognize my references to whitewater rafting and having fun. I’m reading the book now…sometimes re-reading chapters to make sure I’m really ‘getting’ it.  It’s a valuable resource for any small business owner, entrepreneur or company leader.  Gini Dietrch recommended this book.  It was on her 9 Books to Give as Holiday Gifts list and I bought it…hook, line and sinker.  

Fun. So, by Les McKeown’s standards, my business is not yet in the Whitewater phase. I’ve just exited the Early Struggle phase and I’m now heading towards the next phase of Fun.  What I like about McKeown’s recommendations for the Early Struggle phase? Get through it.  Fast.  Do not try to live with it.  Do not try to endure it.  Get through it.  Fast. It’s an unavoidable phase for Predictable Success.  It’s defined as “a race to establish a viable market before the initial cash runs out.”  In laymen’s terms: are there enough people out there buying what I’m selling and do I have enough cash (fuel- as McKeown calls it) to last until I find them. Yes.

Courtesy of Les McKeown

Blog Parallel. What’s interesting for me about this phase in my business is that it’s paralleling the phase I’m in with my newfound blog affair.  Are there enough people out there ‘buying what I’m selling’ (selling here is a relative term…not the true pandering of my services in my blog, but rather the philosophical selling of my thoughts to readers) and do I have enough fuel (time, energy, skills, desire) to keep doing it until those people show up? The jury is still out, but using the paradigm of Predictable Success, I’m getting through this phase and looking forward to the next: Fun.

Results. Don’t get me wrong, this is a kick, but it’s also LOTS of work, in addition to my other work…the business work.  Should it be a priority?  Only as it supports my business, and ultimately, helps me to be a better consultant to my clients.  And I think it does.  I’m able to now speak from a very specific frame of reference that I could only talk about based on ‘research’ or other’s experiences before I began blogging.  I can speak from experience when I recommend (or not) that they begin a corporate blog.  That’s gold.

As I prepare to ‘shoot the rapids’ that represent my business growth and my blog evolution, I will continue to keep you posted and where both are along the Predictable Success life cycle.  But for now, let me hear how you ‘shoot the rapids’ in your blogging or business life.  Where are you along the path to Predictable Success?