There are two kinds of rafters: People who have crashed, and people who are going to. Somewhere down the line, process of elimination, it’s got to happen. No avoiding it.
I’ve crashed rafts. Hard. With people in them. I once crashed a raft so bad, I was thrown headfirst into the cooler in the middle of the boat, after which I stood up (still in the rapid) and said (I’m told), “Everybody put your shoes on- we’re at Grandma’s.”
So, with those experiences in mind, I wanted to make a list of things that I learned while living the wild life of a professional guide. I always thought running whitewater was pretty intense, but it’s nothing compared to being in business for yourself.
Still, I think there’s a lot that can be learned from it. One thing I understood early on was that rivers are metaphors for… well, just about everything. Here’s my chance to put that to the test.
Anticipate
Rafts don’t drive like cars. If you want to make that turn down there, you’ve got to start way ahead of time. You can move too early, but you can’t prepare too early to move. Because if you’re late, you’re done. No amount of correction can put you back on track. I got so good at anticipating out on the river that I knew what would happen way before it happened. That’s a good place to be.
Same thing goes for business. Want to impress a client at that big meeting in the future? Better do good work now. Economy is tanking? Hope you shored up your customers and pricing. If you ever miss a deadline, it’s next to impossible to convince someone that it won’t happen again. The only way to avoid those situations is to prepare.
Cover Every Option
Out on the river, everything went a lot better when I prepared my crew for what to expect. I’d talk a lot about where we wanted to go, how we’d get there, and the possibilities of what might go wrong. Invariably, people had a much better time out on the water (and we had a lot more fun in the rapids) when they knew exactly what they could expect from me.
Same thing goes for business. When I talk with our partners, we discuss exactly what the challenges of the project are going to be. We discuss tone, style, and structure. We discuss how many edits to expect. Basically, we cover as much territory as we can before, well, venturing out into the territory.
Play Through The Bad Stuff
I had a lot of great one-liners for when people fell out of the raft, or when I fell out of the raft, or when I crashed the whole raft. “Did you see any fish?” “Don’t worry, I close my eyes for all the scary parts,” and “I’ve been trying to hit that rock for years.” were all standbys. I know- cheezy. Still, rivers are one way streets. When you crash, you literally have no choice but to pull yourself back in, tighten up the straps on your life jacket, and keep going.
The same thing goes for business. If you do it long enough, you will lose that sale or get an angry client. With bad breath. If you get too wrapped up, it’s going to effect the other, great, outstanding work you’re doing. So, chin up, lil’ buckaroo. Things will get back into the main current. Keep playing.
Enjoy It
For a while, sometime in the middle of my career as a guide, I got into this awful habit of just moving downstream fast. I was intent on getting from A to B and being done. In reality, what I had done was taken this wonderful thing -my job- and forgotten why it was wonderful. It was just about the most selfish way I could have behaved, and at the time, I didn’t even know it.
That sucks, and you know what? The same thing goes for business.
In that way, even when I don’t enjoy being an entrepreneur (and it ain’t all peach milkshakes), I still enjoy it. Just the chance for me to do what I’m doing is worth everything I put myself through. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
How about you?
