Business Lessons from a Kayak

Business Lessons froma Kayak
by Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing

I
recently spent the weekend at a lake in Michigan with my family. We had
a great time hopping between the paddle boat, pontoon rides, jet skis,
kayaks and the sand bar. I had a great time but since my kids are still
small, I found that I was constantly in between getting their lunches,
snacks, applying and reapplying sunscreen, putting their life jackets
on and off and refereeing the occasional fight about who had the big
shovel first. One afternoon, I decided to take some time for myself and
went out on a solo kayak excursion. It was beautiful outside – 80
degrees, lovely billowing clouds and a light breeze.

I decided
to venture to a part of the lake that I didn’t normally take my kids.
The wind was blowing lightly and I was paddling against a small
current. As time went on, I found the wind was picking up and I had to
actually start fighting it to try to make it over to my destination.
Despite being in good shape, I found that I was getting tired fairly
quickly and starting to get a bit upset, and I kept telling myself,
“just get there … just get there.” As I took one more hard swipe in
the water to get the kayak back on course, I realized that I was
letting nature get the best of me. My goal in taking this little
adventure was not really to get to that side of the lake. I just wanted
to be out by myself and enjoy a new part of the lake. But here I was
fighting the current and trying like crazy to get to my destination,
for no particular reason.

At that moment, I glanced up and
noticed where the wind was trying to take me. I stopped paddling and
let the kayak drift for a few seconds. I was being taken to a part of
the lake I had never been to before. It wasn’t where I had intended to
go, but it did fit my idea of seeing a new part of the lake. I decided
to follow the waves instead of fighting them. I ended up being out in
the kayak for around 45 minutes exploring a different area of the lake
than I had intended. I ended up seeing several birds and some
interesting vegetation. And it was quiet! If I had fought the waves and
just kept trying to get to my destination, I would have missed the
whole point of my trip, which was to get out and explore by myself. The
goal wasn’t the destination, it was the journey.

I see a
parallel between this experience and being an entrepreneur. When
building a sustainable business, it’s important to know when to put up
a fight and when to let things unfold naturally. Many times we get our
heads stuck in a rut and think, “Just get there … just get there.” We
rarely stop to realize that we can actually meet our goal with a newer,
better, fresher and more natural journey which has “magically”
appeared. It’s up to us as entrepreneurs to recognize this and decide
if we want to take the natural path or just fight to stay on a course
that may not make sense anymore.

Sometimes the journey is very
different than we expected. Following our intuition is something that
women do particularly well. However, sometimes even the most intuitive
female needs a little reminder from Mother Nature about who is actually
in charge!

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