My wife and I were cooking dinner for our family last night and doing our usual exchange of, “So, how was your day?” I began telling my wife about running into a friend of mine who has his hands in many little startup companies and is really embodying the entrepreneur’s spirit. She shook her head, smiled, and gave a bit of a chuckle, implying that my friend has bitten off more than he could chew.
And then it occurred to me: doing business and coming up with (and executing) new ideas is a lot like archery. Now I haven’t picked up a bow in many years, but hear me out. Let’s say you have a quiver of arrows on your back, and in your lifetime you only take one arrow and shoot it down range, fully expecting a bulls eye. Slim chance unless you’re an expert archer and marksman. What’s wrong with being the type of archer who is grabbing multiple arrows and taking lots of different shots, sometimes at different targets? Which archer is going to have a better shot at the bulls eye. That bulls eye could be the next big thing.
Whether you apply this to business or even spending time doing something new with your family, I think we should shoot many arrows. Many will be a hit, some will be a complete bust, but at least you had the courage to try.
[This post is also published on SoulFoodRevolution.com, where I am going to begin doing a semi-regular guest column.]
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Good philosophy!
If it were me, I would try to focus on one endeavor at a time, so that all my energy would be used to make that business grow and be successful.