Risk and Adventure
What do deep sea diving and entrepreneurship have in common? Risk and adventure, and some valuable lessons on getting the most out of life.
You are Going to Get Wet
You can't go diving without getting wet (even in those drysuits!). So you have to jump in sooner or later. Same with business - you can't be in business if you don't get out there and do it! Get the customers, make the product, provide the service. Expect to get wet!
Your TEAM Makes it Fun
I usually go diving with these two clowns. I know them well, I trust them, and we have a great time together. We've spent a lot of time practicing, a lot of time intentionally doing things the wrong way or the hard way and handicapping ourselves and each other, all in the spirit of having good practice and preparing. The result is, we know each other's (and our own) abilities, boundaries, gear, and common mistakes.
In my businesses, I get the best results when we do this, too. Thinking about it in this context gives me a better understanding of what the buzzword "team building" really means. So now and then, turn on the radio, watch a movie, break things, have fun, cut loose.
Have Back-Up Plans
In diving, your life depends on your gear and your plan. Anything can happen, and usually does. It can happen on the way to the dive, gearing up for the dive, during the dive, after the dive... you name it. A light goes out and your in the dark, you lose your buddy, you get lost, you forgot your fins, you have no weight. A lot of little things happen, and you've got to be ready for them so you can still get in the water!
I used to joke with my team about how we haven't had a "normal" day in a while. That continues to be true. After years in business, I still see unexpected things happen. We take a lot of time anticipating what might happen, and how we might respond, and making sure we have the resources to deal with whatever comes our way. That effort pays off, time and time again.
Doing it Alone is Dangerous
I was night diving over a shipwreck in 80ft of water in Indonesia one summer, solo. It was a new moon, and very dark. I had one primary light, a back-up light and a glow stick, so was really prepared. A few minutes into my dive, my primary light dimmed and died. So I went for my back-up light, which died right away as well, because the batteries I had just put in were bad. I reached for my glow-stick, and it was lost. I was alone, and without my lights was in complete black.
If I had been with a buddy, the situation would have been far less serious.
In entrepreneurship, I make sure I have a team of advisors and a great team working for me, to make sure no one is going it alone. We catch each other and prevent big mistakes. It counts.
Prepare
For a great dive, it's a lot more fun, and much easier, to be prepared. I like to know the tide, the site layout, what's good to see, what dangers there might be. I make sure I'm ready mentally and physically.
Mental and physical preparation are critical for entrepreneurship, too. I'm a firm believe in a good nights sleep and regular fitness routine. For me, the absence of these usually results in impaired decision making and energy. And it goes without saying that you want to have a good understanding of the business and industry you are getting into. That said, many would-be entrepreneurs are stopped by over preparation. "Ready, fire, aim" has some value to it.
Have Fun
Why do it if you're not having some fun?
Work is work, and, to quote Keith Cunningham, "ordinary things consistently done produce extraordinary results." But remember to smile and enjoy yourself. It will make all the successes and failures worth while.
Manage Your Task Loading
When I taught diving, it was important to teach one skill at a time and let students grow comfortable with that before adding another skill. If you first teach someone how to breath underwater and then teach them how to navigate, it's much easier than teaching them to navigate before they're comfortable breathing.
Task loading is critical for employee training, and for the demands you place on yourself. I think back to my first day in business; I was so overwhelmed at a set of tasks that today I would laugh at!
Sometimes, you have to take it on all at once though. Be ready! It can be overwhelming.
Find New Places, and Get Really Familiar with Them
My dive buddies and I like to dive the same spots over and over and over again. We get really familiar with the sites and enjoy the nuances and relationship we develop with those sites. AND, we love exploring new places because it keeps it exciting and fresh and new. On my honeymoon, I took my bride to a favorite dive site in Indonesia. She doubled her all-time dive count, and I increased my dive count at that site by less than 10%.
In entrepreneurship, find a new space - your niche. Then, focus, explore, and commit to it. Become an expert. Know every rock, every cranny, every fish. Like a diver who understands how the site will be different depending on the phase of the moon, the tide and the time of the year, you will be ready to make the most of the natural cycles of your business.
Have an Objective
Once or twice a year, usually in December or March, me and the two clowns in the picture here gear up and dive into the frigid waters of Maine to collect scallops. They are the freshest, most delicious scallops you have ever tasted. The diving is not glamorous. It's cold (really cold), and the visibility is poor and there isn't much to see in the sandy beds where you find the scallops. But it's a trip we never miss. And we keep tally of how much we get each year, and enjoy benchmarking against past success (and failures). Sometimes, we even improve!
An entrepreneurial adventure should have a really clear objective. Understand the specific problem you are trying to solve. I was advising some students doing a business plan for a composting facility, and I asked them what problem they were trying to solve. Is it that composting is too expensive, that too much food waste is thrown in the landfill, that composting isn't efficient enough, that we need more renewable energy from waste.. whatever it is, be super clear and really committed.
Take Photos
Half the fun of the best dives is breaking out the photos and showing your friends and families the incredible stuff you saw, and telling the stories around the pictures. It's fun to look back, and helps you remember things you forgot about.
Your business is the same. You'll want pictures to share with people, to commemorate your team, to honor the work you've done, to get your customers excited, to share and tell stories with the press or whoever will listen. Take photos!
Maintenance Matters
It's no fun to skip a dive because your gear just broke, or to abort mid-dive because you have a malfunction. You sit in the boat, bobbing around, watching bubbles. Taking care of your gear keeps you in the water.
Good, clean, organized, maintained business equipment - everything from your phones to your servers and your trucks and your desk - contributes to keeping you in the water. Take the time to give it the love it needs.
Plan Your Dive, Dive Your Plan
An important PADI mantra is "plan your dive, dive your plan." It means you should know where your going, how deep, how long, and what you're doing. It's an important part of staying safe and achieving your goal, even if it's just the goal of having fun!
Execution is critical in entrepreneurship, and so is planning. Often people get caught in one or the other, and struggle with moving between the two. Make time to plan, make time to execute. Put it on your schedule, and make it real.
Never Panic
PADI's number one rule in diving is "Always Breath." Walker's number one rule in diving is "Never Panic." I've been in lots of situations - no lights, no air, lost, you name it. Keeping cool, thinking things through before responding, keeps you alive and keeps you in business. And it's important to remember not to panic when things are going well, too! It's easy to get so excited about a huge opportunity that you freak out. Keep your head on, breath, and, most importantly, NEVER PANIC.
