Note from Phil: This is a wonderful guest article from Andrew J. Sherman, author of Road Rules: Be The Truck. Not the Squirrel. As this year comes to a close, this is the perfect article (and the perfect book) for you to pick up and think about for 2009. I hope you enjoy this article.
Navigating Through Volatile Times
These are volatile and unpredictable times for all of us. The forecasts for 2009 and beyond are murky at best and we all need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
In my book, Road Rules: Be The Truck. Not The Squirrel. I discuss the twelve (12) strategies for navigating the highway of life. In Chapter 8, the road rule known as “Be An All Weather Driver” is discussed and focuses on the need for all of us, regardless of our professions, our family situations, our unique assets or our special challenges to be ready to drive down the road of life during all types of weather conditions. To expect or assume that you will always get to drive on a clear or sunny day is a misnomer and will leave you unprepared for the challenges that life brings to us everyday. The weather in our lives will never remain constant and we are all suffering from what has been the “perfect storm” on an economic front.
The skills and discipline to understand how adverse weather conditions affect your path in life is critical to both survival and success. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. You will not always have a warning sign when weather conditions change quickly and you will need to adjust your driving style accordingly. The ability to adjust your driving skills and the characteristics of your vehicle to current weather conditions is also a metaphor for how you need to live your life. We put snow tires or even chains on our vehicles to adjust to snow and ice in the harsh winters and then take them off when Spring approaches.
What adjustments do you need to make to your outlooks, perspectives and actions as weather conditions or seasons in your life change?
The successful people that I know and respect are durable and flexible. They avoid “one trick ponyism” and pay careful attention to weather and road conditions and adjust accordingly. They instinctively know when it is okay to drive faster on a clear and open road and when to slow down when navigating an icy downhill path. Others seem to have been built to move at only one pace – they travel only at high speed and eventually crash and burn or move too slowly and the opportunities pass them by. Others often carry cargo which is either too far ahead of its time or which is stale, rotten or obsolete by the time it reaches its destination.
As discussed in Road Rules, being the truck and not the squirrel depends on your willingness to be decisive as part of your commitment to being an all weather driver. Trucks have drivers that are willing to make decisions fairly quickly and be accountable for the results of their decisions, good or bad. They neither make decisions too quickly nor vacillate until it is truly too late. They are trained to understand the consequences of their actions (or inactions). Colin Powell said “if you have less than 40% of the information you need to make a decision, then it is probably too soon. If you have more than 70%, it is probably too late.” General George S. Patton said “a good plan passionately executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” These were both generals who understood the difference between losing a battle and winning the war.
Being a truck demands that your decision-making systems (who makes decisions, how they are made, when they are made and what adjustments are made in response to road blocks) must allow for (and tolerate) lost battles as long as the focus long-term is on winning the war.
In our travels down the road of life, we will encounter winter driving conditions (some of us more than others). There is no safe speed when driving on snow and ice. Every stretch of highway will appear differently depending on the time of day, the temperature, the severity and intensity of the snow, the angle of the sun, the degree of salting and road treatment, etc. – but you can be assured that it will be dangerous. You will need to adjust your driving style and provide more space between you and the other drivers. You will need to start slowing down sooner before you come to an intersection or make a turn. You will need to keep special supplies on hand in the event that you get stuck or the weather intensifies. You must take the time to really get a feel for the roadway and test your brakes from time to time to find out how well you can stop. Your critical fluids – anti-freeze, gasoline, oil and windshield fluid should all be filled to capacity.
Stormy weather conditions may mislead you into thinking that you are reaching your destination faster than you really are and that the challenges may increase as you get closer to home. There is a difference between moving forward and just spinning your wheels in snow or ice. You may be applying the same pressure to the accelerator, but are not making any forward progress.
Think about the challenges and situations in your career or at home that are akin to driving in snow and ice – did you adjust your driving style? Will you next time? Or did you skid out of control, with your driving wheels losing traction on the pavement, only to glide left or right but certainly not forwards?
Be an all-weather driver.
- Know how to adjust your speed and style to the road conditions which lie ahead.
- Plan.
- Prepare.
- Adjust.
- Keep Moving Forward, Not Side to Side.
- Don’t get caught driving too fast or too hard on a surface with thin ice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew J. Sherman is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, with over 400 attorneys nationwide. Mr. Sherman is a recognized international authority on the legal and strategic issues affecting small and growing companies. Mr. Sherman is an Adjunct Professor in the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University where he has taught courses on business growth, capital formation and entrepreneurship for over twenty (20) years. Mr. Sherman is the author of seventeen (17) books on the legal and strategic aspects of business growth and capital formation. His eighteenth (18th) book, Road Rules Be the Truck. Not the Squirrel is an inspirational book which was published in the Fall of 2008. Mr. Sherman can be reached at 202-420-5000 or e-mail ShermanA@dicksteinshapiro.com.
Comments