As Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the face.”
You may have a vision. You may have a plan. But none of them mean anything until they’re actually tested in the market. If what you envision isn’t based on
No matter what your entrepreneurial vision may be, the market is going to punch you in the face at some point. The only way to prepare is to stay loose and nimble.
Applying Jeet Kune Do To Your Business Strategy
Be like water, as Bruce Lee once said. Before he died, Bruce Lee wrote about getting struck in the face in his book The Tao Of Jeet Kune Do. Jeet Kune Do was the name of the fighting style he invented.
Paraphrasing, he said that when you’re struck in the face, don’t tighten up. Don’t allow your jaw to go against the flow of the hit. Instead, by making your body like water, allow the hit to move your jaw (or
It may seem counter-intuitive to the naked eye, but physics backs up what he says. If someone punches or kicks you in the face but you stay rigid, your skull will absorb the full force of the blow. Thus, your opponent becomes much more likely to knock you out
In contrast, if you go with the flow of the hit, your body will travel with the force of the blow. Your body will move, but your looseness will mitigate the damage. You will redirect a percentage of the force, and distribute the rest in an even manner. Thus, the chances your opponent will knock you out will be much smaller, and you’ll stay in the fight longer. This gives you far better chances at recovering from the
Building a business works much in the same way. Though, most entrepreneurs don’t apply the Jeet Kune Do philosophy to their efforts. They don’t think in that manner. They don’t view the stressors of the market in that way
So, they start off with a plan, but then things don’t go as expected. Nobody’s interested in their content. Or, people buy from but leave bad reviews that damage the business’s reputation, and/or ask for refunds
What does the average entrepreneur do when this happens? They stay rigid. They don’t go with the flow and innovate their company, as well as themselves, to be better
In Business, Be Like Water
The winners tend to be ones that change their strategies like water. They self-innovate. They fall, stand, learn and adapt
By the time they meet their goals, they may have discarded all original ideas. They may even have a different company than they first envisioned
We tell all our clients this from the door, those who come to us to help them build their businesses. They may pay us to create a full strategy for them, and we give them exactly that. But we tell them that whatever plan we launch with is subject to change with market pressures.
We may start with a plan, but we may need to change many things as we’re punched in the face
And this is natural. Thoughts?
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