The Shortest Distance Between Two Points is a Straight Line
Today I was listening to one of the free audio clips offered on 12 Week Intensive (highly recommended by the way) and Mark Joyner, the "Godfather" of internet marketing, made the point that the "shortest distance between two points is a straight line".
Well duh, right? But he used it in a great motivational context - every action that you take in your business should be bringing you on a path down that straight line. If it isn't, you need to evaluate why you are doing it. He also made the point that entrepreneurs tend to stray from their purpose and focus on whatever idea just popped into their heads, regardless of it's importance.
In general, I think I do a good job of keeping my focus. In fact, I think it's one of my strong points. I started as a college kid with a dream of an "Amazon.com for sports collectibles" and I have worked from point A (coming up with the idea) towards point B (making it happen). I have a business plan that I update monthly and look at daily. In it, I have detailed goals for the company, recent achievements, and a task list of what things need to be done, when they need to be done, and for what purpose.
However, when I took a step back I realized that if I expanded the scope of the expression to include my entire life, not just my business life, I am not following a straight line. I am taking a round-a-bout path. My job takes up 45 hours of my week. Is that helping me reach point B? I could make the argument that I am learning business skills that will save me time and money in my business. While that is somewhat true, there is a much more direct path to my goal - leaving my job and working 100% on making SportsLizard.com become to sports collectibles what Amazon.com is to books. The longer I work as an engineer, the longer I stay on the round-a-bout path. The sooner I leave, the sooner I can put myself on the straight line path.
That really got me thinking...needless to say, I am certainly weighing my options.
Oh, and for any of you dorks like me, there is a mathematical proof that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Believe it or not, sad as it may be, I actually was able to follow along with it (that's what years of having Calculus and Differential Equations jammed into your head will do to you).
Well duh, right? But he used it in a great motivational context - every action that you take in your business should be bringing you on a path down that straight line. If it isn't, you need to evaluate why you are doing it. He also made the point that entrepreneurs tend to stray from their purpose and focus on whatever idea just popped into their heads, regardless of it's importance.
In general, I think I do a good job of keeping my focus. In fact, I think it's one of my strong points. I started as a college kid with a dream of an "Amazon.com for sports collectibles" and I have worked from point A (coming up with the idea) towards point B (making it happen). I have a business plan that I update monthly and look at daily. In it, I have detailed goals for the company, recent achievements, and a task list of what things need to be done, when they need to be done, and for what purpose.
However, when I took a step back I realized that if I expanded the scope of the expression to include my entire life, not just my business life, I am not following a straight line. I am taking a round-a-bout path. My job takes up 45 hours of my week. Is that helping me reach point B? I could make the argument that I am learning business skills that will save me time and money in my business. While that is somewhat true, there is a much more direct path to my goal - leaving my job and working 100% on making SportsLizard.com become to sports collectibles what Amazon.com is to books. The longer I work as an engineer, the longer I stay on the round-a-bout path. The sooner I leave, the sooner I can put myself on the straight line path.
That really got me thinking...needless to say, I am certainly weighing my options.
Oh, and for any of you dorks like me, there is a mathematical proof that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Believe it or not, sad as it may be, I actually was able to follow along with it (that's what years of having Calculus and Differential Equations jammed into your head will do to you).
posted by Adam McFarland at
12/15/2005 08:38:00 PM
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