Elevated HR Solutions: Running a business is like running a marathon...

A few weeks ago now, an amazing entrepreneur and mentor here in Calgary wrote a blog post making the analogy that chess and business are very similar.  Very succinctly, Cameron talks about 3 lessons he has learned about business from the game of chess.  You can find the full blog post here: http://businessinstincts.ca/?p=367

That said, I'm doing some of my own learning lately and have easily made the analogy that running a marathon is very much like running a business.  Here are some important lessons I'm learning along the way:

1.) Deciding that you will sign up and run a marathon tomorrow, without any planning (and/or training) to do so will ultimately end up in a great big fail.  Similarly, the guy that decides today that he will quit his job and tomorrow start a business probably shouldn't expect too much in terms of success either.  A solid plan for both successfully running a marathon and successfully running a business needs to be devised before diving head first into the activity.  Sticking to that plan will help you to optimize your success.

2.) When training for the marathon, I have found that my plan occassionally needs a tweak here and there. If I noticed that my legs were giving out a bit during my long run, it's imperative to address the issue immediately so that I am able to continue on my journey to 26.2 miles.  The same goes with running a business - a plan is essential, but if it's not working or if there is another direction one needs to go in, you must address it, not sometime or some day, but as soon as you recognize there may be an issue. 

3.) Prioritization is equally important in both training for a marathon and running a business.  Life can get in the way of a well orchestrated plan.  If you can only get to one type of run in your weekly training schedule, it's essential to get your long run in (this sentiment is echoed by elite marathon runner Josh Cox in this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLYY2ROzdEE).  Similiarly, in business, the activities that are going to produce the greatest results sales/revenue/growth wise are the areas you need to focus on most.  In other words, by focusing on the key drivers of the business will ensure the business prospers.  If I decided to just blog all day, rather than pick up the phone to return a call to a potential client, I'm not doing the business any justice.  The blog is secondary to the primary sales call.

Speaking of which...