Riding A Snowboard Is Like Running A Business

On New Year’s 2003 day I meekly followed my 12 year-old daughter onto the ski hill for my first snowboarding lesson. I had never seriously considered snowboarding until I was standing in the lineup at the ski shop, booking a snowboarding lesson for my daughter. In the heat of the moment, it just seemed like a great idea. Faced with sitting in the lounge killing time until she was done, I heard my voice unexpectedly asking the ski shop cashier, “Would I be able to get in on the lesson at the same time?” I was rather hoping for a firm no, but the swine said yes. There was no way to gracefully backtrack.

With visions of my limp body draped in countless bandages in the local intensive care unit, I crept cautiously onto the hill for my first ride. The first hint that I might be way out of my league was when the adolescent instructor asked, “What ever possessed you to try snowboarding?” I didn’t have an answer for her.

That first lesson was a one-hour endurance test. After an unprecedented number of falls, 19 face-plants, seven brand new unidentifiable positions, four tailbone-elbow landings, at least four unplanned handsprings, two attempts at tree removal, and five graceless collisions with innocent passersby - I limped off the ski hill a humbled man. All of this was achieved using only the kiddies T-Bar, which I single-handedly brought to a rude halt three out of my five attempts at riding it.

After a couple of weeks of healing, I successfully navigated my second lesson, with 1000% improvement. I actually got on and off the chair lift and successfully negotiated the easiest run on the hill three times. I’m not fun to watch and I’ll never keep up with my daughter, but I do ride!

My most philosophical undertakings on this topic seemed to occur after liberal doses of Advil and hot rum, taken purely to kill the pain. Here is how riding a snowboard is like running your own business.

1. You really learn both by rolling up your sleeves and doing it.
You can only learn so much about snowboarding or business from books or TV. A certain amount of theory is helpful, but the real thrill comes from getting out there and doing it. All the business and snowboarding magazines in the world don’t add up to the lessons of a single ride down the hill or a month of actually running a business.

2. They are both scary.
Friends and family get concerned and start reciting statistics of all the horrifying bruises and injuries they know of or have read about somewhere. Everyone knows someone who has hurt themselves snowboarding or who has lost everything they own in a bankruptcy. You must learn to manage your fear.

3. They are both risky.
There is always a chance you will fall and embarrass or hurt yourself. In fact, if you don’t land on your face occasionally, perhaps you aren’t trying hard enough. You need to determine how much risk you are comfortable with. Your survival depends upon your ability to assess and manage risk.

Page 2

Dan Boudreau is author of Business Plan or BUST! and hosts the RiskBuster Blog at www.riskbuster.com/blog.