Finishing Dead Last... is Still Finishing.

I'm not an Olympian, but some days i still get out and try to act like an athlete (if you count Ultimate Frisbee a sport, and i do).

I'm not a great entrepreneur, but i ran a small business for a few years & managed to make payroll happen (most of the time); these days i try to help others with theirs (or at least avoid some of my mistakes).

I'm not an A-list blogger, but every once in awhile i write a half-decent post and maybe get a headline on TechMeme for 15 seconds (but most folks still hate my font choices).

recently i've had a lot of stuff on my mind, and it's been a little tough to get rolling on some projects i'm working on.  I don't really have any excuses; some days i just don't feel motivated.  some days i just feel old & tired.  some days i just do my best to put one foot in front of the other.

for those of you who occasionally feel the same way, i think you'll enjoy Ben Parr's 7 Lessons Olympians can Teach Entrepreneurs, and in particular the clip on Derek Redmond from Barcelona in '92 makes an impression:

You could say the same for Gabriela Andersen-Scheiss in the '84 womens marathon, or more recently just yesterday when the US mens gymnastics pulled a Bronze medal out of their ass. 

All of these folks decided to push just a little harder, and finish... even after they knew they weren't coming in first.  or second.  or even twenty-second.

Here in Silicon Valley, so many of us are obsessed with the big home run, the grand slam win, the next Google or YouTube or PayPal or Microsoft or whatEVAR.  Often, we don't stop to consider how important just getting on base is... whether it's a single, a walk, or even getting hit by a pitch.

Now i'm not saying it doesn't suck when you don't win... hey, no bullshit there: it sucks.  But many times we tend to forget what an achievement it is just to finish the damn race... even if it means coming in dead last. 

note to self: finishing dead last is still finishing.

so FINISH, dammit... get your ass across that line.

Comments

[Jeff Widman]

Thanks Dave--that Derek Redmond clip brought tears to my eyes...

As a freshman in highschool XC, I went from 1st on varsity to last after pulling my hamstring on the final turn of my third race... didn't realize the emotional memories were still with me...

[Robert]

Guess we all need to suck it up and just keep on chugging. Love your expo on startup metrics (even though it is quite dated)... AARRR.

[Leonard]

A good post, but Dave, let us not forget the wisdom of Sean Connery in "The Rock":

"Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and **** the prom queen."

But seriously, I think the bigger point here is that persistence is a major part of winning. Unlike the short time of a specific sporting event, your career goes on and on, so if you keep playing the game you have a chance to win (whatever winning means :).

[amybster]

thank you for this post. after more than 10 years of slogging with my business/startup with some moderate success, it's good to be reminded to hang in there for the final lap. maybe we're not going to finish strong, but we're going to continue giving it our best shot, by gosh, until we decide that we've reached the finish line.

btw: i like your fonts, too.

[Adam Metz]

I ONLY read 500hats for the fonts, actually. In fact, I've never understood any of the posts. I just like the pretty colors.

[Chris Yeh]

Amen, Dave. I like to tell folks that 80% of any success I've had is the result of having the gumption to show up and the persistence to finish what I started.

[Dale Beermann]

I've been re-reading Diary of a Failed Startup (http://diffle-history.blogspot.com/) recently for some similar reasons. I love the quote in there "It's a marathon, but it's a marathon made of sprints." I have to keep telling myself it's alright that I'm not working all the time. Marathon runners don't sprint the whole way either :)