Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.
It’s easy to play it safe in business. We set safe goals. Make what we think are safe hires. Playing it safe can only take us so far. To stretch yourself and your business, you need an impossible game.
Having an impossible game and stretching yourself shouldn’t be confused with being reckless. If your impossible game is to jump off a ten story building and live, well, good luck with that. That’s extreme but impossible games are those projects that just don’t seem reachable for us. You may lack the knowledge to get it done or the skill or the team or the money.
In a recent Memo, Roy Williams had this to say about being normal:
“No one wants to be average, but everyone wants to be normal.
How about you? Will your need to be “normal” condemn you to a life of screaming mediocrity? You’re familiar with the phrase, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation…” but the truly frightening part is the thought that follows, “and go to their graves with their songs still in them.””
This struck a chord with me because I know that I have succumbed to that line of thinking in the past and it keeps us from playing impossible games.
Think about your impossible game. Do you want to be on TV? Have a best-selling book? Be world reknowned in your specific area of influence? Eradicate malaria? Feed the hungry?
Our Core Blueprint focuses on this question as part of your businesses’ vision. The first step is to identify your impossible game. The next step is to put together the plan.
Jim Collin’s latest book Great By Choice talks about how highly successful companies don’t necessarily take the biggest risks. In fact they are more cautious than other companies. One thing that they do to avoid big risk is to fire bullets which are small measurable tests to see if a company is on the right track with something. When enough bullets have hit the target, then they fire a cannonball.
After you have identified your impossible game, think about what needs to happen to get started. What knowledge do you need to accomplish your game? What resources (financial, material, etc.)? Who do you need on your team? What preparation needs to be done (this is where you may start firing some bullets)?
Having an impossible game to play doesn’t mean you have to be reckless but the great companies that Jim Collin’s studied maintained greatness by capitalizing on the big opportunities when they presented themselves. Are you trying too hard to be normal? Are you taking something great to the grave? It’s time to fire a cannonball and win that game that you thought was impossible.