Do you remember when you first learned how to ride a bike? I do….
I was almost 10 years old and most of my friends were already pros on the 2-wheeler. I did not have a bike with training wheels (long story) and kept falling over and hurting myself. It was a painful experience and I was afraid to keep trying.
Until one day my aunt insisted I give it another try. She gave me a hard push and told me to pedal hard. I did, and I kept moving!
It was a most exhilarating feeling. I was going faster than I had ever gone before. Wind in my face, passing people by, and going further than I had ever gone. Seeing new and unfamiliar places.
I was experiencing freedom and independence.
I even discovered that to slow down and stop without falling over, all I had to do was put out my two feet on the pavement until I came to a halt. I had mastered riding a bike in that one afternoon.
Now, I did fall on occasion, but that was because I broke the cardinal rule – pedal fast!
And so it is in life and in business. We must keep pedaling and moving.
In a rapidly changing world we must continually adapt and innovate to stay relevant.
We must engage in a continuous cycle of experimentation, learn from our successes and failures, and apply new-found knowledge and insight to the next round of innovation, and do so with speed.
From this comes stability and resiliance.
Albert Einstein had it right when he said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Indeed, if you stand still, you will fall over and hurt yourself.