This quote about professional baseball struck me as incredibly relevant to starting a business. The best entrepreneurs are those that are in control of their emotions, and are perhaps a bit crazy.

"The point about Lenny, at least to Billy, was clear: Lenny didn't let his mind screw him up. The physical gifts required to play pro ball were, in some ways, less extraordinary than the mental ones. Only a psychological freak could approach a 100-mph fastball aimed not all that far from his head with total confidence." Lenny was so perfectly designed, emotionally, to pay the game of baseball," said Billy. "He was able to instantly forget any failure and draw strength from every success. He had no concept of failure. And he had no idea of where he was." Page 46 of Money Ball.

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"Put simply, Mr. Belichick (coach New England Patriots) is taking flak because he decided, in the middle of a close, hard-fought and emotionally charged game against a major rival, to throw caution to the wind. In other words, he's being pilloried for not being a wimp.

Somehow in American football, the punt—a clear and unambiguous symbol of surrender and retreat—has become the hallmark of sensible coaching.

...

In a recent study, researchers from Duke and UCLA found that when faced with a decision involving risk, people have an overwhelming tendency to make the supposedly safe choice—to err on the side of caution—even though doing so may lead to worse results."

Entire story here.

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Remember the scene of The Matrix where Neo is attempting to jump from one high-rise roof top to another? He's told he can make the jump only if he believes. Neo takes the leap, doubts himself mid-flight, and falls to the concrete below. (Luckily, the concrete was really made of rubber).

I think this scene from The Matrix can teach us all something about how to grow both personally and professionally. In Neo's case, he was learning to believe he was the One, and in yours, you're learning to realize the extent of your capabilities and talents.

In many situations, you need to believe you can succeed or you will fail...and its the very act of believing that leads you to success. Public speakers frequently employ the technique by envisioning their speech being well received before the give it, runners visualize a perfect race, and students the perfect test. Visualizing success tricks the brain into beleiving success is possible, and can actually improve results.

During my first week at Google, I was put in a room full of people smarter than me and told to lead the team on a new feature launch. I was intimidated, and out of my comfort zone. But I pulled through by mimicking the leaders I had observed at earlier Google meetings. I pretended to be someone else above my current skillset, and quickly became that someone. I took the leap.

Place yourself in difficult situations that explore the boundaries of your limits. Make that important phone call, sit on a panel at a big conference, run a marathon. Push yourself, and take the leap of confidence that you can get to the other side. Once at the other side, you'll have discovered something about yourself, picked up a new skill, and you'll be even more ready to take the next leap.

What leaps have you taken recently?

A few days ago, I sent around a series of questions concerning posture. For your entertainment, I've summed up what you've told me.  Sample Size: 31

• 81.4% of you have been concerned with your poor posture at least once in past.
• Out of this 81.4% of you, the average frequency of thought is 2-3 times a week.
• 66% of you have experienced (or still experience) back or neck pain
• 75% of you have conducted research on optimal ergonomic practices
• 70% of you have invested in some type of solution for your posture.
• Out of this 70%, 20% have purchased an Aeron brand chair. Talk about a market leader.
• 34.6% of you have exercised specifically to improve posture.
• 19% of those who responded do Yoga or Pilates, but not necessarily to fix posture. I'm very surprised to see this % so high. Apparently, geeks like Yoga.

It looks like posture is something that's on most of our minds.

Most of you spend 9-12hours a day sitting in front of a computer...

1. Are you ever concerned with your inability to keep a healthy posture throughout your work day?
2. If so, how often do you think about your posture?
3. Have you ever experienced neck or back pain as a result of poor posture?
   
4. Have you ever done research on how to maintain a healthy posture? or how to sit correctly at a desk?
5. Have you ever invested in a solution (kneeling chair, other expensive chair, brace, etc)?
6. If not, have you ever even considered investing in such a solution?
7. Have you ever done any exercises specially targeting the muscle groups that keep you sitting upright?

feel free to leave your responses in the comments, or email me: david-at-davidwurtz.com

"A startup begins with a vision: a vision of a new product or service, a vision of how the product will reach its customers, and a vision of why lots of people will buy that product. But most of what a startup’s founders initially believe about their market and potential customers are just educated guesses. To turn the vision into reality (and a profitable company), a startup must test those guesses, or hypotheses, and find out which are correct. So the general goal of Customer Discovery amounts to this: turning the founders’ initial hypotheses about their market and customers into facts. And since the facts live outside the building, the primary activity is to get in front of customers. Only after the founders have performed this step will they know whether they have a valid vision or just a hallucination." - Four Steps to the Epiphany