Today I’m going to take you back to science class. But don’t worry, I promise it will tie back into your business, leadership development, and personal growth.
Yesterday I took my three daughters to MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry). One of the exhibits that they had set up was about Sir Isacc Newton’s 1st Law of Motion which says, “An object at rest will stay at rest until acted on by an outside force.”
You can see what the exhibit looked like in the picture above. In the middle of the circle was a 300 lb pendulum. Attached to the edges of the outer circle (where my girls are standing) there were ropes tied to small magnets. You had to toss the magnet at the pendulum to get it to stick. Then, you had to gently pull on the string to get the magnet to pull the pendulum toward you.
As I watched the girls working on getting the pendulum swinging, I thought of all of you and your businesses.
Your business is the 300 lb pendulum hanging in the middle. It’s hard to get the momentum going if you don’t know what to do. Here are some lessons and tips you can take from the pendulum experiment.
It’s a slow start
When my daughters first tried to move the pendulum, they got the magnet to attach to it, and they yanked the string. What do you think happened?
They pulled the little magnet right off the pendulum. It doesn’t work like that. You have to start small. In order to get the pendulum to start moving, you have to pull really gently. And, when the pendulum first started to move, you could barely tell that it was moving.
I’m guessing your business is the same way. Overnight successes aren’t a real thing. They happen to the people and companies that are working slowly behind the scenes the whole time.
If you try to just dive right in and jump too far forward in the process, your business is going to struggle. You have to build your business from the foundation up. If you don’t get the right systems in place, it’s going to make it hard for your business to really build momentum.
You have to be consistent
The next lesson that you can learn from the MOSI exhibit is that consistency matters. You can pull the rope a few times and see the pendulum swing, but if that’s all you do, the movement isn’t going to last long. It takes a while to really build up the momentum to get the pendulum swinging fast.
And, then once it’s swinging fast if you let go, it starts to slow down little by little.
This happens with a lot of people in their businesses. You start off really strong. You hire a business coach. You’re working the plan. And, you start to see success. So, you think that’s all there is to it and you start to coast. Maybe you quit working with your coach, you back off on your marketing, and you ease up on your plan.
You may not notice a difference at first. But your business is slowly starting to die. The changes may look tiny at first, but wait a month, a quarter, or a year and you’re really going to see the change. And, then you’re going to have to get started all over again. The faster you catch it, the less work you’ll have to do to get back up to the place where you were.
It’s helpful to have a team
Can one person get the pendulum moving on their own? You bet.
Is it easier with a team? Absolutely.
My daughters put this to the test. If you can see in the picture above, they are standing in three different areas. At this point, we were swinging the pendulum in a circle instead of just back and forth.
When we first started, we had one person pull from one side while the other person waited. Then, when the pendulum started to swing back, the person on that side would pull while the other let go of the tension on their side. It took them a few minutes for them to really start to work together (you parents out there understand this), but once they did, they were able to gain momentum quickly.
This is what happens when you hire a business coach. Your coach becomes part of your team. They help you to build that momentum in your business. They know the right times to push and the right times to wait. And, they know the system. If you follow it, your business gains momentum like you couldn’t have done on your own.
Now I mentioned above that the girls got the pendulum going in a circle instead of just back and forth. This is what can happen when you have great employees that are part of your team and following the plan as well. It would have been really hard for just one of my daughters to run the circle, pull the strings at the right time, and eventually get the pendulum to move in a circle the same way the three of them together could.
Can you grow your business on your own? Yes. Can a business coach help you to do it faster and more efficiently? I think you know the answer.
Are you ready to build momentum in your business? Contact a SPEARity business coach today to discuss your options. We are SPEARity, a local Milwaukee business coaching firm that specializes in executive coaching and leadership development training.
