Unlock your potential today!
And tell me true, is one of your favorite parts about being a surfer all the many and varied ways you can apply our favorite pastime to other aspects of life? If it’s not than life is better in something other than boardshorts™ for you and you also don’t exude the true Georgian Spirit™.
But would you like to know who does exude the true Georgian Spirit™? Business Leadership Strategy Consultant and one-year-old VAL David Michels and would you like to know his advice about change (I think) in the world of commerce?
Again, if not than too bad and let’s turn to the Bible of Millionaires and Billionaires for more.
I don’t know if it’s the coming of summer to the northern hemisphere, where I live, or the increasing number of conversations I’m having with business executives on the topic of change, but I can’t stop thinking about surfing.
It’s a hobby I just recently picked up. I started last summer on a family holiday in San Diego, and I’m glad I did. Not only is it a whole lot of fun and a completely new challenge—especially starting in middle age, not easy!—but it is also an apt metaphor for how “change” is changing in the business world.
Etc.
To me, change today is less like that old carnival game and much more like surfing the waves. For one thing, change, like waves, actually never stops. It can be large or small, fast or slow, but it is continuous. No two waves are exactly alike, and that’s one of the things that makes surfing so much fun. But there are patterns: Waves form, roll, peak and break. Often, the difference between a successful surf and a complete wipeout is your ability to understand the characteristics of that particular wave as it forms. These things are all true of change, too.
Etc.
As a surfer, you need a few things to be successful. You need the right equipment—a decent board and, depending on temperature, a good wet suit. As you venture out into the water, you must decide which waves to try to surf, to pick your spots. Positioning is paramount: Too early and you miss it, too late, and it will crash on top of you. Then comes technique—the right paddling motion to get into position and, critically, how you balance on your board to find just the right edge. Oh yes, there is a lot of skill involved, as I can attest as a relative beginner, and you won’t always succeed. You need to either enjoy the ride or embrace the lessons of the wipeout, and then get back out there.
Etc.
Oh it goes on and on and on and by the end you’ll no doubt feel that surfing has given you the keys to unlock your financial potential.
Wait… what?
Sorry… I have water in my ears and forgot what I was getting on about.
Good story and I hope he stays safe. It is still fun to grab a board and go out in some waves. I’m in my 50’s now but the love of the waves has been passed to my kids.
If only the change they were concerned about involved the climate in a good way.
You know this fucker is trying to find a way to patent these business-surf life lessons.
Future book review: “Like Steve Jobs and Tom Curren rolled into one!”
Did you diversify your board portfolio? Check the “margins” of the wave for corporate raiders (snakes)? Or be like me and turn into a LLC (lazy longboarding cunt)!
I Love those surfing character stories when well written you get a sense of the times and scene. There’s a couple of guys from Australia, one is nicknamed Camel and the other is Derek Hynd – so interesting.
Don’t you hate it when people say ect instead of etc. Really sets me off.
When I was a kid I worked on some renovations at a space Bontrager had in the cannery, pretty sure my boss was trading work for bike gear to keep his purchases off the radar from his wife but I digress.
There were a lot characters who came to talk R&D and bike fabrication with Keith, Some of who were those core road bike lords you mentioned, they were dipping their toes in the emerging mountain bike scene.
I heard some pretty fantastic stories (to a 16 year old at least) exchanged that summer.
My long-winded point: you might be on to something, don’t be so quick to dismiss it.
There are some prodigious tales out there waiting to be retold, cycling is pretty popular, and there seems to be a market for novels and anthologies about pioneers of sport and their antics. Look at how well Finnegan did and consider how many of his readers actually surf.
People like to live vicariously, nostalgia sells.
brilliant
Chas – I’ve been a BG reader since day 1 and typically love the content. However, anytime I see a new article with the word “VAL” in it, I skip that article. My guess is I am not the only one.
what is a VAL?
“Vulnerable Adult Learner” originally referring to someone from the Valley
There are still some of them around from the seventies that haven’t changed one bit. north of there. Know a guy that won repack around 78. its like the eighties and beyond never even happened. the tech boom has made things very difficult for a lot of people that grew up here. Nothing is affordable up here anymore
The Whose Who of Dr Who … Isn’t she a Dr W(h)oman now ? K9 looks like the type of dog Ke11y would keep on the Ranch .. .. ?
Tardis style then
Worthy of a book
Dr who style
Oooh . I love a bit of Police Box ….
Cuntstable Leila?.
The Dilbert Principle
Or elbow …ouch .
I lived in a surf shop that also sold mountain bikes ,and most of the bikes , were more expensive than all the Cars I have ever owned …..
As long as you don’t break your ribs , wrist or collarbone … ?
yeah….I flipped over a deer (20 yrs ago) at high speed and lost 3 weeks or more of surfing, kept my life though, and nothing broken at least, but a big mess of rash and cuts, and chainring gear marks of all things!! ….so then decided I didnt like mt biking or going fast anymore.
Now I just putter to the beach on my bike. Deer was ok.
Die yuppie die
The yuppie the?
‘Die Yuppie Die’ is a classic song by ’80’s Melbourne band the ‘Painters & Dockers’…
It’s on YouTube, check it out
Very apt in this instance
A great band in their day