Why Does Being At The Top Always Look So Easy?

When you see someone accomplish the unimaginable you focus on how it always seems to look simple and easy for them.  In the midst of your tireless efforts, it can leave you wondering “Why them, why not me?”  

This picture of my little girl reminds me of the struggle business owners experience every day.  To an outsider, it appears she mastered the art of being an amazing flyer. What you don’t see is that Charlote’s been a competitive cheerleader for 5 years.  For 4 of those 5 years, she’s been a base (the kid on the bottom, holding up little bodies in the air).  Every year she’s set her sights on being a flyer, each year filled the role as a base.  Despite the disappointment, she continued to practice her flexibility, conditioning, and tumbling to hopefully one day be given the promotion she desired.  

This year, in her 5th season, she finally hit her goal and is now flying on her team.  The piece that makes me stand back in just take in awe of her is that she didn’t just focus on one component, flying, she improved the complete package.  She knew in order to fly she needed to either advance in the age or the group level so she would be smaller not the largest of the girls.  She knew in order to advance she had to be a stronger tumbler so that she could keep up with the big kids and not slow the group down.  She looked at the BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) and broke down each component to check off her target.  Finally, after 5 hard years, she accomplished what some would think was impossible   Heck even after so many attempts we almost told her to find happiness in the spot she was in so she didn’t face disappointment again.  Today she excelling and picking up her role so quickly. As I look at her as she identifies with this role it so apparent to me that this is what we must do as business owners every single day.  

All too often we don’t give our dreams enough time to take root.  We think it should be easier, faster, simpler to get to the top.  And we watch with envy as we perceive someone’s success as easy and simple.   Truth is it’s never easy as we think it is.  We see the success and forget it’s 100% up to the goals we set and the actions we take. We forget that success means pulling the weight as another team member even though we would love to be the one on the top.  

So the next time you think of giving up, ask yourself can you say that you put your all into it for 5 years to make it work?  Did you take meaningful strategic action every single day in pursuit of that dream?  Could you step into any role of your organization and drive success even if you weren’t 100% fulfilled?  If the answer to these questions are no, then let’s connect.  You may be tired but you might just be one small step away from making it all look easy.