It doesn’t matter how fast you run, if you are on a treadmill

Let’s remember why speed and velocity are different.

“Speed” deals with how fast an object is moving.

“Velocity” focuses on both speed and direction.

“Velocity” is a vectoral concept, “speed” is not.

In velocity, the places you start and end are key.

Imagine a truck traveling at 100km/h. Its speed is 100 km/h, but if it ends up at the point it started its journey, its velocity is 0 km/h. If there is no change in the beginning and the ending location, velocity is zero.

Let’s apply this to business. Focusing on velocity is a mental model.

Assume that you have 5 projects in hand. Or maybe 6 products within an umbrella company. With your own resources, you can push to build those different projects or products, and you can go very fast. Your speed can be incredibly high, and people will admire it. But in the end, velocity matters. How much can you move your products in the direction you want? This is the question.

I think it is crucial to focus on things that will move us towards a direction that we pick. All of our efforts should serve us in this direction. 

We should risk going a little bit slower if we see a consistent movement towards our goal.

Leonardo da Vinci, as I repetitively mention, was a prime example of this. He worked on engineering, military weaponry, sculptures, anatomy, painting and biology. Despite the fact that they may seem in completely different areas, his efforts in all those areas made him a better engineer, strategist, expert in anatomy, sculptor and painter. He became the best engineer and artist he could be, and his process of self transformation can be seen in the notes he took.

Focus on the work that moves you. In the direction you want.

Focus on the thing that excites you.

After three generations, people will remember your name if you do so. I think we all feel the energy of someone who is giving everything for the direction that he or she wants to move on. If you are remembered after three generations, you are in an extremely minor percentage of people who ever lived. 

That kind of desire and focus is charisma.

It doesn’t matter how fast you run, if you are on a treadmill.

Have you ever admired someone who runs on a treadmill so fast? Have you ever admired someone who runs on a track field so fast?

Same logic, same stuff.

How far you can go is the thing that matters.

Your responsibility for yourself is to step down from the treadmill, if you are on it. Take a side step to feel the real ground. Standing on the real ground will increase your velocity even if it decreases your speed.

Good luck on taking that side step.