Who Stays at the Top?
Recently I was reading a post on Top Tips for Great Pitches, and how the best pitches are story driven. I get that but then I started staring at the below image and began thinking of the climb to the top of that mountain.
Although the advice is spot on about telling stories, I started thinking about what it takes to stay on top in business and it was then that I realized, very few get to stay on top.
In sports for example, there are dynasties like the New York Yankees or the UCLA Bruins in college basketball, but they are few and far between. In fact, some dynasties can be generational, like a once in a lifetime kind of thing. They are that unique. Now there are “runs,” in which a team gets hot and wins a chanpionship, but that’s why they are called runs-they don’t last.
To get to the top, so many things have to happen for it to happen, that it’s usually in hindsight that we realize how rare it is and was.
When talking about companies who catch lightning in a bottle, it’s the same thing. A lot of things go right. Right product, right time, right market, right leadership etc., etc. Unfortunately though, those same companies that can initially capture a market, can see it slip through their grasp if they’re not forward looking, forward thinking or forward moving. They can flame out. Think AOL, Blockbuster, Kodak, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Sears or JC Penney. Some do not exist anymore and others barely have a pulse. Their mistake? Not anticipating change, the challenges or the challengers well enough in the space that they owned. Yes, in some cases, these companies owned their space. Their ultimate undoing? Not believing that digital disruption is a thing.
Back to our mountain. Now there are those that slowly come down the mountain, and there are those that fall off the mountain and then there are those that see another mountain off in the distance and decide to climb that one. The bottom line is this, you cannot stay on that mountain or on top of that mountain forever. You will get tired and want to come down or the conditions may force you down. You’ll run out of food or water or it will get so crowded on that mountain top, that you’ll want to come down. Bottom line-very few get to stay on top. It’s tough.
Some of you might remember the book, Who Moved My Cheese. If you don’t remember the book, the story is about unexpected change. Briefly, it’s about anticipating change, knowing that change will happen and adapting to that change. Loosely told, the story revolves around mice and of course, cheese. If you get a chance, read the book. You should finish it in about an hour.
The correlation between the mountain and the cheese is similar. For the mountain, there is only so much room at the top. Think about Mount Everest. Did you know that it is such a difficult trek getting to the top that for the climbers that do actually make it, they only have enough time to take a quick pic and look around, and then they must climb down. Why? The conditions are brutal and can change at a moments notice, the journey is unlike anything the climbers have ever physically done before, and lastly, there are many more climbers behind them, literally, waiting to get to the top. If they stay, they will die.
Whether it’s the cheese book, Mount Everest, AOL or even Facebook. Change happens and conditions change. Competition happens. Being able to recognize it and knowing that the world is not made up of just one mountain will serve you well. Getting to the top can be exhilarating but coming down can be no picnic. Just ask the folks that have scaled Everest. Do you need to find the highest mountain? No. Do you need to know who moved your cheese? No. You just need to know that the journey of getting to the top can be just as fun as being on top. You just need to know that who moved your cheese isn’t as important as knowing that there are other food groups besides cheese.
