The Go Farther Episode #4: Obstacles: No matter what happens, run your perfect race

By Scott Sambucci | March 15, 2024

“So often in life, things you regard as an impediment turn out to be great good fortune.”  – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Doing hard things means that you will hit obstacles and obstructions along the way.  Hitting those obstacles are to be expected. It’s how you deal with them that matters more.

It’s frustrating when we pick an endeavor – starting a business, growing by $1mm ARR in the next 12 months, running a 10k or launching a new product – then we get to work, focusing every day on the path ahead. Until that first obstacle gets in the way.

It’s never a matter of whether or not you’ll hit an obstacle – you should and will if you’re doing anything worth doing. What matters is how you deal with it.

One of my friends who’s competed in triathlons for decades is one of the toughest people I know – so tough that when she broke her collarbone a month before her first Ironman Championship race in Hawaii about twenty years ago, she competed anyway, swimming with one arm for the 2.4 mile swim.

You can imagine how that probably felt for her then on a triathlon bike for 5-6 hours, leaning forward and peddling for 112 miles through the wind and heat on Kona, followed by a marathon to reach the finish line.

When I first started racing, she gave me two pieces of advice that have stuck with me for racing and life

1. “No matter how good or bad you feel, it’ll never last.”
2. “Regardless of what happens, run your perfect race.”

Any difficult endeavor must have obstacles along the way. How we deal with them matters more than the obstacles we face.

We can plan for the known knowns and the known unknowns — that’s a requirement as part of our planning, preparation and execution. By doing so, it enables us to focus and deal with the unknown unknowns – those unexpected obstacles we’ll face along the way.

On the trail, I’ve had to deal with weather ranging from snow in the desert at the end of May when I expected it to be 90 degrees, mud so thick that my foot nearly slipped out of my shoe, and 100+ degree heat in the canyons of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I’ve dealt with injuries, cramps, lost gear, and getting lost on the trail.

In business, we’ve all had to deal with product launches going awry, funding that’s fallen through at the last minute, realizing that we have to fire that under-performer because going one more day without results is worse than the pain we’ll feel by having an open seat on the team.

At home, our kids get sick and need to stay home for school for days on end, or we get the phone call that we need to do an early pick-up. Spouses and partners are called to travel last minute to a conference or key account, leaving us at home to manage everything from breakfast to school drop-off and pick-up, dog walks, dinner and bedtime on top of our own work schedule already jammed and overbooked.

Dealing with these is frustrating and exhausting, so when we hit these obstacles, here are a few strategies to deal with them –

1. Think of yourself on your own Hero’s Journey – every great endeavor will be fraught with challenges and obstructions. Expect them to happen.
2. Remember that whatever happens, it’ll make for a great story – a story how you’ve overcome them, or what you learned for the next time.
3. Focus on what’s in your control.  We can’t change the conditions that created the situation, and we can’t always change the constraints that make this hard. Write down what you can do, what is in your control and focus on that.
4. Accept, Assess, Adapt, Act. We usually can’t change the situation, so accept it and identify the options.  
5. Ask for help. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t like to bother or burden other people. But I’m also the kind of person who loves to help other people. Remember that your friends are like you – just ask for help and they’ll give it to you. You don’t have to go at this alone.

Deal with the dreck. Be like water. Relentless forward progress. Run your perfect race.

Do More. Be Happy. Surprise Yourself.

#GoFarther