Endurance as a Competitive Advantage in Business

As a runner, the middle of the race hurts the most. It doesn’t matter how far you’re running, somewhere in the middle feels like the farthest distance from the finish line. Your blood is boiling to the point where your skin itches. Your muscles are screaming to stop this madness. You must endure if you want to make it all the way. The middle of the race is where you must decide if you want to finish or not.

When the starting gun fired on my first race, I took off like a scared hare, bolting ahead of a few hundred elementary school kids my age. I raced through a large field, up the hill, and built myself a rather cushy lead. Winning is easy, I thought, until about three minutes later when my legs turned to lead and my lungs began wheezing like a lifelong smoker climbing Everest. Fear set in, and as I willed my legs forward, I peered nervously over my shoulder at the mob gaining on me. I won, but barely, and I learned a valuable lesson about pacing myself.

That said, slow and steady pacing doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win the race either. Sometimes you do need to start fast and keep pushing your limits—to break personal barriers and reach new heights.

Endurance, part mental exercise and part physiology, is much like the inverted U hypothesis; somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot to going fast and far. I didn’t know it then, but the time I spent training as a distance runner—suffering day in and day out through rain, snow and heat—taught me a lot about how to be successful in business and my creative pursuits.

You must endure if you want to make it all the way. The middle of the race is where you must decide if you want to finish or not.

Like my very first race, in business, there is a “First Mover Advantage.” Essentially, that means the first entrepreneur or business into a new industry, category or subcategory gives them the advantage of speed to market (which is the time it takes to go from idea to product availability) and new customer acquisition. It’s part of the famous blue-ocean business strategy. Whereas the red ocean is crowded and stained with the blood of competition, the blue ocean provides you with more time and space to operate your business because competitors with similar products or offerings are not yet crowding the marketplace. 

On the flip side, first-to-market companies theoretically make the most mistakes and take on the most damage and start-up cost, while blazing a trail of knowledge competitors can use to their own advantage.

I tend to lean toward the second-mover advantage. In racing speak, it’s like drafting just behind the leader, waiting for them to tire themselves out from breaking the wind—and then you just blow by them at the end. That said, you still have to be good enough to go all the way. So, regardless of either strategy, you still end the endurance the execute your plan—making it a competitive advantage when attempting to achieve the goals of your business and creative projects.

The good news is that endurance is both a practice and a skill you can develop—in business and in life. This is one of the reasons I dunk my body into an ice bath as often as I can. Sure there are health benefits to ice baths, but that’s not primarily why I do it. And it certainly isn’t because I “like” it.

From the time Richard and the Twins are submerged, I have to ensure about a minute of the you-can-still-get-the-fuck-out-before-you-die impulse hammering in my brain.

It’s a normal fight-or-flight response.

Once I calm your breathing and my mind, I can override that impulse. In other words, I can endure.

Adventures in business have afforded me my fair share of dark nights of the soul. Moments where the stakes were high, the mistakes were spectacular, and in the moment, I feel like throwing in the towel. The only thing that enabled me to survive those moments was to endure the panic and get on with the work required to turn things around. 

Furthermore, no matter how many ice baths I’ve had, or how much I like the euphoric feeling I have after I get out, there is always a tiny gremlin on my shoulder telling me not to go in again. Sometimes that gremlin does convince me to not go in there… especially in the dead of winter.

Doing things we really don’t want to do is part of the start-up and creativity game. Being able to do those things consistently keeps us in the game as the project goes through growing pains. Doing the hard things first enables you to do easier things later. Getting into that ice bath is a reminder that I can, and should, do hard things, even if I don’t want to.

Ice baths aren’t the panacea they sometimes are made out to be. But they are a tool for overcoming mental resistance.

Last summer I wrote two blogs about Michael Easter’s  The Comfort Crisis and my experiences of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. This manifested into what Easter calls a misogi—which in Western terms, is a sort of all-day physical challenge with about a 50% chance of successful completion. So, I’ve taken my weighted vests and dumbbells far into the mountains to test the limits of my endurance with activities that A) I wouldn’t normally do and B) where I’m up against the potentially harsh and unpredictable elements of Mother Nature.

The result is less TV’s Wipe Out and more Rocky 1 steps. Through these misogi challenges, one earns greater and greater confidence in the ability to endure and overcome.

Doing things we really don’t want to do is part of the start-up and creativity game. Being able to do those things consistently keeps us in the game as the project goes through growing pains. Doing the hard things first enables you to do easier things later. Getting into that ice bath is a reminder that I can, and should, do hard things, even if I don’t want to.

The harsh reality is that running your business is hard. It takes time and things won’t always go your way. It might fail. Channelling your inner Ryan Holiday, and being a stoic, helps you be more patient and grounded.  Holiday encourages the stoic practice of Negative Visualization (clearly thinking about the worst-case scenario and coming to terms with it before you move forward). Think of it like making the decision to go all out to try and win a race knowing full well you may use up all your energy too soon and finish last. When this happens, I’ve heard racers says, “I left it all out there and have no regrets!”

Tapping into that Zen Buddhist middle-way mentality can help dial down the intensity and stakes in a start-up or creative project leaving you more energy to sustain you over the long haul. So does taking time off to rest, reflect, recalibrate and rejuvenate.

Loving what you do, and doing what you love, gives you the motivation to endure what you must to keep doing it. Staying in the game allows us to continually hone your skills. We will learn from our mistakes and, over time, we will not only improve, but become masters of our craft and have the best opportunity for successful breakthroughs.

Harrison Ford’s strategy for enduring the “making is as an actor” phase until he became successful in Hollywood was his carpentry side hustle. His plan was to continue auditioning for roles because he had the means to stay in L.A. Not to mention, he might just meet the right people (i.e., Steven Spielberg and George Lucas) given his specialty in high end home and patio renovations. For creatives and entrepreneurs, the cash from a side hustle is like the energy gels and electrolytes you ingest while running an ultra-marathon. Once you’ve used up all the carbs from last night’s spaghetti…you need that extra fuel to keep going and finish the race.

A lot of businesses fail within the first few years. Even the ones that start out strong. It’s like the guy who breaks away on the Tour De France to grab some screen time for sponsors and hit the wall shortly thereafter. He’s not wearing the yellow jacket and having French champagne sprayed on him on the Champs De Elysee. Being able to endure the ups and downs, as other competition whittles away, gives you a long-tail advantage. Like American marathon legend Dick Beardsley, a late bloomer in the sport of elite marathoning. He's the only man to have run 13 consecutive personal-best races before his epic and now legendary Boston Marathon Duel in the Sun with superstar Alberto Salazar.

Keep it steady. Build your endurance, and over the long run, you’ll give your businesses and creative projects the chance to truly blossom.