🏃♂️ The first step is never over the finish line.

"Are there no Quick Fixes?"

🏃♂️ The first step is never over the finish line.

Last weekend was the City2Surf run in Sydney. Fourteen kilometres of running, walking, sweating and wondering why you didn’t train more.

I am pretty sure no-one who ran it had a “quick fix” to get to the finish line (Redbull doesn't give you wiings). They trained, built endurance and improved over time. Then did the distance.

In business (and life), we often chase quick wins. We want the instant uplift... the magic button... the golden bullet... the “sales are down this month, fix it... make it happen” conversation.

- For City to Surf it takes about 19,000 steps to walk 14km and around 14,000 strides to run it.
- However, if you pull a hammy because you didn't prepare, you end up on the sidelines (or deregistering with ASIC).
- You might get ahead for the first KM but the competition will reel you in.

Side note: [I ran 5 half marathons in my spritely days but the 2nd time I did it without training. It really hurt, I finished, I was slow, It took ages to recover and I probably did some long term damage... and I looked mess "Why do they do it to themselves" said one spectator as I hobbled past.]

Sustainable growth comes from long-term, incremental improvement. Learning as we go. Quick wins can help and we will take them when they appear... but they are not a medium-term strategy or a 100 year strategy.

“Quick wins keep the lights on”... true, they can buy you time. Just do not mistake them for a plan.

“You cannot wait months if something is broken”... correct, urgent fixes come first. But a band-aid needs proper treatment eventually.

“Sometimes CRO is instant... I have doubled conversions overnight”... fantastic, but those jumps are rare and the gains last when you keep improving and iterating.

Basically... the point I would like to make is... you still have to do the training before you speed up the gains. Then you get more efficient. Incremental improvement over time wins more often. Strategy is not a dirty word.