I am at my first skating lesson and I am feeling pretty good. There are about a dozen 8 year-old kids getting laced up. I am not in their class because that would be weird. Luckily, I see that another adult is taking lessons as well so I am not the only one. He is wearing a San Jose Sharks shirt and I am wearing one of my many Detroit Red Wings shirts. Everyone else in the arena was wearing the sleek black and gold of the Vegas Golden Knights. I didn’t get beat up in the parking lot that day but let’s just say that I was properly attired every day after that.
The cool thing about City National Arena (at least this time of the year) is that the Knights hold open practices in one of the two ice rinks. They bring in the cheerleaders to welcome the fans and they even have a DJ. The line to the Arsenal (where you can buy Knights gear is literally out the door).
But back to my story. Let me reset the table. I am a good rollerblader wearing Red Wings clothing and rental skates taking a beginning ice skating lesson at the age of 45. I step out on the ice and I can immediately tell that this is different. Mostly because I can’t get a good grip on the ice. Rental skates aren’t very sharp. It took a couple of warm-up laps for me to get comfortable on my skates and then a few more backwards to see what that was like. My crossovers were pretty weak so I shelved those for the next lesson. My skating coach called us over to start the lesson.
I don’t remember my exact expectations for my first lesson. I am rational enough to know that Salchows and triple axels wouldn’t come up until lesson 5 or 6 (the class has 8 lessons). Instead we started with the basic stance. Drop the hips and bend the knees. The shins engage the tongues (the padded part under the laces) of the skates. I don’t know if you are supposed to curl your toes up inside of the skates but I do. While locked in that position you find the balance point on your skates which is under the balls of your feet (sort of). I nailed that part of the lesson so I am thinking the triple jumps may come a few lessons early for me. 15 seconds later my back, knees and feet are on fire so I have to stand up straight. I am ready to learn the next move.
Move #2 – Falling
For the first moving move, my coach wants us to learn to fall. OMG. There are 6 things that I do in life and one of them is that I never fall. We are 10 minutes into the 20 minute lesson and all I have learned is to stand and fall. For those of you trying some of these skills at home I will break it down for you. The idea is to get low if you are losing your balance by bending your knees and hips to a deep squat. Lowering your center of gravity may stop the fall but if you are too far gone, you can slide out to one side (we practiced falling in both directions). Being 2-3 feet lower reduces the impact and helps you land on more padded body parts. Not a concern for me but I see how that can be helpful for the other guy in the class.
I have to admire people that start their own businesses. It takes a lot of courage to hang your own shingle. There is a lot of planning required for those who want to be their own boss. Few people plan to fail though even though a high percentage of businesses do. The business gurus talk about the power of positive thinking. From a practical standpoint, learning what failure looks like and how to deal with it can make the difference between a hard fall and a graceful slide.
During the last recession, I watched a lot of business owners drain their savings and retirement to try to keep their business afloat with only a destroyed credit score, mountains of debt and a storage unit filled with used furniture to show for it. The business owners who were able to recognize what was going on in the market were able to cut their losses. They slid out of one business into something else with minimal damage to their personal finances. It isn’t a failure if you can get back up on your feet and try again.
My advice for business owners (new and old) is to take some time and evaluate your company to see where you may be vulnerable. Then you can take steps to plan around it or plan how to make a graceful slide.
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