There is never a single decision or action that will propel you to excellence. Success is incremental. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, writes of what he calls the Flywheel Effect. Rather than thinking of work as a series of steps, think of it as a well-placed nudge to a wheel that is already in motion. If you exert the right degree of force at the right inflection point, you will increase the momentum. It will feel inevitable: if you do A, you almost can't avoid doing B, and C just follows naturally, and so on. This builds organic momentum.
Now the problem is discovering what actions propel the flywheel. Experiment. Fail as much as you have to, but fail small. Fail early. Fail when it's cheap and easy to clean up any mess you make. Most important, fail while you still have momentum so you can course correct and find the right way to build momentum. The key is to fail until you find the sweet spot, the synergy. Then you stoke it patiently over a long period of time and you will see that your results begin to amplify. You will also begin to discern an underlying logic that you can extrapolate into other categories of work. The flywheel principle explains why the Lean principle of failing fast is such a key element.
Another of Collins' dictums is to fire bullets first, then fire a single cannonball. The idea here is that you can significantly reduce risk and maximize return by starting. Fire as many bullets as you need to in order to get your range and windage. Then when your target is within perfect range, and you are hitting bulls-eyes with the small bullets, bring out the big gun, and knock out the target. In other words: baby step, baby step, baby step, baby step, baby step, baby step, giant leap, baby step, etc.
Slow and steady may win the game, but taking well-timed, calculated risks can provide exponential returns.
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