Stay with your Core

This weekend, I attempted to wakeboard (for those that might not know, this is basically snowboarding behind a boat). Years ago, I was a decent water skier, but this is 2008 and wakeboarding is very popular. A family member (my sister's husband's sister's son . . . yes, we have lots of family in Central Texas) invited us on Lake Austin. After watching him wakeboard (he made it look easy with all sorts of tricks, etc.), he asked if I wanted to try . . . so, I said, why not, I can waterski, this does not look that hard . . . of course, I was not thinking he was 20 years my junior.

After many attempts and drinking two six-packs of Lake Austin, I called it quits and never got up.

Why talk about this on a leadership blog? Well, it reminds me that some leaders review the business landscape and see that some companies are performing well in a particular space, so they say "that is a good opportunity, we can do that too". They place significant resources on a new business initiative . . . only to never have success after many attempts.

The learning is to stay with your core business competencies. If you must branch out to new areas, focus on opportunities that are smart adjacencies to your existing business so it is a natural expansion, i.e., leveraging your strengths. Otherwise, you might wake up the next morning, sore and bruised, aka an old guy who tried to learn a new trick!