Horse Racing

It’s about this time of the year that I start taking interest in the three-year old thoroughbreds that are racing throughout the country.  I love horse racing because I love the majesty of these beasts who are bred to run and do so with all they have each and every time they are taken to the starting gate.  I used to say that I wanted my company filled with thoroughbreds.  It is a good analogy, but also one that can backfire if taken to the extreme. 

Thoroughbreds are great comparators of each other.  From the time they see another, they begin to size them up and the adrenaline starts flowing to see who can outrun the other.  Get them next to each other and it takes a good trainer and jockey to keep them from looking left and right to see who is ahead or behind them.  When this happens they lose focus and can become distracted.  Sounding familiar? 

Yes, we do the same in our work.  We start running and then we start looking left and right to compare and see how we are doing.  And, with “big data” there will be more and more of the opportunity to compare.  Looking left and right gets us only one thing; a sore neck.  Sure we need to know where our competition stands and what they are doing, but becoming fixated and obsessed about where we stand in comparison can take us off our game and ironically, make us lose ground.