What Snowboarding Can Teach Business Strategists

There’s a lot that I’ve wanted to blog about in the last few months but the restrictions of my new job makes content that was more typical of IGSMTOMM a bit more difficult.


However, the combination of the forthcoming winter and my need to blog about strategy primed me to be moved by this recent photograph and caption that I saw in Transworld Snowboarding (a regular goldmine of strategic insight).

Here is a quick shot of the page from my phone:



The uncredited caption reads:

On sunny, powdery days, lots of time gets used up while you’re wondering. But when it comes to figuring out speed, gap distance, and danger—or just asking your friends if they think you’ll make it—time spent thinking is not time wasted. Ultimately, all these mental minutes add up working knowledge. They transform fear into focus. They help turn a leap of faith, into a calculated risk. And whether we ride away clean or ragdoll into oblivion, we’re always a little bit smarter afterward.

Well said. Reason #2,469 why snowboarding makes me a better (business)person.