Ok, back from vacation. I’ve returned from visiting family and friends with a strong desire for a rat rod T-bucket, an AR-15, and a new mountain bike. I’m not sure what this says about me (or my friends, for that matter). Fortunately, I’m going to use the time proven method of combining a complete lack of introspection with denial and not think about too much. Beats Prozac.

Speaking of mountain bikes. I decided it was time to expose my bike to sunlight and try out some trails I’ve been hearing about. (Hang in there, this is going to connect to business sooner or later). There was one easy section of trail where the left side was a rock wall and the right side was a steep descent into the river. Nothing life threatening, but it would certainly inconvenience the morning to somersault into the murky water. My first instinct was to head to safety by veering away from the edge leading to the water. That’s a rookie move. The rock wall is no safer. Getting close to the wall risks catching the handlebar on the wall and pinballing over in slow motion. Move away from the edge, clip the wall, and fall in anyway.

The safest way to ride that stretch of trail is to stay in the middle and look at where I want to go. Just like business and life.

Although I don’t advocate unnecessary risk, how often do we create more problems for ourselves by lunging for safety? We avoid, we choose to not take action on the iffy belief that it’s safer than taking action. We sit still when we should be moving or if we do move, it’s backwards at full speed. Our peers, our competition, the world passes us by when we insist on trying to create absolute safety.

Where are you trying to be too safe?