The concept of Adversarial Growth
“The stiffest tree is most easily cracked,
While the bamboo survives by bending with the wind”
- Bruce Lee
Anyone that has played any level of competitive sport understands the anguish of dealing with a serious injury.
Even if your sport of choice is a regular gym routine or a neighbourhood run - there is little more frustrating than being unable to lift as much as you could pre-injury - or run as far as you could before.
Having played Ice Hockey since my early childhood, I was always exposed to different levels of injuries - it’s a fast paced and extremely physical game.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, this soundbite from Hall Of Famer, Brendan Shanahan sums it up pretty well.
“To play ice hockey, we need to have the strength and power of a football player, the stamina of a track athlete, and the concentration of a surgeon.
On top of that, we have to put all this together while moving at high speeds on a cold and slippery surface while 5 other guys use clubs to try and kill us.
Did I mention that this whole time we're standing on blades 1/8 of an inch thick?”
⅛ of an inch is 0.3cm thick by the way, crazy.
Back when I was 15 - I was hell bent on qualifying for the Queensland state team.
The year before, I was cut after a brutal performance at the tryouts
I had moved up an age bracket with much bigger players, I got blown up by a few hits, and I was playing scared, and in doing so, made myself an easier target (more on how this relates later).
However, the coach at the time gave me some very specific feedback and advice to have a better chance the next year.
I spent the whole year training my ass off, eventually made the state team and had my best national tournament yet in Newcastle.
A few weeks later I got a letter of invite to the Team Australia Development Camp.
Everything was moving in a really good direction.
But just a month before the camp was due to start, I was in a freak school yard accident.
I won’t go into graphic details, but I dislocated my hip in such a way that the nurses only saw cases like mine in high impact car accidents
When it was all said and done, I would be recovering for 6 months, missing my opportunity to get seen at the grass roots level for the Team Australia program.
I won’t sugar coat it, I was devastated.
But, all was not lost...
As fate would have it, I found a book called Mind Gym - and became completely enthralled with the mindset of champions, and it took me down the rabbit hole of Behavioural Science, and how we adapt to situations.
It allowed me to take stock of my weaknesses, and change my perspective.
It allowed me to work with specialists to ensure my mobility was better than ever coming out the other side
And best of all, I never took it for granted that I had an opportunity to pull the jersey on and represent my team ever again.
While I didn’t make it to the Team Australia camp that year, another opportunity presented itself...
At age 16, I packed my bags and moved to Canada (the Mecca of ice hockey)
I got to play at a boarding school that bred champions, and I was able to develop in a culture that demanded responsibility and playing for a cause that was bigger than sport
The school’s motto was Luctor et Emergo - Struggle and Emerge, and everything about the experience was designed to build character long after you hung up the skates.
I’m not exaggerating when I say it changed the trajectory of my life, and none of this would have happened had I not been injured for six months.
This rollercoaster of emotions I described to you is actually extremely common in athletes when they become sidelined with injuries.
Sports psychologists did a study with professional athletes that were struck with a serious injury - unable to DO what they are being paid to do.
Initially, these athletes suffered a big setback mentally.
They reported feeling isolated; they experienced emotional disruption, and overall doubts about their athletic ability.
Yet after they acknowledged their situation and came to terms with it, and committed to their rehabilitation plan - each athlete reported gaining a desire to help others, to be part of their community with an additional perspective, and further realisation of their own strengths.
In other words, every fear and doubt they felt during the injury turned into greater abilities in those exact areas.
It’s a concept called Adversarial Growth - literally, growing from Adversity.
In these scenarios, the researchers found that the obstacle actually propelled the athletes to an entirely new level of functioning.
The extent of the struggle determined the extent of the growth, the obstacle became the advantage.
Side note #1: I can’t make this up ^ this is paraphrasing a story from a book The Obstacle Is The Way, by Ryan Holiday. This was written back in 2014 - the terms used are eerily fitting to what we’re going through today.
Some of us may be temporarily sidelined by this ‘injury’ at the moment.
We have medical experts giving us very clear instructions.
We have restricted movement, unable to deal with our daily lives the way we could before.
But with patience, persistence, repetition, anchored to a strategic plan - we can come out even stronger than before.
We can take stock of our weaknesses, and discover where our imbalances were previously holding us back.
When taking this perspective, I think most business owners would agree that marketing is where they fall down the most.
Most business owners fail to market effectively because they’re swept up in the day to day of operating their business.
They are focussing on their immediate abilities to try and move their business forward, but unfortunately - business, like sport, is not a game of skill or raw talent…
It’s a game of strategy, tactics, and specialists working in unison with a specific game plan, attacking it with passion and perseverance.
The unfortunate situation is that many business owners eventually slide because they have failed to consistently focus on their marketing - they only play the short game.
They fall into the trap of failing to market when they’re busy, and then scrambling when things slow down - continuing the cycle of feast and famine, often with diminishing returns (I wrote about the roller coast effect here)
However, when worked with appropriately - marketing can actually be quite simple, and systematic - it’s an interchangeable, multi-dimensional tool in our belt.
This is the time to learn how to use it effectively.
Yes, take this time to pause, but do not idly wait for our old world to begin again as it once was.
Procrastination is an ill-advised form of perfectionism.
Those that procrastinate typically don’t end up doing anything.
They become a passive participant in their business, waiting to be found - riding on a wave of hope’ium…
...leaving their fate in the hands of others, and to happenstance.
When things don’t pan it out - it allows them to play the blame game and become a victim of circumstance, only focusing on what they can’t do, or what isn’t available to them.
In doing so, they become victims of self fulfilling prophecy.
Side Note #2 - I’m not discounting what is happening in the world, and the hardships it’s creating - I’m just a believer we do have a choice in how we perceive the situation.
Every industry has beautiful stories of adaptation and innovation at the moment.
At the end of the day, our businesses are built to solve problems for our clients - this is the only reason we exist, and the only reason we will continue to exist in the future.
The good news is, I can promise you there are plenty of problems to solve right now.
In fact, look at the last time there was an economic downturn in 2008
A few game changers came out of them - shaking up industries that had previously been thought to be untouchable
Uber
Airbnb
Instagram
Slack
WhatsApp
Dropbox
Venmo
Heard of them?
It’s not an isolated incident, it’s actually a pattern throughout history.
Even going back as far as the Bubonic Plague in the 1600’s where all of the universities were closed down, and people were restricted to their homes.
Isaac Newton used that time to come up with the theory of gravity.
So what to do next...
And where to start?
In the past, I’ve spoken about prescribing like a doctor in your sales and marketing.
Well, now it’s time to strategise like a scientist.
Hypothesise
Test
Measure
Cut
Refine
Review
Repeat
If we looked at your customer journey from Lead to Sale, and the process of increasing the Lifetime Value of your clients.
Where are we weak?
Where are we overcompensating?
Where do the imbalances trace back to?
If you don’t know how to answer those questions, then use these prompts to get into the deeper issues.
Are you creating demand? (i.e. is your Offering currently aligned to Market need?)
Do you have lower ticket, and higher ticket items to upsell, downsell, or cross-sell to - based on where they’re at (this is super important).
How are you positioned relative to the rest of your market?
What’s your core message during this time? Is it consistent with your past, or is it progressive towards a new future? Is the tone frantic, and scattered? Or is it clear and commanding of attention?
Are you getting enough fresh contacts in your top of funnel?
Are you predictably converting sales on the back end?
Are you keeping your opportunities and networks warm?
Do you have mechanisms in place to provide a world class experience, stimulate referrals, and skyrocket their Lifetime Value?
Start there - you’ll see some patterns emerge pretty quickly.
Zac
Ps. if the above is overwhelming, and you just want some tangible tactics that you can implement with straight away - I wrote 9 of them in this article
If you have any questions, just reach out.