The right path is just 6 inches away

Finding the right line to achieving real success isn't always obvious, but absolutely necessary.

Success isn’t always as easy to define as you think. And, the best way to get there isn’t always what you’ve been sold.

Years back, I sold a company that I co-founded. The energy I put into it was invigorating. And, the company’s success came from taking a different line from our competitors. Not going the other way per se, but pursuing a brand and consumer experience that was authentic to my vision, and the vision of one of the other two partners and delivering consistently on that.

Said another way, we manifested what we felt and believed in.

As a consumer facing company, were just different enough. Strike that. We were not different. We were authentic. Doing what we were best able to do because it felt natural, not because it was what we were supposed to do.

There is a difference.

Our third partner wanted to do what we were supposed to do. Follow the traditional corporate template. Cookie cutter.

Much like an expert skier dropping into a tight chute sees what is there, but others miss. The line.

Experts in their field, the ones who are just naturally good at what they do, in part because of experience they’ve built up-succeeding and failing at whatever it is, and in part because they’ve found whatever they are naturally good at, always find the line.

And for them, anything not on that line feels like rumble strips.

Simply following the tracks leads you nowhere new. It doesn’t guarantee success. It doesn’t teach you anything meaningful and the experience will always be marginal.

Following the tracks and following the line are not the same thing.

Can you see the line in the picture below? While there is no set of grooves, painted markers, it’s there. When you drop in, where is the line?

Pro tip: No matter what the situation, the line you seek is always there.

Oh, and the line is never straight.

Back to my story. The business grew and prospered. It was (mostly) a hell of a lot of fun, rewarding and came naturally. Generally, one of the best experiences of my adult career.

Except that one of the three partners didn’t see the line. With him everything was a constant battle.

I had an opportunity at a high point to sell out to some investors which had FOMO and walked away with a nice check.

I was replaced with more traditionalists hired by the new investor who took the standard approach, which in turn, supported the thesis of the one partner. This thesis meant employing a cost-based, mundane, ‘serious’ approach, often copying what others did.

The brand began competing strictly on product array, price and availability with bigger competitors, which was a formula for disaster.

My former company became…uninspired. It drifted and tried scatter shot approaches, none of which made any cohesive sense or stuck. Within three years, all the gains we had made had been clawed back. Six years after I left, it was sold for parts. Today, the company doesn’t exist.

The best entrepreneurs and business people see the line. And they follow it, regardless of what anyone else is doing or the previous tracks for others to follow.

I want to stop here. When I say the best entrepreneurs and business people, I am not talking about the ones with the most notoriety or money. The billionaire-business class contains plenty of narcissists, sociopaths, liars, thieves and charlatans.

I’m talking about the ones who are epic. The ones who followed their own line. People like Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, Debbi Fields (Mrs. Field’s Cookies), Jim Kock (Boston Brewing) and Kevin Plank (Under Armor).

Here is a list if you are looking for some proof or inspiration.

But what is success really?

Companies need to grow and maintain profitability. Shareholders deserve a return. Success and finding the line are not mutually exclusive.

But what about you? What do you seek? More money? Greater prestige or power? A more expensive car? Your next promotion?

Where is your line? Where does it lead? If your line, the lines of your peers, and your employer’s are aligned, that generates powerful results. Case in point, Clif Bar.

The perceived benefits to following the tracks may not be what it appears…

Recently, just before my accident, I had a chance to catch up with an acquaintance, who was also an investor in another company that I led. One that didn’t go so well and had recently ended. I had lost my line. I see that now clear as day.

I met up with this person in SoHo for a coffee. It was a warm day, so I was in shorts, t-shirt, baseball hat and a pair of sunglasses. Sitting outside the coffee shop, I was simply being. Or as my kids say, I was ‘vibing’.

My friend rolls up in a hurry, dressed in an expensive and perfectly tailored suit. A former energy trader, who now worked in a different area of finance. He had put on 20 pounds since I had last seen him. The result of a rich and busy life I thought.

He quickly sat and held up a finger indicating ‘give me a second’, then motioning for me to order him a coffee. Seven minutes later, he popped his earbuds out, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He took a sip of the now lukewarm Americano I had ordered for him, not even noticing it was ambient temperature.

We caught up for another 15 minutes before he had to hurry off. As he pushed his chair back, he said to me. “You know Steve, you’ve got something I always wished I had.”

For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine what this might be. He was a player, as many define it. I wasn’t, using the same definition.

“What?” I asked.

“Freedom.” He replied with a tired face before standing and disappearing down the block.

I always wished he and I could have had this dialogue. I wish I could have urged him to find his line. Money and prestige, and snitty opinions of those similarly trapped in Golden Handcuffs be damned. But that never happened. He died alone in his swank new apartment, shortly after a divorce not long after his 53rd birthday, of a heart attack.

So find your line. You will know it when you do. Find and follow it, if you have the courage and faith to do so.

If you do, I promise you that if you stay on it, you will never regret it, no matter where the journey leads.