Blog post 32 Innovate
INSIGHT 25 | DECIVENESS MATTERS
You can do everything right and still miss your moment.
Not because you paused, but because you hesitated.
If there’s a genuine need, why wait for cast-iron certainty?
What will it take for you to commit?
in²⁵ | Decisiveness Matters
Do or die… Execute don’t dither
Having a clear plan and executing it cleanly sounds easy until you factor in the natural turbulence of the market in which you are operating.
Brazilian Surfer Maya Gabeira embodies this perfectly as the Guinness World Record holder for the highest wave surfed by a woman. Maya set about the challenge on February 11th, 2020, on the coast off Nazare, Portugal, at the same beach where just seven years earlier she was revived following a previous failed attempt aged 26 years old. Undeterred, she surfed a gigantic 22.4m (73.5 foot) wave, it always sounds bigger when converted to imperial don’t you think?
An impressive feat regardless of gender was bettered just 13 days later by Sebastian Steudtner setting the all-time record of 28.5m (93.7 Feet) at the same location. Two extraordinary achievements separated, not by bravery nor skill, but simply by the tidal conditions on each given day. Such fine margins for the title of GOAT.
I appreciate that it’s hard to believe extreme surfing provides a good analogy for innovation, flip flops and swimsuits, sand in your gear and places best not discussed here.
But think about it. You’re setting out on a journey, paddling frantically to get far enough out to catch the wave that will bring you back to shore. And with that endeavour comes no guarantees that you’ll succeed. Yet paddle you will.
What I’d like to draw your attention to is that instinctive moment. The one where you jump up, precariously balanced, hoping to glide rather than rough ride. Regardless of the smoothness of your journey, it is that precise moment that your destiny is charted.
Like Maya you will survey the prevailing conditions, make that initial pause we spoke about under in³ and then commit. The same was true of Bodhi in Point Break (Patrick Swayze in the 1991 film, not the 2015 remake; why try to improve on a classic?). He was a spiritual leader at heart and one line from the script rings true for innovators.
“Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true”
So uncompromising was Bodhi that he funded his passion by criminal means, granted he’s not the ideal role model, so I’d like to make it clear; in your case there’s no need to rob a bank, even if your budget is tight.
But like Bodhi you are chasing your own ’50-year storm’. So, plan for that moment and don’t hesitate when it comes.
Just as I’m about to go to print, continuous tracking suggests Maya’s record may already have been surpassed on the same stretch of water. The UK’s Laura Crane, a kindred spirit and equally decisive in the moment, is already jostling for position, competing for recognition and reward.
That moment was always coming, simply a matter of time, and exactly why daily research matters. While one competitor pauses, another is watching, preparing, and acting. Disruption rarely arrives unannounced, it arrives unnoticed.
Research doesn’t slow you down. It sharpens your instincts so that when the moment comes, hesitation is no longer an option.
Records, just like products, exist only until conditions align again. The window to act is often brief, closing without warning.
In innovation, disruption is inevitable. Decisiveness is down to you.
