Finding Traction - what a muddy old land rover taught me about moving forward

Looking at this photograph, you'd probably say I was completely stuck.

To be fair, at that particular moment it certainly looked that way. The wheels were spinning, there was mud everywhere, forward progress had come to a halt and, judging by the expressions on the cows I was supposed to be checking, I know I was providing the afternoon's entertainment.

Years of owning Land Rovers have taught me something though.

Feeling stuck and actually being stuck are rarely the same thing.

The Land Rover wasn't broken.

It hadn't suddenly become incapable.

In fact, it was doing exactly what it had been built to do.

What had changed were the conditions.

The challenge wasn't whether the vehicle was capable enough. It was whether I knew how to use that capability properly.

I needed to understand the terrain, choose a better line, know when to ease off rather than keep spinning the wheels and, perhaps most importantly, recognise when someone with more experience could help me find traction far more quickly than I could on my own before I had the embarrassment of calling the farmer for a pull!

That's the thing about Land Rovers.

They're built for difficult ground.

Most of the time they're considerably more capable than the person sitting behind the steering wheel.

The limitation is rarely the vehicle.

It's confidence.

It's experience.

It's knowing what the vehicle is capable of and understanding which levers to pull when the conditions change.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised the same is true of many of the founders and business owners I work with.

People often tell me they're stuck.

Yet when we start talking, that's rarely what they actually mean.

They can't see the next step.

They're trying to carry everything themselves.

There are too many possible directions, and they can't work out which one deserves their attention first.

None of those things mean they're incapable.

In fact, most are exceptionally capable.

They've simply lost traction.

The capability is already there.

The experience is already there.

The opportunity is often still there too.

What they need isn't another framework or someone to take over.

They need someone who can help them read the terrain, identify where traction already exists and make better use of the strengths they already have.

Because if the thing still matters...

If the opportunity still excites you...

If the idea won't leave you alone...

You're probably not stuck.

You may simply need a different perspective.

A little more traction.

And someone who's travelled this sort of ground before.

I've found that the people I work with almost always have far more capability than they give themselves credit for.

Sometimes they just need someone to help them find the traction that was there all along.