How Running Your Own Business is Like Riding a Motorcycle

Iris Benrubi

I recently went on a twelve-day motorcycle trip with my boyfriend Glenn through the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. I would have called it a vacation, but to be honest, there were so many challenges to overcome along this journey that I will refer to it as a trip. An adventure. An odyssey.

I live in Ontario where the roads are flat and straight. By the time I reached Pennsylvania, I was frazzled by the never-ending curves of the road. These winding roads went uphill and downhill, truly taxing my biking skills. At every terrifying curve, I did the two things that most people naturally do. I focused on the edge of the road that seemed to be creeping up on me no matter how hard I tried to keep my bike in the centre of the lane, and I slowed the bike down since these curves were challenging my sense of balance and scaring the life out of me. At one point, I was eyeing a car that was parked quite inconveniently at the apex of the curve. I swear it jumped out at least 10 feet towards me while I tried to take the curve. Even with all the effort I put into the curve, I still missed it and ended up in the gravel shoulder where my rear tire fishtailed, finally pulling out of the curve and nearly hitting that darned car.

I was at my wits’ end. I was ready to call it quits. I swore up and down that I didn’t have the skills to do this. I really preferred to believe that there was something wrong with the curves than to look at what I was doing – or rather not doing. I just wanted to go home to the comfort and safety of my metal-framed, four-door and four wheeled car.

I apprehensively chose to continue the trip on motorcycle and, even though I didn’t trust myself, I consistently noticed an improvement in my ability to handle the roads. One night, I pulled out my laptop and decided to write an article about the lessons I had learned on this journey. I saw the many parallels to running your own business.

The following is a summary of the five lessons I learned:

The first lesson I learned is the importance of what you say to yourself when you are in a challenging situation. I noticed a big shift in my inner-talk as the days progressed. I started with negative statements, transitioned into questioning myself and my abilities, and finally reached the stage of encouraging myself with positive confidence-boosting statements. The parallel to business is that business owners are often faced with challenges as they grow. You need to ask yourself what your own inner voice is telling you. If you are criticizing or questioning your abilities, you may be sabotaging your success. The more you can talk to yourself positively, the greater your chance for success and confidence as you grow.

I learned my second lesson because I preferred to have Glenn ride ahead of me. This allowed me to gauge both my speed and the radius of the curve by watching his reaction. The parallel here is that when you doubt your ability or your skills, find yourself a coach, a mentor or a trusted colleague who can guide you on your journey to success. In the evenings, when Glenn and I went out for dinner, I rode on the back of his bike. The natural thing to do is to lean in the opposite direction of the driver.

My third lesson came from trusting Glenn and leaning into the curves with him instead. This created a partnership in achieving our goals – arriving at the restaurant in one piece. In business, too, you will need to work in tandem with other people whether customers, clients, suppliers or support people to cultivate a thriving business. The greater trust you put into the people on your ‘team’, the better results the ‘team’ will produce.

In the last few miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, there are approximately 26 tunnels. When you ride or drive through them, they are pitch black with only reflectors on the walls to guide you. Although I went through each one with trepidation, I learned that I didn’t need to see every single detail to get me through them.

My fourth lesson was learning to trust myself and my skills. Being an entrepreneur requires quite a bit of courage. As you learn to trust yourself, you will be able to get yourself through the challenges of your business with greater ease and confidence.

The natural instinct in riding a motorcycle is to keep your eye on the obstacles you want to miss, and to slow down in the curve in order not to go over the edge of the cliff and into oblivion. The proper way to handle a curve is lean into the curve, keep your eye where you want to go, and accelerate out of the curve. When I coach business owners, I often notice that entrepreneurs will often slow down or even stop themselves totally while focusing on the challenge they are facing. Lesson five is that the key to business success is keeping your eye on your goals. When you come to a challenge, hit the throttle/give it more energy because once you get through the challenge or the curve, it’s easy riding.

In closing, you need not be intimidated by the difficulty of the journey. Whether on a motorcycle through the Blue Ridge Parkway, or in the ever-changing world of day-to-day business, confidently using your skills to navigate the curving roads is often the most satisfying part of the trip.

Iris Benrubi is a Business and Life Coach who specializes in working with women entrepreneurs.