Office of the Flywheel

I'm not a gambler, but I like to play in Vegas. I don't play because I'm looking to hit it big and retire to a life of comfortable irrelevance. For me, the allure is an empirical touch point for luck, combined with the short cycle time, and tangible feelings of winning or losing. Next time you are in Vegas, you have to play - even if it is just a little.
>> I put $20.00 into a penny slot, 1 cent per line, 9 lines, 9 cents per bet

I think most people think about luck as something good or bad that pops up out of the blue. You do nothing and there it is.

I'm going through "Great by Choice" (Jim Collins & Morten T. Hansen - go buy it) for the first time, and there is this great concept, paraphrasing roughly "It isn't whether you will have luck or not, but what you do with the luck you get."

At one point, I was put in charge of a small project. It was a proof of concept at a particular level. But there was opportunity to be had.
>> The penny machine stats hitting, I double the bets, 2 cents per line, 9 lines, 18 cents per bet

Over the course of the next year I worked hard. The project grew. I had a phenomenal team of people working with me. We were getting recognition for our work, and it felt great.
>> The machine is ticking along, I'm up, and go to 5 cents per line, 9 lines, 45 cents per bet

Then, as I was preparing to launch into an new wave of development that will expand the application into a fully fledged platform, the business shuffles the projects and sends the development work to another part of the company.
>> The machine loses steam and I'm down, way down.

But there is a silver lining here. I was smart about the way that I developed the code, and how I had built my team. I was lined up to reuse that code for other purposes and had a smart team with solid working relationships that were locked and loaded.
>> The machine is up and down, but the bottom isn't falling out

As I headed into the next project the stage was set for a quick ramp-up and an accelerated deliverable schedule.
>> The machine was climbing again

Even in cases where the worst happens and it all falls away, you have to always be thinking about how what you are doing now prepares you for the best AND worst case scenarios. This is your job as a leader, so when it all hits the fan if you don't have a plan B the finger of responsibility only points at you!
>> I'm part of a players club, and earn points for all the money I "invest" into the machine.

I've lost my job more times because the company I worked for went out of business - but that is the high risk nature of the start up world. But things happen in large companies as well, because you are battling other strong wills, leaders who are overwhelmed and under informed, and have to work with people who don't always have the background they need to make the best decisions. It's life.
>> When the machine is out, at least I've earned some points that will help me get good offers on discount hotel rooms for my next stay. See, it REALLY is "investing" after all!