When you grow up around cars and racing cars, you learn what it means to “redline” an engine. The tachometer when running wide open as far as you can push the engine will “redline.” And if you hold there too long or are not careful, you will blow the engine. Blowing an engine means you are instantly out of the race, and maybe more importantly, will either spend a lot of time or a lot of money getting the engine replaced. When you are either racing or pushing a car as much as you can, you always have to be mindful that if you push too hard, you are likely to blow up. And that means you have to start over.
Redlining is kind of the same approach that I have adopted in life and in work. To take advantage of every minute and every opportunity, you must push yourself and others as far as they can go. You must get everything out of yourself and those around you that you can without creating a catastrophic event (like redlining an engine) such as blowing an engine. You also have to realize that not everyone wants to run wide open all the time. Some people enjoy breaks and times of lower RPM performance. But still, you must find a way to energize them so that they embrace the constraints of always racing – whether in business or in life.
Just like any racecar driver, I have blown a lot of engines in my career. Only the engines that you blow in business cannot be replaced with 8 cylinders. They come with 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 mouth, 10 fingers, etc. The engines I have blown have all been in the form of people. Either people that I pushed too far or expected too much out of that ended up not surviving for whatever reasons can all be traced back to “redlining.” There is no common trait among people that they love to run wide open all the time. True, some people do enjoy this way of life and usually fit in very well around me – but it isn’t for everyone. And I think, overall, that is a very good thing.
Sometimes, like now, I just like to sit here and think about a world that would exist with no redlines. How great it would be if everyone wanted to run as fast as me or even faster. What a sense of achievement I would have to watch an entire organization that never needed a word of motivation – they just wanted to go. Maybe that is what my form of Valhalla would be. Or maybe it is just a process of building everyone into my way of thinking.