I recently took a motorcycle racing course at a local track and while it's an exhilarating experience in and of itself (hello, adrenaline!), there are a few lessons to be learned from it. This an attempt at drawing parallels between motorcycle racing and running a design business.
Lesson #1: you won't get any good around a track if you don't know what you're doing. This course was very well structured and the teachings became progressively more challenging as we ran around the track faster and faster, thanks to instructors with years of racing experience under their belt. I could have spent 6 months trying to teach myself these things on my own and I still wouldn't have made as much progress as I did in 2 days.
→ When one doesn't know something, there is value in paying a pro to teach it or do it for you.
Lesson #2: No progress will be made if one doesn't push past one's comfort zone. We started on a rainy (read: extra slippery) track riding twitchy motorcycles that go from 0 to prison in under 3.5 seconds. Needless to say I rode very slow initially, but under the expert's guidance and my increasing level of comfort with the track and the bike, I was able to push myself a little further at every lap, making mistakes along the way that I could then correct.
→ Repeated practice, analysis and feedback is what makes one ever better at something. Expertise takes time and effort.
Lesson #3: On a bike at speed, there can be no distractions as even a temporarily wandering mind can mean the difference between finishing a lap and crashing. We did runs of 10 minutes, and that was plenty. For those 10 minutes, one is 100% focused on everything relating to the bike: speed, braking, cornering, the shape of the track, etc. You come out of one of these session exhausted. I can only imagine what it means for the pros who do that for 45 straight minutes at a time.
→ Giving your all is exhausting, but it yields extraordinary results. Sometimes pushing past what is reasonable is worth it.
Stay tuned for a follow-up piece with more lessons.