Identify previous wins and replicate their impact in other areas

A powerful personal creativity management tool is called slipstreaming.

This is hugely helpful for blocked people who can’t seem to get their work done. They learn to achieve creative productivity through social proximity. Simply by virtue of being together in the same room, either physically or virtually, fosters a sense of generative power.

Creators tap into the tailwinds of other people’s energy and go to places they cannot go alone.

Many motor sports have their own version of this tactic. Slipstreaming is aerodynamic technique where two people, vehicles or moving objects align in a close group, reducing the overall effect of drag.

If you’ve ever tuned into cycling, swimming, running, boating or car racing on television, you’ve likely seen this tool being used. When athletes get in the slipstream of their competitors or teammates, wind resistance reduces and their energy expenditure required to maintain a certain speed decreases.

Kind of a nice break when you’ve got two thousand miles left in the race.

What’s interesting about slipstreaming is, you don’t always need another person, vehicle or object to execute this maneuver. Creative professionals can draft on their own successes. They can borrow tailwind momentum from their past to fuel their future endeavors.

Unfortunately, too many of us leave a lot of leverage on the table. We move on too quickly.

My colleagues give me shit about this all the time.

Scott, you’re a typical inventor. Someone who loves making things, but doesn’t care about marketing or selling them.

Guilty as charged. Can’t help myself. It’s how my artist’s brain has always worked. Having customers is less important than having created.

But I’m working on that. I’m learning to mature as an entrepreneur. And that means avoiding patting myself on the back for a single victory and moving on too quickly.

In fact, my latest invention, which is a software as a service platform, has been a wonderful exercise in slipstreaming. The whole project is a case study in drafting on your own success.

Prolific started as a consulting program.

Years later it evolved into a continuing education curriculum for a local university that, sadly, never saw the light of day.

My system later evolved into a book and series of corporate workshops.

But now it exists in digital form as a subscription service.

Huge milestone there. We’ve productized it in a way that creates tons of value for customers but also captures tons of value for me, the creator. And I’m just getting started.

My list of secret plans for future optimizations for this product is a mile long. Because for once, my goal is not to leave any leverage on the table.

Damn it if I’m not drafting on my own success until the motor gives out.

Makes me think of a catchy chorus for a nursery rhyme:

Everything you make can lead to something else you make, but not if there are past successes you’re afraid you can’t duplicate. Everybody sing!

My recommendation for you is, identify your previous wins. Figure out how to replicate their impact in other areas. See how far you can carry your ideas. Tap into the momentum you’ve already created, get your vehicle into the slipstream and let the dirty, turbulent air breeze right past you.

Instead of being destroyed but the grip of aerodynamic downforce, you’ll propel yourself into pole position.

How can you borrow tailwind momentum from your past to fuel your future?