The faster you start pedaling, the less likely you are to tip over

Have you ever tried to balance yourself on a bicycle that wasn’t moving?

It’s extremely hard. Most people will fall over almost immediately.

Because bicycles, with or without a rider, can’t resist tipping over unless they are traveling at a minimum rate of speed. Basic physics.

Now, we can cite articles in scientific journals on properties like the gyro effect, angular momentum and centrifugal force. But let’s keep things simple here.

Speed helps you maintain a steady direction. Period.

And this fundamental principle of science not only applies to the recreational world, but to the business world as well. Particularly when it comes to smaller companies who can afford to act lean and nimbly.

If you’re able to iterate new products, features and offerings quickly, then you’re more resilient to the inevitable roadblocks of the journey. Continuous deployment not only allows you to run circles around the competition, but it also helps absorbs blows that come along the way.

Wise, the professor and advisor to the hottest business reality show on television, writes about this very principle of physics in his book. At high speeds, he says, the spinning wheels act as gyroscopes to keep you upright. Barriers that seemed insurmountable when you were pushing the bike up the hill become slight bumps in the road at high speeds.

Therefore, here’s a fun tool from the personal creativity management system you might try at work.

It’s called short circuiting, aka, doing things before the fear has time to reach your mind. If you’re afraid of messing up on a project, and that fear is discouraging you from taking action, force yourself to press send anyway. Or call that impromptu team meeting. Or start your presentation without waiting for the entire audience to stop talking.

Whatever it takes to add velocity, generate positive motion and get those wheels spinning, do it. Just start doing the damn thing before your mind or other people’s words finds reasons not to.

You’ll see firsthand how speed helps you maintain a steady direction. You’ll learn that the faster you start pedaling, the less likely you are to tip over.

And understandably, not every creative professional has a need for speed. But the upside of velocity is, it gives you more opportunities to iterate and, therefore, more opportunities to learn.

Would you rather ship twelve good things each year, or one amazing thing every twelve years?