I love Dick Fosbury. Ok, not really the person, but his story. I copied my blog post below from 2010 that lets you know why. To sum up, when the world changes beneath your feet, go over the bar backwards. In the eight and a half years since my post, the only thing that has happened is that the story gets louder every day, so much so that if you will not even consider a new way, you are going to be eclipsed. The very expectation is that there will be something new tomorrow that will erase today. 3D printing, true communal virtual reality, blockchain everything, artificial intelligence are tomorrow’s horizons as we deal with all things mobile and data related today.
Dick Fosbury had years to perfect his technique with the confidence to know (or strongly hope) that there really was not going to be another seismic shift in his sport to mothball his technique. And since the women’s and men’s high jump records (both using the Fosbury Flop) are the number four and ninth longest standing track and field records, Dick was pretty much right. Today, though the time to perfect the new before the next new comes along is getting smaller and smaller every day, while the number seeking mastery grows larger everyday. The speed of adoption is going the way of Moore’s Law.
What to do? Keep erasing the box. The energy of being open to the new possibility (i.e., going over the bar backwards) is what matters much more than be the first best at doing it. Think about it: if Dick Fosbury perfected the Flop today, how long do you think it would take for his YouTube video to go viral and others use the technique to go much higher than he did? Does it mean that Dick should not have even tried? I really hope not as the point is the effort to redefine the world far more than winning the game forever. FYI, Dick’s Olympic record is over a foot lower than today’s world record.
The other incredibly important point is that the world gets smaller every day. Finding a few hundred people who matter is the goal and being their Dick Fosbury will change your life and theirs. More Es Devlin please.
The alternative is to find a permutation of what is already here, to be derivative and live off the crumbs of another’s invention. Let’s be clear, there is value here. Going down a well traveled road is wonderful if you can run faster than the crowd or at least be in the front of the pack. The pressure though is enormous as you are all running on the same road, playing on the same field, dealing with the same limitations. And no-one is ever stopping.
In the end, my update to my thoughts on the Fosbury Flop is this: live in your own universe on your own terms. Touch those around you deeply far more than you brush those further away. Matter to yourself, your art and your creative business most of all. Going over the bar backwards requires the courage of conviction. My favorite part of the metaphor: going over the bar backwards is the easy part. To do it well, you have to look to the sky and trust there will be a soft place to land. Yes, you have to close your eyes and leap. The Fosbury Flop is a testament to the power of faith —in yourself, your art, your experience, your effort, your willingness to fail until you do not. Today, more than ever, you have to have faith in the world you (and only you) see. No guarantees that you will land safely but a guarantee that you will crash and burn if you do not leap.
THE FOSBURY FLOP
In 1968, Dick Fosburywon the gold medal in the high jump. He set an Olympic record. He was 21 years old. Nice story, but what does it have to do with creative business? Everything.
You see Dick Fosbury was not really very good at the then established straddle technique. It was just too hard for him to master kicking one leg and then the other over the bar. But when Dick was about 14 years old (1960-1), his world changed. Instead of having a landing area of wood chips barely coating concrete or asphalt, foam mats began to be piled on top of one another under a mesh cover. By 1962, most colleges and high schools had replaced the wood chips or other thin landing surface with mats that were about three feet high. So Dick decided that he did not have to go over the bar feet first, he would go over backwards, head first. The rules did not say how he went over the bar just so long as he took off with one foot. Had he tried his Flop technique with the wood chip landing area he would have broken his neck. In the early days, Dick’s coaches thought he looked like he was having an airborne seizure and tried to get him to go back to the tried and true straddle. Dick refused. And by the time he was 17 he was starting to set high school records. Today, the world record in the high jump is held by Javier Sotomayor from Cuba. Javier used the Fosbury Flop and his record is over four inches higher than anyone using a technique other than the Fosbury Flop. Javier has held the record since 1993 and his record is one of the longest standing records in track and field today.
A better way is a better way if only you have the conviction to see it through. New opportunities abound when the world changes. No foam (now air) mats, no Fosbury Flop. No Internet, no Social Media. However, just because you invent a better way does not mean that someone will not come along and do what you do better. Just talk to MySpaceor Ask.Com. Or even find a way to kick your ass using the old technique. The recordfor the straddle technique today is 7’81”, over 4 inches higher than Dick Fosbury’s Olympic Record of 7’4”.
The point is not finding THE new way, it is finding the way that works best for you. Process matters only in relation to what you and your creative business are all about. If you do not do the work to figure out what your passion, philosophy and platform are first; having the new new thing will not matter. Dick Fosbury took stock of who he was in relation to the world around him and used that to drive him forward. You should too.
