The Fosbury Flop Revisited

In 1968, Dick Fosbury won 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.

Just like I said when I wrote about the Fosbury Flop last September: 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 MySpace or Ask.Com. Or even find a way to kick your ass using the old technique.  The record for 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.