Best Advice: Life Isn't an Arrow, It's a Sine Wave

This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers share the best advice they've ever received. Read all the posts here.

My best piece of advice, I received only recently, but it is one I wish I had drilled into me in my teens.

Not long ago at a small lunch among CEOs in my backyard of Washington, DC, one of the great entrepreneurs – a quiet legend who never seeks the limelight – reflected upon his experiences. He spoke intimately of his trials and tribulations, how in hindsight it all seems so easy to those who haven't lived it. When asked his greatest take away, he didn't skip a beat.

"We of ambition were raised since kids that life should be an unending arrow upward – each event propels you to the next one and all great successes. All of our school heroes seemed to follow that trajectory. But, of course, none have. Life is not an arrow, it's a sine wave. One hopes it arcs upward, but in reality it is a series of amazing highs and terrible lows. That is how to view life."

We almost cried.

Why?

Because we all had been there. Because we all knew how true it was. And, at the same time, because we really hadn't quite processed its meaning until now.

Who worth their salt, what innovator who has changed the world in ways small or great has not experienced repeated defeats, moments of being written off, perhaps worst of all by themselves? We all know that every overnight success took years or more, and that near-death was a universal experience. I had experienced "go to the light" moments of dream-CPR three times in my last enterprise alone.

So, the real meaning?

Everyone loves everyone at the high points of a sine wave. Everyone is a genius, one can do no wrong. It feels great, but is actually a very dangerous period in an enterprise. In the high crests one not only forgets that the wave can turn downward, but worse, in the delusion of confusing the sine wave for an arrow, we may miss the very things that will knock us down. Maybe for good.

You really know what you have – who you are – at the low end of the wave. Do you keep calm and carry on? Do you treat people – your team, your colleagues, your clients, your friends and family – the same as you did at the top of the wave? And you will really know about people around you – who returns your calls, who keeps calm and focused, who is the same with you as they were at your high peak.

"Over the years," he reflected, "when I have found people strong at the low-end, who not only knew it wouldn't be forever but focused on what it took to move back up – they made all the difference. And I hope I have been there for them accordingly."

I will argue that the great companies and leaders who really do appear to be arrows now kept this straight in their rise, and know full well that tomorrow could be a different day. It is good, as the good book of Micah reminds us, even in our tenacity to also always "walk humbly with our God."

Successful people don’t doubt that they have the ability to change the world. Success, and leadership more broadly, is about having the kind of courage that comes from a raw desire to make something happen that was not there before — and wanting it in your teeth.

But they should remember that the journey’s going to be an incredibly, shockingly bumpy one – and expect, even embrace, that ride.

Do me a favor, please share this with every teen you know whose parents strive to intervene in and flatten their sine waves. They'll thank you one day.

Photo: Alfred Hermida/Flickr