Blue Ocean Steezy

When I was seven years old, I wanted a skateboard.

Some kids in my neighborhood had skateboards and they were riding them down the barely sloped street we lived on.

History states that skateboards were created in the 1940s to fulfill a surfer's urge to ride waves even if there was no swell or if they were nowhere near a beach.

While ocean surfing has its dangers, surfing on land is not as forgiving with downhill speed wobbles and wipeouts due to gnarly curbs, handrails, or stairs, plus dodging traffic, as well as the hate spewed from drivers. But this is what makes it a challenge. My 7-year old heart was ready for this risky business.

And necessity is the mother of invention

I learned how to roller skate at a very young age on a rickey pair of metal-wheeled skates that could be strapped to your shoes with an old leather strap. I outgrew those skates and graduated to a pair of white leather boot skates with rubber wheels. But those old metal skates taunted me as they hung in the corner of the garage.

I found a plank of wood, gave it a once over with some scavenged sandpaper and then snuck some screws from my dad's old toolbox - which I still have, with his name etched on the outside. Those old metal roller skates soon became the wheels on my makeshift skateboard. That board only lasted 2 or 3 runs down my sloped hill and I have, thankfully, forgotten the crashes I am sure happened.

I still considered my skateboarding trial a success - I realized at a very young age is not just a place where you arrive, but the state of mind that is your vehicle.

Opportunity

Every person has an opportunity to find their own greatness, carve their own course to personal success. Strength, honesty, and integrity are essential tools - no matter how you measure success, whether it's a loving partner and family, the circle of friends at your table, or the amount of credit on your cards, or money in your accounts.

A Blue Ocean

Years ago, I read Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne - the main principle is discovering your won way, creating your own success on a road less traveled, avoiding shark-filled and bloody waters.

"Stop benchmarking the competition. The more you benchmark your competitors, the more you look like them."

Many individuals and companies find success in copying the philosophies and paths of others. Competition can spawn great products and even greater profits. A Blue Ocean is the opposite: new ideas or twisted old ones grow in a blue ocean, where no sharks glide. The only competition is what you create for yourself.

I like a blue ocean

I prefer opportunities not covered in blood or where one party limps away or is mortally wounded. I love when originality and creativity are fostered and rejoiced, not tempered or cajoled and greased by greed and manufactured hate.

A surfboard on land found its Blue Ocean 80+ years ago.

It was rogue. It was innovative. It was a crooked grind and, sometimes, a wipeout. But every thrasher is so stoked to stick.

Look for the untapped market. How are you different? How are you unique?

YOU are your toughest competition.