To Figure Out What You Really Want, Optimize Your Puke-To-Excitement Ratio

Julie Berry was cramming a full-time communications job into part-time hours while raising four young boys when she received an unexpected job offer. It was safe and steady – seemingly “perfect.”?

She wasn’t looking for it; it just sort of happened.?

When I hosted Julie on Episode 121 of the Disrupt Yourself podcast, she recalled her conversation with her husband after receiving the offer.?

She said something like, “Well, this is a really good opportunity. I think I should do it.” To which he replied, “Well, do you want to?”?

And, being practical, she replied, “Well, it’s a good opportunity, it’s a good company, it’s good pay.”

They went back and forth like this until Julie’s husband finally asked, “But what would you do if you could do what you really, really want to do?”

Her answer surprised even her— she would return to school to get an MFA in creative writing and write stories.

So, she didn’t take the job; the next thing you know, she was enrolled in a graduate program.?

Even though she kept thinking, “I’m crazy to be doing this,” she kept doing it.?

Now, she’s a New York Times bestselling fiction author for children and young adults.

Julie was experiencing what I like to call an optimal P/E ratio. Now, for those trying to drag up the definition of a P/E ratio from that one business class you took in high school or college, let me tell you, I’m not talking about a price-to-earnings ratio.?

I’m talking about the puke-to-excitement ratio. You know, when the butterflies in your stomach threaten to fly out completely.

The ratio can be a key indicator that you are on the right track.

But, it must be optimized, which will vary based on each individual’s risk tolerance and situation. When it’s too high - your nerves, your fear, your need to puke is too much stronger than your excitement - you might not be ready yet. You might need to spend more time in the Launch Point—the first phase of the S Curve of Learning, where you spend your time exploring and collecting data.?

When it’s too low, or you are not nervous enough, it might indicate that the opportunity is not a jump at all, just a continuation of your same path. And the path that got you here will not get you where you want to go.?

When it’s just right, when it’s, for me, above a 1 (when roughly my internal puke-radar equals my excitement), and below a 2 (when I am about twice as anxious/nervous/scared than I am excited), it’s a thrill. It’s also an indicator I am ready to jump to the new S Curve I’m considering.?

When you reach your optimal P/E ratio, you should jump. It means it is the right risk—and Take the Right Risks is one of the Seven Accelerants of Growth, the tools that help you accelerate your climb up your S Curve. Because when you take the right risks, you play where others are not. You are dealing with market risk rather than competitive risk.

It sets you up to succeed—to grow.?

And, like Julie, you will likely find yourself asking, “Am I crazy to be doing this?” the whole time you are climbing that curve. Because you left your comfortable perch, and until you find the next one, you are in freefall.?

You may even feel a loss of identity.?

But if you push yourself through that momentary feeling that you are so nervous you could puke, your new S Curve will take you to places you never even imagined.

You might even climb an MFA mountain that leads you to an award-winning author summit.?

If you are scared, if you are lonely, you just might be on the right path.?

If you are a coach or leader looking for an opportunity that might be the optimal P/E ratio for you, let me recommend Disruption Advisors’ Smart Growth Certification program. Learn more and register here.

What is your optimal P/E ratio?

What potential opportunity would allow you to experience that optimal ratio?

What would you do if you could do what you really, really want to?