In an ultra, start slow, and then slow down.

When I first heard that, I thought it was a joke. And yet, a few ultramarathons later, I still find it to be consistently true.

There are few fundamental differences between finishing an ultra marathon and finishing a sprint race (anything between 5k and marathon distance, 42k, is a sprint race, in my opinion).

And there are also a few interesting correlations between ultrarunning and business (as you may have already learned, if you’ve read my latest post of this 30 days writing challenge). Let’s take them one at a time.

Explosion versus Endurance

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In a sprint, you aim at releasing energy very fast, at high intensity. In an ultra, you aim at throttling energy very slow, at medium intensity. In a sprint you want to generate an explosion of energy, in an ultra you want to conserve energy for as long as possible.

In a speculative business, one that is meant to ride the wave of a trend and then just die once the trend fades out, you will have the same approach. You will try to release your products as fast as you can, deploying resources at high speed and in large amounts. The most malformed type of speculative business is a Ponzi scheme, in which only the first people (the fastest ones) are getting rewarded.

In a long term business, which is based on repetitive, low profit but highly stable processes, you want to conserve energy for as long as possible. You aim at creating a mechanism that will continue to provide long term value at a low maintenance cost.

Sustainability versus Shortage Risks

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In an ultramarathon you’re always keeping something extra in your energy tank. There’s always some resource that you don’t want to harness, because you never know what’s gonna happen. You’re focused long term.

In a sprint you’re willing to give everything you have in that explosive burst. More often than not, a sprint may leave you much more depleted than a marathon, specifically because your goal was to give everything you can, knowing that it will be just some short term activity, it will end soon. That increases the risk of improper energy management.

In a speculative business, you’re always running that risk too. Because the nature of that business is very volatile, when a speculative business goes wrong, you lose a lot. Sometimes, in a speculative business (like margin trading, for instance) you don’t only lose what you have, but you can also get in debt. That’s how the shortage risk works.

In a long term business, your focus is on maintaining resources as cleverly as you can, so you can ensure ongoing functionality of the entire model, even if the rewards are not big.

Windows of Opportunity versus Sparks of Opportunity

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In a short term business, you get what I call “a spark of opportunity”, something that is very short lived. It's like having a very limited vision field and a very low chances to get spotted (because you're moving so fast).

In a long term business, one based on reputation and stable, predictable processes, you get windows of opportunity - in other words, you have more exposure to opportunities and more resources to invest, because of the inherent stability of that business. You see more landscape and, in turn, you're also more visible.

When To Do What?

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I don’t discard sprints (speculative businesses) and I don’t overvalue marathons (long term oriented businesses). I think both are necessary and I've done both.

What is difficult, though, is to establish in advance what type the business you're entering. Although it seems easy, most of the type it isn't and it's only in hindsight that we're having a more clear picture. Solid businesses are fading all the time and some niches that looked like hype are thriving. If you're looking only at tourism and transportation, you'll see how Airbnb or Uber - probably the most hyped business, after cryptocurrencies, of course - are disrupting the world. They can actually create long term, predictable processes, while traditional taxi is fading away.

What is clear is that I tend to do a better allocation of resources if I know in advance what type of competition am I running. Preparation and strategy is very different, depending on what race you’re in. So, every time I’m entering in (or starting) a new business, I do as much research as I can in order to understand the implications for short and long term. Then, and only then, I proceed to resource allocation (time, money - if it’s needed - or human resources).

One interesting example of a very intricate mix, though, between a sprint and a marathon, is Steemit itself (or every decent appcoin, for what matters).

There is a very strong speculative side of it, because the currency that backs the ecosystem has immediate liquidity and can be traded independently, but there is also a very strong long term component, based on the compound effect of Steem Power and all the reputation / attention economy built on top of it.

I'm very curious what will grow out of this odd mix.

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This post is part of a 30 days challenge on business, you can find the entire list of articles here.

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.