Mar 18 2009
Unique Venues – Taking the Drop Every Day
My three sons (sing along if you’re over 40) compete on the Junior Freeskiing Tour. It’s extreme skiing or big mountain as the kids call it. Essentially, you select a line (a way down) on a gnarly mountain (cliffs, rocks, steep vertical drop) and you are judged on five criteria. The first being the difficulty of the line followed by your fluidity, aggressiveness, control and technique. It’s all decision making beginning with the line you commit to at the top and every turn you make thereafter.
One of the reasons we have our kids in sports is to apply the ups and downs that come with competing to those they will surely face later in life. Maybe I’m taking this too far but as I stand in the wind and snow with fear and terror as their names are called to ‘drop’ next, I see big parallels with business and extreme skiing.
Line Choice…we are all committed to get through this mess that the majority of us didn’t create. There is no turning back, we’ve got to persevere. And we will, if we stay with our line.
Fluidity…while we’ve made some cuts like the rest of the world, we will not make cuts that affect our members, their membership packages or the services we provide them. It is important to us that we continue to provide top notch value, even during the toughest of times. Things need to look and be the same for our customers in good times and in bad.
Aggressiveness…at Unique Venues, we are putting our heads down and working our way out of it. We’re working twice as hard, we’re aggressive. Not a problem because we’ve got a team full of workers. No complainers in this bunch.
Control…ask anyone I work with and they’ll tell you that there have been days when I’ve been a little out of control, mostly angry at the greed and selfishness of many Americans. But, in the end, it is important to maintain control, accept what you cannot change and get to work.
Technique…we’ve chosen this year of all years to invest in and improve our products and services. We’re investing big time in our web site, our brand and our products. Honestly, it feels good to be doing and giving more when most are pulling back and doing less.
Ski racing is a pretty unforgiving sport. You get one chance to give your best on any given day and you have to live with the outcome of your decisions. If you’ve prepared properly, stuck to your plan and given it your honest, best effort, then you cannot be disappointed. Line choice, fluidity, aggressiveness, control and technique. The kids have it all figured out!
Submitted by:
Michele Nichols, CMP
Unique Venues Founder
PHOTO: Freeskiing – add one more element – GUTS!
Michele’s oldest at Crested Butte – Look Mom, I Can Fly!
