Keeping focused on the good helped.

Lesson learned: Remember with the ups come the downs. Without Ying there is no Yang. If everything was great all the time we’d never be able to appreciate it.

• Plan ahead: Even though I’ve now done this data collection 14 times (7 years with separate collections for men and women) I’ve learned not to be complacent with the setup. Getting complacent or assuming you ‘have it mastered’ quickly leads to mistakes.
• Use lists: All told, the data collection requires quite a bit of equipment (multiple cameras, tripods, batteries, extra batteries and recording media, calibration equipment, etc). Once the competition starts it’s impossible to leave the area until the competition is done and you’ve calibrated the 3D space. I use lists to ensure that I bring out everything that I need on to the field because it’s quite easy to forget something.
• Be prepared for the unexpected: Every time I’ve done one of these data collections something unexpected happens. I can set up an hour early only to be moved by NBC cameras. Or I might have battery failures despite double checking their charges before leaving. I’ve even had complete camera failures while out on the field. All of these can quickly undue your planning and preparation if you allow them to get you flustered and are not at least prepared for the foreseeable issues.
• Have at least double redundancy fail safes: As noted above, something will go wrong. It’s practically inevitable when you’re doing a task with such high quality standards. Knowing this, it’s important to make sure you are covering all possible contingencies. I often bring out 2 extra batteries, 3 extra tapes, an extra camera, a 100 foot extension cord to find external power if I absolutely need it, 2 pens in case one runs out while writing down performances, and a variety of other fail safes. This double redundancy fail safeing is something I learned when I was a Human Factors / Industrial Engineering minor for my PhD (before switching to Exercise Physiology).
• Give yourself time:

  Normally I am the guy who arrives at the last minute and is pulling everything together right at the end. But with something where quality standards are high and opportunities to correct are practically non-existant I make sure I give myself extra time to be prepared.

I know not too many people reading this are likely to be biomechanists and even fewer who work in field (as opposed to lab) settings but I think these general tips can be useful for a variety of situations. If you’ve got any tips that don’t fit in to what I’ve listed above please share it in the comments.

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(tip 1). Number 1 backup, if you can even call it that, was the original warehouse I was going to move in to when I first checked out the triangle area. I’m not sure if this option was really fair to call a backup option since it was the original plan and I never let it slip off the radar even when it seemed as if the Impact facility partnership was a lock. The reason I kept pushing forward with this option even while it looked like the multi-million dollar opportunity at Impact was certain is because you NEVER know what’s going to happen (tip 2) and the time lines given by other people are almost always fatally optimistic (tip 3). The guy I’d be working with at this location would also be a good match for what I’m trying to do. I had also been looking for commercial real estate in the Cary area as a second backup. When Impact fell through, options 2 and 3 moved to the forefront. Temporarily. In no time at all though, the managing director from Impact who was going to bring me in (and was laid off when the new company bought operational rights) hustled his ass of to make things happen. He was on the phone, building connections, and exploring all possible alternative options. He wanted to act fast to keep our original plan intact. He was worried that I would go elsewhere and then he wouldn’t have the sports performance company he needs to create a combination medical and sports facility. He also had some other contractors from Impact who had been laid off who would be able to bring their client base with them if he acted fast to open a facility. We made Barnes & Nobles are new office, made up a new LLC, and visited every existing facility that might be interested in collaboration or sub-leasing for a temporary holdover. I appreciated working with him because he knew the business as well as I did, found a way to get things done, and had lots of connections. It really drove home the importance of surrounding yourself with people who complement what you do and do their job well (tip 4). We managed to get in to another facility but as I mentioned in a previous blog, the entire facility had already been leased and the leasors weren’t interested in sub-leasing. Seemingly bad. What happened though is that the owner of said facility tentatively agreed to build another facility from the ground up that would rival anything in the country as a comprehensive center for athletic excellence. Something like this obviously takes time though which means that I’m back to waiting for 6-9 months (also see tip 3 above). So I need a holdover facility. One that I can have for 6-12 months and get out of if necessary if and when the new facility is ready. So I went back to backup plans 1 & 2 from above. Last week I was scheduled to sign a lease and move in to a property but then I pulled the plug and decided to wait til June. Why did I do that after months of waiting to finally get going? Because I looked at my calendar for April, May and June and realized that between my graduation, teaching three USATF Level 1 schools, one USATF Level 2 school, coaching and providing sport science services at USATF National Championships and several other smaller domestic elite track and field meets, and lecturing in Beijing for a week, I would be out of town for 36 of the next 70 days….not exactly the best scenario to have when you want to put up a grand opening sign. In fact, it seemed like business suicide. With that is tip 5: know when to hold.

So that brings me to where I am now. For the first time since I’ve moved to the triangle, I actually have some sense of certainty. I’m not depending on anyone else’s time schedule or facility availability at this point. I’m looking to open doors to a training facility (either the original facility in Apex or another short term lease somewhere) in June once everything has died down enough to make it work. It might be June 1st, might be June 8th…it just depends how much I can get down between all my other commitments to prepare the facility for ‘doors open.’

So to wrap this up, business startups please take away the following:

1. Have backup plans
2. Recognize the certainty of uncertainty
3. Realize that you shouldn’t count on the time tables or promises of others
4. Surround yourself with good people
5. Know when to hold

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The 2 biggest things that have happened over the past 2 weeks is that I passed my dissertation defense with flying colors and moved my wife and daughter from OH (where we had been living for the past 6 months) to Cary, NC (where I moved about a month ago). I actually did both in a 3 day stretch. The dissertation defense went great. I had been unusually nervous before it but it didn’t seem to be fully warranted and my committee approved my dissertation with very few edits. The move to Cary went equally well. My brother-in-law and my in-laws helped with the move and it was relatively easy. 5 days after the boxes were unloaded in to our apartment and we’ve almost got everything in its place. Good thing too, since we’re having an athlete I work with spend the weekend here.

While those 2 things have been the center of my work-related universe over the past 3 weeks I’ve also had some other exciting things happen:

• I was able to relocate my track club from the Metropolitan association of USATF to the NC association and change the affiliation of all of our athletes competing at the USATF indoor national championships  so that we’d be properly represented. This process isn’t as easy as it might sound.
• I purchased new uniforms for all members of the club and got them embroidered and screen printed…a laborious task that took far more shopping than I’d thought.
• The members of the track club have been doing great – with 3 top 8 placings at this past weekend’s USATF indoor national championships; as well as great winning performances from the two international members of the team.
• I was invited to speak at the Beijing Sports University for a week in May. I’ve never been to China and really was hoping to be there in 2008 to do video analysis for the U.S. at the Olympics so this will be a great ‘consolation’ prize.
• Immediately prior to that week trip to Beijing, I’ve been asked to do an exciting USATF Level 1 school in Orlando, FL. Teaching coaches education schools is one of my passions and I’m excited that I’ll be able to meet up with my good friend Ron Grigg.
• I rented and took possession of a storage facility that I plan to use to house a soon-to-be-released line of incredible bumper plates and Olympic weight lifting bars. In addition to using them in my training facility, I’m also going to be the East coast distributor for the manufacturer.
• Thanks to some well-connected friends, Smoot Carter & Paul Dietzel, I had great meetings with the Executive VP of Alumni Affairs at LSU and also the new LSU Athletic Director while I was in Baton Rouge. I see both as being potential partners in future business endeavors.
• I’ll be coaching a friend’s athlete this weekend at the USATF indoor multi-event national championships which are held only 10 miles away from me in Chapel Hill, NC. I’ve met him once before and know his coach quite well. Our coaching cues and philosophies are quite similar. He should be a solid contender and hopefully I’ll be able to help him. He’ll be repping my HPC Elite track club for the competition.

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