![]() I am a serial builder of businesses (senior leadership on three exits worth over $700 million), successful in big (Disney, Stars Group/PokerStars, Zynga) and small companies (Merscom, Spooky Cool Labs) with over 20 years experience in the gaming and casino space. All views and opinions expressed on this website are mine alone and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity. In business, too, once you find a way to overcome an impossible barrier you are likely to find that you can do it repeatedly and create a new floor. ![]() Once Bannister broke the barrier, somebody else broke it less than two months later and then three runners achieved the feat in the same race about a year later.In 1954, Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4-minute mile, a goal many had considered humanly impossible for hundreds of years.If you find a way to overcome it, not only do you derive immediate value but more importantly you can change your long-term trajectory. This ceiling could be 100,000 daily average users or a 5 percent conversion rate or a $10 million month, a goal that would impact you significantly and set your company up for a brighter future. What the 4-minute mile and this company’s success show is that there is tremendous value in tackling what looks to be impossible. Now what was once a ceiling is turning into a floor for the company. Like the 4-minute mile, though, once they had broken through this barrier, they themselves were amazed to see that they surpassed that goal repeatedly, without the need even of special initiatives. These results not only led to the highest revenue day in the company’s history, but revenue previously considered unattainable. All elements of the company designed a plan to create one huge day, the one that was formally their 4-minute mile (though they hadn’t come as close as Bannister’s competitors had). The company achieved this result by focusing efforts of multiple teams to create a super-revenue day. Breaking its personal four-minute mile increased long-term profitability by 30 percent. It hit what had for years been an impossible milestone. Recently, I saw a successful company break the 4-minute mile and reach a new level of performance. The key is breaking the barrier, overcoming the impossible. Most importantly, once you are able to achieve the impossible, it becomes the new baseline and even more is possible. The lesson to draw from Bannister’s achievement, and what followed, is that what you consider impossible may not be. About a year later, three more runners also broke the 4-minute threshold, doing it in the same race. While nobody else had been able to break the 4-minute mark despite hundreds of years of effort, 46 days after Bannister’s feat John Landry ran the mile in 3 minutes 58 seconds. The lesson comes not from how Bannister achieved this apparently miraculous accomplishment, but what happened next. It was considered the Holy Grail of sports, with media and crowds constantly looking for someone who could achieve this inhuman feat. Before Bannister’s feat, many argued and believed that the human body was unable to run a mile in less than 4 minutes, that it was physically impossible. Until Bannister, nobody had been able run the mile in less than 4 minutes despite recorded efforts for over 1,000 years and very serious efforts starting in 1886. Roger Bannister’s sub-4 minute mile in 1954is not only inspiring but a critical lesson for business people.
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