What Skiers, Surfers & Investment Professionals Have in Common

“Don’t fight forces, use them.”

– Buckminster Fuller

You’ve heard the admonition “go with the flow” before. I’m sure you’ve seen the best of it in action and been amazed by the results.

Take skiing, for example. Novice skiers fight gravity and, as such, end up looking awkward and expending large amounts of energy with limited return. Expert skiers, however, use flow as they glide downhill with the help of gravity.  Then there’s another graceful sport: surfing. Rookies struggle with letting the wave do the work; master surfers are practically at one with the wave – utilizing its energy in a seemingly effortless way that can leave onlookers in awe.

Accepting inevitable forces and finding a way to use them to our advantage simply makes sense – and smart people have always taken notice. We’ve been utilizing wind energy for thousands of years, whether to propel our boats forward or by using a windmill to grind corn or pump water. Speaking of water, huge swaths of the world’s populations enjoy hydroelectric power thanks to dams and other plants designed for this purpose – another example of harnessing the forces all around us.

Utilizing Natural Energy for New Purposes

And there never seems to be an end to the ingenuity in this regard. Inventors in Great Britain recently developed a light that is powered by gravity. Connected to the light is a pulley system with an attached bag which the user can fill with rocks or dirt. As the bag slowly descends, it powers a light (using a generator) that can illuminate an area for up to 20 minutes. When it goes out, the user simply readjusts the system and reattaches the weighted bag – it takes just a few seconds of effort for a considerable output of energy. This invention could have huge implications for the more than 1 billion people who have little or no access to electricity around the world.

Of course, we create energy ourselves – and that can be exploited, too. Two South Africans helped to make it easier for women and children who have to walk long distances to retrieve safe, drinkable water with a simple-yet-ingenious invention. The Hippo Roller is a durable, barrel-shaped container with a steel handle attached – allowing it to be filled with water and then pushed or pulled rather than carried. In addition to transporting up to five times more water, Hippo Roller users expend significantly less energy (using their own force and the momentum of the rolling barrel) and suffer fewer injuries than those using the traditional bucket-on-the-head method of carrying.

Ideas like the Hippo Roller have a force of their own, and others innovators can “ride” on that intellectual momentum. One pair of lab partners at a Virginia school were inspired enough by the invention to try to make it better. They used the energy created by the roller to purify the water inside using a UV light!

It Works in Martial Arts & Markets, Too

I’ve seen this concept at work in my personal life as well. In martial arts, we utilize our awareness of the opponent’s energy flow relative to our own and move accordingly, first pivoting away from their energy and then adding to it to easily move them away.

It’s also important to remember that flow is always physical – after all, energy is at work everywhere in our lives. In the financial world, for example, I’ve known investors who use flow to their advantage. They simply recognize a trend that others do not and seize the opportunity as it leads them to maximum returns.

The key is that they are seeking the trends, have the experience to recognize them, and remain impassive in their approach; others simply aren’t looking or, more commonly, can react emotionally to fluctuations and flavors-of-the-month. Good investors do the homework ahead of time and then are patient in their approach. Paying attention, doing your research, and “waiting for your wave” (to use a surfing expression) can lead to big returns.

We can’t control the marketplace, of course… but if we know what the marketplace wants and why, we can ride the wave before many even realize there is a wave.

We also see this in the arenas of marketing, politics, and public relations, where the goal is to piggyback on a wave of public sentiment. In fact, the principle applies to just about every endeavor we can think of, including personal interactions, where we want to leverage the flow of the other person’s psychological energy and orientation—their purpose and passion. You can see more examples of this – as well as a deeper dive into the concept of leverage and the “handles” you can use to maximize it – in the chapter of my book entitled Leverage and Lead.

In life, there will always be unstoppable forces beyond our control that we can nonetheless harness to accomplish goals. Instead of spending our energy fighting them, we can learn to use their energy to propel us forward!