Are You The Horse or The Jockey?
Did you know the blinders on a racehorse’s headwearare actually called blinkers?
Their role is to quite literally control what the horse can see in a blink. To limit its vision to what’s directly ahead and blocks out what would catch its eye in the periphery. The term comes from older English usage of “blink,” which didn’t just mean closing your eyes, but also glancing or looking sideways briefly.
Blinkers stop that side-glancing behavior. They prevent the horse from turning its attention toward other horses or the crowd, and keep its focus fixed forward.
Blinkers aren’t about blindness.
They’re about sight.
Blinkers are about what you choose to allow into your field of vision, and just as importantly, what you don’t.
There comes a healthy & necessary time in running your business when you need to put your blinkers on. In the early stages, it actually makes sense to have them off. To have an awareness of your competitors and your crowd to understand pricing, positioning, what the people want or need, and gaps in the market.
That awareness of your surroundings is what helps you get your footing.
But if you stay there too long, constantly looking side to side, you risk becoming reactive. You start shaping your business in response to what others are doing or saying, instead of building something distinct.
Now you're stuck keeping up instead of trailblazing.
That constant side-glancing is costing you your edge. A distracted horse is not a champion horse.
At a certain point, you have to tighten the blinkers. As your business matures, winning comes from committing to your own vision, your own customer, and your own standards of excellence.
The businesses that stand out aren’t the ones endlessly scanning their competitors.
They’re the ones that knew when to stop looking sideways and start running forward with power.
But they're never running alone.
A great racehorse, blinkers and all, still needs a jockey.
Because you can’t carry the weight of doing and watchingat the same time if you want to execute at a high level.
While the horse runs with conviction, the jockey is the one reading the pace, controlling the positioning, aware of competitors, and making strategic adjustments in real time.
The jockey sees what the horse can’t (and shouldn’t) be focused on.
The strongest businesses are the ones where operations and strategy are both performing with excellence.
That balance of execution and intuition creates a true champion.
So, are you the horse or the jockey?
Maybe you're the powerhouse force – the horse. Maybe you’re the best at what you do and the only one with the skill set. You’re the one carrying the output, doing the work, driving the team forward with high level mastery. This might be the case if you’re the chef, artist or service provider in your business.
Maybe you're the strategic leader – the jockey. The one holding the vision, reading the landscape, managing the brand and making the strategic calls that guide the whole race. This might be the case if you love the quarterly planning, business development, training, research and marketing strategy in your business.
What I know: You can't be both.
At least not at the exact same and expect to really win.
Businesses fail & owners burnout when they try to be both.
You avoid burnout and grow your business by committing to one or the other.
The good news is: they’re both champions.
