How to create powerful counter examples and make work that matters

Like many people stuck at home during the pandemic, I’ve taken up running. Before you roll your eyes and move on to the next article, let me explain.

I actually enjoy sport; like many South African girls I played netball for a long time.

But I could never really quite get the hang of running. I just didn’t understand what all the hype was about. Runner’s high? Sounded like a scam for Nike to sell more sporting gear. (Just FYI, I’m more of an Ivy Park Girl myself).

And then of course, the pandemic hit and I found myself incredibly bored. I was chatting to a flatmate, and mentioned that I ran about a km a day.

“A km?! I thought you’d say at least 5.” He said surprised. So, obviously 1 km was not a good thing. I could run 5km. I mean, how bad could 5km be, I thought?

Bad. Really bad.

But of course, I challenge myself to run 5km.

I use an app called Couch to 5km and start with week 1 — it’s a 1 minute jog, 1 minute rest program. At the end of the first day, I am breathless, exhausted. Bent over, at the corner of the street, other runners sprint past me.

I feel like a fraud.

I watch running motivation videos before I run just to stop me from quitting. The following week, I run for 2 minutes, and two weeks after that, 3.

On my next run, I’m convinced this will be my last.
“Keep going.” I tell myself panting.

The thing about running or any kind of hard effort is, it’s an exercise in willpower. I think of a story that I read in Elon Musk’s biography by Ashlee Vance: it’s a story about Elon huffing and puffing on a hike with friends and while others give up, a red-faced Elon makes it up the hill.

Life is an organism, what happens in one part affects another.

While running, I think of Newsbyte, our startup and the panic that I had the day before that we would not be able to monetize. I think of the article a friend sent me, look how they did it.
I feel like my lungs are about to collapse.

My calves are burning at this point. There’s a painful stitch in my side and to top it all off, it has just started raining. A light drizzle, but still.

Just until I get to that pole. I keep running.

Once I pass the man in the blue shirt.

After this bridge I have to stop.

But I don’t stop. I keep going and suddenly the bridge is 1km behind me and I wonder how I did it.

I think entrepreneurship is the same way. It’s a personal challenge, a personal risk that no one asked you to take. But it’s also small incremental builds that matter the most.

Now, when I’m tired and want to quit, I remind myself that I’ve run 3km before and I can do it again. It’s my counter-example.

Create A Counter Example, Create A Proof Of Concept

Before I ran 3km, my only example was walking to the fridge and back (Ha!). But now that I’ve run 3km, it has become my counter example, my proof of concept.

My word made flesh.

It’s a template of me putting in effort and reaping the rewards, a memo to myself that I can do it, I’ve come this far before, why turn back now?
Writing this medium article is another counter example. My masters dissertation was yet another. I never in a million years thought I could write 40 000 words, but I did through small incremental efforts and now I wonder: what are some other things I never thought I’d be able to do that I should maybe give a try?
What are some of yours?

What are those examples of times you thought you couldn’t do it, but managed to push through and do it anyway?
Take note of them.
Write them down.

Let them push you to go just a little further than you thought you could. Let them lead you towards the person you’ve always wanted to be. And let them lead you to make work that matters.

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