Big Flop, Bigger Results.

Today’s Marketing Cookie is about taking small, deliberate steps to achieve extraordinary results without being overwhelmed by the end goal.

In life and business, challenges sometimes demand bold, decisive action, like ripping off a Band-Aid rather than peeling it away slowly. Take, for instance, the rapid pivot many businesses had to make during the pandemic. Companies had to trade their office desks for Zoom screens overnight, a change that would have seemed impossible if attempted gradually. In this case, drastic times called for drastic measures.

However, breaking down ambitious goals into smaller, achievable steps is often the smarter way to go. Consider a high jumper learning to clear higher bars. They don’t start with the bar set at a record height. They begin lower, perfecting their form and technique before gradually raising the bar. This step-by-step improvement ensures that when the time comes to tackle the big challenge, they are well-prepared and confident.

Mastering each step and perfecting the process can lead to innovation. When you focus on honing your skills and refining your technique, you set the stage for creative breakthroughs. For a high jumper, every practice session and every incremental improvement in form and technique contributes to their overall ability, paving the way for new heights and more advanced techniques.

In the 1960s, high jumping was dominated by the straddle technique, where jumpers would go over the bar feet first. One determined jumper, Dick Fosbury, struggled with this method and continually finished at the bottom in competitions. Instead of giving up, he started experimenting with a new way of jumping over the bar. His unconventional method drew skepticism and ridicule from officials and coaches, but he was determined to perfect it, making incremental adjustments and focusing on his form, approach, and landing.

Fosbury's persistence paid off at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He cleared the high bar backward, stunning the world, breaking the world record, and earning the gold medal. More importantly, his method, known as the "Fosbury Flop", revolutionized the sport forever, becoming the standard technique for high jumpers globally. Fosbury's journey illustrates how mastering each step and continuously refining one's process can lead to groundbreaking innovation and extraordinary achievements. His story is a powerful reminder that as today’s fortune says, “Two small jumps are sometimes better than one big leap.”