Boltology!!!

This 2 min promotional video of Usain Bolt - The Movie was the inspiration to what follows.

Almost everything in life revolves around the start and finish lines with time & distance parameters playing a key role. I’m sure one can relate this to fields as diverse as Management, Professional Career, Marital life or something as simple as planning your monthly expenses.

Usain Bolt breaks down the 100 M into different phases, the first 30 M, 50M, 60 M, the last 10 to 15 M and then the last 3.5 strides. I certainly believe that we can break down almost everything we do into similar phases.

If we consider life itself as a 100 M sprint and assume 60 as an age to retire the30 M zone is around the age of 18 when reaction time matters, this is where most of us find ourselves in the dry phase struggling to find rhythm, direction and stability. Those with better reaction times would definitely have a head start but as we know all is not lost yet. It’s at this stage we keep telling ourselves to keep our heads down, and keep driving and pushing every sinew and sets the tone for life ahead. The only good thing is that we have time on our side for the first 30 M which however needs to be made up for later. The per meter timing of Bolt’s first 30 M was certainly not 0.0958 (9.58/100) seconds but far higher. Bolt philosophy here is contrary to what one is taught in B schools that head starts and first mover advantage has a great impact on the final outcome of a project. Ironically, Bolt equates the legendary Hare & Tortoise story to a 100 M sprint run in less than 10 Secs and further more acknowledges the fact that he is not the quickest off the block.

After the dry phase he has his head straight, shoulders down, knees up and gains top speed and at the 50 M mark he looks left and right. At 30 we have reached the phase where we are all set to have a quick look around and move ahead and embark on our bid to leave the pack around us behind. He goes on to say that at the 60 M mark he becomes a beast …in fact at 36 we become beasts too in our professional lives and those animal instincts has an adverse influence on our personal lives but winning in life includes balancing your personal life as well. Bolt knows by the time he has run 70 M or so if he will go on to win…At 42 we should be in a position to tell if we go on to make it in life or not. The next 20 M translates into the period of 42 – 54 in our life span where we try and dominate our respective spheres and reach the highest echelons. The last 10 M is a time when Bolt knows… nobody, no matter who they are, can catch up with him because all he needs is just 3.5 strides to cover the last 10 M. We should have also paced our life in a similar manner that the last years of our working life should be as easy as doing 3.5 strides knowing fully well you have left the competition far behind.

As soon as Bolt reaches the finish line he knows the glory is nigh and what he does thereafter is purely for his pleasure. Let’s hope that, we can not only pace our lives in the way Bolt paces his 100M but also have enough time to let our hair down as we run the race of life…

I have made efforts to use the analogy of the 100M sprint to our working life span but should not be interpreted in its literal sense. Equating 100M to the human age of 60 poses a lot of scaling challenges. Life till 60 is not about sprinting and reaching the finish line but about pacing the speed, moving faster and slowing down as and when required.

Managing a project, leading a happy married life, or even managing your domestic finances over a 30 day period when often you find there's more month left at the end of your money.... can all be correlated to how a 100M sprint is run by Bolt.