Pushing Pebbles and Looking Three Lights Ahead

I often describe entrepreneurship as pushing several pebbles up a hill at once.

Some move faster than expected. Some seem promising, then stall. A few crest the hill and create real value, while others roll straight back at you, usually when your hands are already full.

That uncertainty is why I rarely focus on one pebble. You never know which opportunity will gain momentum, which project will take longer, or which path will lead nowhere. The job is to keep enough moving that progress continues when one slips backwards, without spreading your efforts so thin that none has a real chance to succeed.

Not every pebble creates value on the same timeline, and some never do much. It sucks, but that’s part of the game.

Some matter today. They’re tied to customers, revenue, deadlines and the work in front of you. Others are slower. Building a sales pipeline, strengthening your marketing, developing partnerships, improving systems, testing ideas or investing in opportunities that may not pay off for months.

Those slower pebbles are easiest to neglect because they rarely arrive with much fanfare. Stop pushing them, and tomorrow eventually becomes the emergency.

When I was learning to drive, my dad taught me to look three lights down the road.

You still have to watch the bumper in front of you, scan the sidewalks for pedestrians, be aware of variables like children, animals, bicycles and motorbikes, notice what the vehicles beside and behind you are doing, and pay attention to the cars ahead of the one directly in front of you.

When you’re looking further down the road you have time to anticipate. You can see traffic slowing before the brake lights reach you, adjust your position and make better decisions instead of reacting at the last second.

Business works much the same way. You have to manage what’s happening now without letting it consume your entire field of vision.

Sales and marketing often stall when guests are already arriving and bookings are still coming in. Strong operators keep the inquiry and outbound engines moving, booking as far into the future as they can. Building tomorrow’s pipeline while today’s business is still flowing.

The same is true of product development, partnerships, systems and long-term planning. None of them may solve today’s problem, but they shape the problems you’ll face six to eighteen months from now.

Running a business means constantly moving between the immediate and the future. You’re responding to what’s in front of you while also positioning the business for what’s coming next.

Keep pushing the pebbles that matter today, but don’t stop moving the ones that will matter later.

Watch the bumper in front of you, but keep looking three lights down the road.

That’s how you stop reacting to the journey and start orchestrating where the business is actually going.

Ready to support the sector that supports us all?
#GetRoaming and let’s build a more connected, resilient, and thriving Canada, one traveller, one town, one story at a time.

Yours in tourism, innovation and startups,

Founder and CEO, Roamlii