Crossing the Chasm Using Cartoon Physics

Add comment August 5th, 2008

My younger son and I were walking across the field to soccer practice over the weekend when he told me “Papa, I know why cartoon characters are able to walk across the chasm without falling.”

“You mean walk off a cliff, walk on air without falling, and get to the other side?” I asked.

“Yes! Do you know how they do it?” he said, barely able to avoid giving me the truth before I gave my answer.

“How?” You have to be the straight man.

“They don’t look down!”

And because I spend most of my time in an entrepreneurial frame of reference I thought, what a great metaphor for most start-ups. If they knew how hard it would actually be and what the odds were, fewer would attempt it. Many succeed by focusing on the goal, not the risks.