100 years ago today, former US president Theodore Roosevelt was beginning his dangerous expedition through a dense, unexplored Brazilian jungle.
It was February, 1914.
Colonel Roosevelt was to sail down the Rio da Dúvida, the River of Doubt, an uncharted river that was thought to be a thousand kilometers long.
The plan was to chart the course of the river and put it on the map. Literally.
During TR’s first meeting with the man who would be the co-commander of the expedition, Brazilian Colonel Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Rondon “had casually described how he once lost a toe to a piranha” at the source of the river they were about to explore:
He was about to bathe and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of the river, which he carefully inspected until he was sure that none of the man-eating fish were in it: yet as soon as he put his foot in the water one of them attacked him and bit off a toe.
Well, when you set out on a long and dangerous expedition, you need to be prepared, right?
And that’s where conflict began.
When he [Roosevelt] saw that the enormously heavy tents Lauro Müller had provided were going to displace vital provisions, he insisted half of them be left behind. He still thought the expedition was burdened with a ridiculous amount of canvas.
Rondon and Lyra, in turn, looked askance at the American food store. Both of them were small, wiry men, trained to march for months on minimal sustenance. They saw the value of a hundred tins of emergency rations that Fiala had brought from New York. Such luxuries, however, as pancake mix, malted milk, chocolate bars, two varieties of marmalade, and a spice chest full of paprika, cinnamon, chutney, and other exotic seasonings did not seem necessary for survival in the wilderness.
(Quotes from Edmond Morris’ outstanding book “Colonel Roosevelt.”)
Well, as it turned out nearly all of this – and much more – was abandoned or lost to overturned canoes.
Along the way, TR became so sick, that he requested to be left to die so as not to slow down the others. (They refused and he made it through.)
In the end, with little more than the bare necessities, the expedition was a success. (Though three men did die along the way.)
The Rio da Dúvida was renamed the Rio Roosevelt.
You and me – our entrepreneurial expeditions are hardly life threatening.
Even so, we tend to pack too much. And plan too little.
We end up all over the place.
It’s so easy to get dragged into spending time and money on the things that slow you down. (What are your “heavy tents, pancake mix and marmalde?”)
This is why in my Plenty of Clients Acceleration Program, we focus on striking at the root where everyone else is hacking at the leaves.
We cut away anything but the bare essentials. And we build your marketing system around just that.
And when you throw off all the excess that’s bogging you down and focus on the few little things that move you forward, your start to attract a consistent flow of the clients you want most.
If you’re ready to toss the non-essentials and strike at the root where most hack at the leaves, go here to request a free “Consistent Flow of Clients 15 Minute Chat.”
It’s a way for us to begin to get to know each other. And who knows where that unexplored territory will lead?
Dov Gordon
