15 to 40, Leading

by Duf Anything and Everything

Last night I took my newly acquired Max 6 electric skateboard out for another run. This time I wanted to head to the nearby greenway to test the upper limits of the board safely, hopefully. I did up my level of protection for this ride wearing one of my full face helmets as well as my hip/ass pads under my shorts. The testing went well.

On the first day I rode the board 15KMH as my initial speed and I felt unsure of myself even then. By the end of the session yesterday I topped out at 35KMH and was nervous at that number. Last night things were different. In the span of 24 hours my confidence had grown to the point where I surpassed 35KMH within the first couple minutes. The smooth and mostly straight sections of path were good for carrying speed. I topped out at 41KMH (just over 25MPH) which is only 1KMH below the listed top speed of the board, wow. That is also the fastest I have ever gone on an electric skateboard by a good 5MPH. Even at the upper limit the board felt very stable.

In addition to testing top speeds I did a couple full acceleration and braking tests, making sure to brace myself on the board prior to doing so. Once again I was impressed with the strong but linear results I got in both scenarios. It was a very fun session and makes me anxious to take the board to the Naples Greenway in the near future to see how I do in that varied terrain.

Throughout my life I have been a covert leader. What does that mean? I am not the type of person to get up and give a rah rah speech to try to motivate someone else. My leadership almost exclusively comes in the form of action and example. I set a bar for myself and others recognize it and decide to follow that direction. (or don’t)

Leading in this manner can cause inconsistent results. For example if I am working with someone on a project and I am “leading” by consistently doing the lion share of the work it’s possible others could see that as an opportunity to do less instead of raising up their efforts to match or at least approach mine. In my professional life my approach has been pretty successful. In my personal life the results have been much less consistent. Is this something good or bad in the big picture? It all depends on perspective, I guess.