If you have (been skiing lately), then you may roll your eyes at this because I haven’t. Not since 1998.

Tomorrow, we’re taking the kids to a local ski hill with a group of other home/un-schooling families. It’ll be their first time on skis.

And I’m a little nervous, to be honest. Not about the kids…about me.

1998 was a long time ago. Things have changed. I’ve forgotten more than I’ve remembered. Probably.

On a call today, a client said, “oh wow, back then, the skis were still all straight.” Excuse me! Skis aren’t straight anymore?!

(Apparently, they’re parabolic now. I’ll see, I guess.)

But then, as I was preparing to write this, it hit me: this is a tactics vs. principles thing.

Yes, the tactics may have changed. Tactics do. They get updated as technology changes. They shift to match the current thinking. They improve as practitioners make breakthroughs and people start to notice.

But the principles don’t change.

If you know the principles of your craft, your industry, your market, then learning the new tactics won’t take long. They’ll come. They’ll make sense.

(Knowing tactics but not principles likely won’t get you far.)

Sure, maybe the skis aren’t straight anymore (what?!). The principle’s still the same. You start at the top and slide your way to the bottom, avoiding trees and other people as best you can.

So I think we’ll be all right. Probably.

Straight to the bunny hill,
James