In 1911, two teams raced to the South Pole.
Roald Amundsen’s team held a steady pace every day. In good weather they stopped at their mileage goal, even when they could have pushed farther. In bad weather they still made their miles. Robert Falcon Scott’s team pushed hard on good days and waited out the bad ones.
Amundsen got there first. Scott’s team arrived more than a month later and never made it home.
Jim Collins tells this story in Great by Choice. He calls Amundsen’s approach the 20 Mile March: a steady pace you hit no matter the conditions.
Your business plan probably isn’t a march
Right now, a lot of agents are writing things like “$10 million in 2027.” That’s a destination, not a march. It tells you nothing about what to do on a Tuesday in February when nobody’s calling back.
A march is a number you control. For example:
- Ten real conversations a day.
- Two appointments set every week.
- One handwritten note before lunch.
For broker-owners it might be:
- Four one-on-ones with agents every week.
- Three recruiting conversations every week, whether the roster feels full or not.
The march has a floor and a ceiling
Most people only set the floor, the minimum. Collins says the ceiling matters just as much.
The agent who makes 60 calls on a great Monday and burns out by Wednesday hasn’t beaten the plan. They’ve broken it. The brokerage that hires eight agents in a hot quarter with no onboarding capacity learns the same lesson. Steady beats heroic.
Plan for bad weather now
Your march will get tested. A family emergency, a slow market, or a deal that eats your week will all push on it. Decide now what the bad-weather version looks like. Maybe it’s five conversations instead of ten, but never zero.
Try This
- Pick one march number for 2027. Write it down before Thanksgiving, not January 2.
- Set the floor and the ceiling. Write both.
- Mark the calendar every day you hit it. Never miss twice.
- Tell one person your number. A march with a witness lasts longer.
Question
If someone looked at your calendar for any random week next year, would they be able to tell what your march is?
Resources
Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen.
Destinations are nice. Marches get you there.
Win the day.
