The Power of Deadlines [Academy]

Let’s talk about The Power of Deadlines

I want to go back to an article I wrote a number of years ago that got so much response I want to repeat it again. Many of you remember a movie called Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks. It’s based on a true story that occurred on April 13, 1970. 

Apollo 13 was to be the third mission to land on the Moon. But the mission was aborted two days into the flight because on the evening of April 13, when the crew was 200,000 miles from Earth and closing in on the moon, mission controller on the ground, Sy Liebergot saw a low-pressure warning signal on a hydrogen tank in the space craft. The crew flipped the switch for a routine procedure and a moment later, the entire spacecraft shook. Alarm lights lit up in Odyssey and at Mission Control as oxygen pressure fell and power disappeared. The crew notified Mission Control “Houston, we have a problem." An explosion in one of the oxygen tanks crippled the spacecraft during flight and the crew was forced to orbit the Moon without landing. All of you younger people may remember the movie, many of us older folks remember the actual incident when it happened.

NASA’s accident investigation board determined wires were exposed in the oxygen tank through a combination of manufacturing and testing errors before the flight. A spark from an exposed wire tore apart one oxygen tank and damaged another inside the spacecraft. They lost power, part of their oxygen supply and much of their food. 

On Earth, flight director Gene Kranz pulled his shift of controllers off of regular rotation to focus on managing consumables like water and power while other teams worked around the clock to support the crew and reconfigure essential systems, using different, often odd parts of the aircraft to keep them alive and get them back home. It would be another 4 days before they returned home.

Today, Apollo 13's problems stand as a shining example of how NASA solved a life-threatening problems in space in a very short period of time and under a lot of pressure.

Many of us are forced to periodically work under pressure. Sometimes we create the situation ourselves, other times the situation is created for us. Regardless, many of us turn out some of our best work when time is of the essence. Why is that? The reasons are simple.  

Deadlines force the mind to refocus.

Deadlines automatically remove variables that are no longer considered important to achieving the objective. When deadlines are imminent, processes are shortened and goals are most often reached within the shortened time frame. 

Deadlines work because the mind is focused, and all of a person’s energy is put into achieving a single goal. The problem is, most deadlines are too far away. Too many salespeople set goals, which are deadlines, but they’re never achieved because they wait too long to attack the distant goal. When they finally do take them on, so many other elements needed for the goal are no longer available, ie. new customers needed to get an increase. 

I operate best under deadlines and for me, the shorter the deadline the better I work. I find that my creative juices flow the best when I am under pressure to meet a deadline.  I have the greatest focus when I know I HAVE to do it.  

But despite the fact that deadlines are powerful and often very beneficial, I guess being aboard the Apollo 13 takes focusing on a deadline to an entirely new level. When I am under a deadline to write and make a mistake by creating a poor article, I just put it in the trash and start over. Those brave men on Apollo 13 didn't have that option. Meeting their deadline meant life or death. And even though achieving your seed sales goal isn’t life or death to you personally, it can mean life or death to your company. Maybe setting a few more, serious, shortened deadlines for yourself wouldn't be that bad. I look forward to seeing you in outer space, as soon as you send your sales into orbit.

Happy Selling, I’m Rod Osthus