Be Nimble, Then Quick

In the nursery rhyme “Jack Be Nimble”, have you ever noticed that speed comes up after agility?

“Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over
The candlestick.”

I don’t think that it comes first just because it would otherwise screw up the rhyme. I think it’s because being nimble is more important than being quick. If Jack was fast first and not agile, then I’d bet he’d be far less likely to get over the candlestick without extinguishing it. He has to be able to adjust quickly, not just be quick.

The idea of being nimble keeps coming to the forefront more for me — and in a lot of the other work I see online (I’ve been devouring Chris Guillebeau’s latest book, The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future as I travel home from the World Domination Summit ¹, so that’s probably another reason why it’s at top of mind). Being fast isn’t enough. Sometimes it isn’t even necessary. But being nimble – that’s something you should shoot for.

Photo credit: shazam791 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

¹ And I will be writing up my thoughts on the event this week. I need to decompress more before I do.