When I was back in LA I drove my old 911 Turbo which my buddy now owns.
Leaving dinner he kindly invited me to drive, and after adjusting the seat and mirrors, flicking the switch into sport mode we made a beeline for The 10.
Dropping it back into 2nd, nudging the front-end around the corner onto the ramp, I did what I used to do—I throttled it.
Twin turbos blowing, 500 foot-pounds of torque shooting through the P zeros on the front and rear, we launched.
Hitting third I merged with the late night traffic doing close to double their speed. Hitting fourth we left them long behind the whirl of the turbos, and by fifth, well, by then I was braking and backing it off.
Slowing down, my face lit up like a teenage boy discovering a stack of Playboy’s in the garage, I remembered back to the first time I did that.
It was the day I bought the car, only it went a little differently back then. Without any restraint, flooring it in fourth doing some ungodly speed, I hit the redline.
In that instant the car burped and lost all of its power. I learned when to back it off and when to find another gear.
Many people have the same dynamic in their career.
What about you? Is it time to back it off or find another gear?