Are You the Flippers or the Pinball?

I was just listening to one of my favorite podcasts, How I Built This with Guy Raz, and heard the greatest analogy from Missy Park of Title Nine – a women’s sports apparel business. (It requires you to have played pinball on one of those huge pinball machines from the 80s to fully get the analogy):

“I thought I was the pinball game flippers (totally in control, and keeping the ball in play) and it turns out I am the ball.”

Has anyone had a similar thought? The more I think about it, the more it resonates with me (for those of you who didn't play pinball games as a youth, it may not mean anything to you – but for those of us who did, I can bet you totally get it!). You plan and execute in your business and feel like you're on a path, and then something/someone comes into your world with a new idea/plan/issue/invoice and you're spinning in another direction, sometimes out of control. Take a deep breath, keep your core values as a guide, remember your path to growth and keep at it!