Racing isn’t on the minds of most bicycle commuters, unless they happen to be messengers or deliverymen who, normally, ride to work! And in such instances, it would not be too surprising to find them employing what could pass for ad hoc racing strategies of the sort found in informal alleycat contests.

It might seem surprising that individuals who have to ride all day, every day, would also ride so fast, particularly when not actually on the job but merely commuting there. Wouldn’t such individuals rather take a little break from any kind of racing for a while? Wouldn’t it make more sense to slowly ease oneself into one’s day rather than rushing, rushing, rushing all the time?

Most folks would agree. But for the speedsters, it is all about the speed. For these kinds of individuals, it is like how fish need to swim and birds have to fly. It’s not so much a conscious choice as an inborn need. If anything, it’s how they warm up for the day ahead.

Of course, the majority of people commuting by bicycle would like to get there as quick as possible, as well. But for them, what’s possible is a lot more limited, in all likelihood, than for the racers who tend to make their living from bicycling all day.

Such people have a lot practice, and they’ll have accumulated so much experience. They’re virtually fearless – and though fear generally lend wings to feet, fear when bicycling, particularly in an urban environment, can be an impediment to speed.

In fact, habitually slow riders tend to be those with no confidence. They’re afraid – and understandably so. But the fear slows them down – not that speed is an absolute necessity for them anyway. The point is that it isn’t a matter of some being fast so much as others being slow.

Starting up a business is tough – but some folks seem to have a knack for starting them up one right after the other! Take Zalman Silber for example. Already a star agent at famed New York Life Insurance Company, Zalman Silber has gone on to found multiple businesses around the world in a fairly diverse number of fields. He is what is now known as a serial entrepreneur, one whose particular talent seems to be starting up multiple businesses that are also successful. But how is it done? How could something so hard the first time around be done time after time thereafter?

Naturally, it gets easier with practice, which is what each time in itself is, really: practice. And there are common elements involved for which one may make use of stock tactics and strategies learned from that all-important first time; sources of funding, supply chains, hiring staff. More relevant, perhaps, is the question of why – why go through all that again?

To make more money, of course! And, truth to tell, because it is fun. Yes, fun! Especially when you keep winning. There is nothing like the act of creation, of realizing an idea concretely, in the flesh. There is a very real adrenaline rush involved, and it’s all the more enjoyable when you work as part of a team, when you have some good partners or key principals you employ all working towards the same goal: success for all.

To get a sense of this excitement, watch a season of “The Donald’s” popular series “The Apprentice.” It’s a program that blends the best elements of the traditional game show with modern reality television to produce an entertaining distillation of how business works. Strangers to one another are thrown together – just like in real life – on a single task that will benefit their team as well as themselves. And each individual is involved in navigating that fine balance between helping themselves by helping their team and getting properly rewarded for it. That’s precisely the atmosphere of a typical start-up – with even the backstabbing a firm likelihood!

After all, who’s to say that a key partner or principal employee doesn’t learn the tricks of the trade and go off to found his or her own firm in the same field or work more lucratively for a competitor? But that’s the least of anyone’s worries in the very beginning, when just getting the business off the ground is so tough that it occupies everyone’s absolute attention. And it is just such teamwork that makes the start-up such an invigorating place to work, even as it completely exhausts you with the long hours and non-stop challenges every hour!

Such is the joy for an entrepreneur. Such is the attraction for a serial entrepreneur – where the only thing better than succeeding in business is starting up another one!