In "This is Harder Than I Thought" I love Cheri's analogy of the business of running to that of running a business.

As I was reading the blog post, a couple of other thoughts came to mind that I would add to Cheri's excellent points.  What came to mind were also the importance of consistency and community.

I'm training now for my fourth marathon and only in the last eight months did I start running with a group (community).  One of the things that has become evident is that a community environment has helped immensely in accomplishing goals.  It contributes to improved morale, motivation and enhances the knowledge share of best practices.  It also helps with personal accountability, which itself relates to the point of consistency:  you kind of feel like ya gotta do your "homework" regularly during the week because you know the group will be increasing goal expectations -- mileage, in this case -- the next time you all meet. 

Another point about consistency is that, in our group, we've found that those who don't maintain a consistent running schedule during the week seem more prone to injury and more often than not, eventually end up dropping out of the business of running altogether.

Extending Cheri's analogy of the "business of running" to "running a business," there is similar value for any business owner to get involved with a community of other professionals.  In doing so, they can share best practices and hold each other personally accountable to their goals and expectations.  The concept of a "mastermind" group comes to mind here.

As for consistency: If the business owner doesn't exercise discipline to get out there and prospect for new customers on a consistent basis, write the copy for needed marketing collateral regularly, or follow up with necessary collections, and so on, then their business can become prone to "injury" in the form of cash flow deficiencies, lactic acid buildup through increasing Accounts Receivables, or glycogen depletion from customers who no longer care about you. 

Left unchecked, the business eventually hits the proverbial "wall" and the business owner "bonks," as they say in the running community ;-) until eventually the business comes to terms with dropping out of the race entirely.