Slingshot Accelerators

We first encountered “Slingshot Accelerators” in the blog, Virtual Reality YOU.  [http://www.ertiaunlimited.com/virtual-reality-you/]

A “slingshot accelerator” is a paradoxical contrivance.  In order for a slingshot to work, it has to be forcibly pulled back into a hyperextended, “cocked” disequilibrium before its full power can be unleashed.  

Gravitational slingshots are used in space travel:

“One of the best ways to increase the speed of a spacecraft is with a gravitational slingshot, also known as a gravity assist.

…

For example, when Voyager was sent out into the Solar System, it used gravitational slingshots past Jupiter and Saturn to increase its velocity enough to escape the Sun’s gravity.

So how do gravitational assists work? You probably know this involves flying your spacecraft dangerously close to a massive planet. But how does this help speed you up?

Each planet has an orbital speed travelling around the Sun.

As the spacecraft approaches the planet, its gravity pulls the much lighter spacecraft so that it catches up with the planet in orbit. It’s the orbital momentum from the planet which gives the spacecraft a tremendous speed boost. The closer it can fly, the more momentum it receives, and the faster it flies away from the encounter.

To kick the velocity even higher, the spacecraft can fire its rockets during the closest approach, and the high speed encounter will multiply the effect of the rockets. This speed boost comes with a cost. It’s still a transfer of momentum. The planet loses a tiny bit of orbital velocity.”  http://www.universetoday.com/113488/how-do-gravitational-slingshots-work/

Slingshot accelerators and gravitational slingshots contain very apt metaphors for personal and professional development.  In both cases, there is a substantial up-front cost.  In the slingshot accelerator, you have to muster the energy to get properly “Cocked”; in the gravitational slingshot, you have to get launched.  And, in both cases, one has to have a well-mapped trajectory or you’re going to miss the intended destination and be lost wandering in space.   

The gravitational slingshot, further, illustrates the importance of risking close encounters with rapidly moving bodies that have substantial gravitational power, which may influence the trajectory as well as the speed of flight. 

Getting rejected – i.e., “kicked out of orbit” – can have an unfortunate, non-directed “wandering” effect.  But keeping the destination in view and becoming part of a larger “ecosystem” that is constantly “Vectoring” in a positive direction works equally well, and even better for some purposes. 

Tiffany Dufu, Director of the Levo League network, talks about leveraging the equivalent of interplanetary convergence ecosystems for slingshot acceleration in the workplace:

“We get to work, and work is a different ecosystem. If you put your head down, achieve really great results at work, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be promoted.”

Employees have to pick “who in the organization you’re going to align yourself with to be successful.”

“The more you can invest in other people, the more successful you’re going to be,” she said. … The people who have been the most successful in advancing their careers have a network and have leveraged a group of people … to achieve clarity, and to make those connections, and to make their load easier and simpler.”

When growing up, Dufu began “to recruit people who were invested in me, who were supportive of my success. I kind of accidentally built that ecosystem,” she said.

Because she successfully built her network, she said, “I’ve never had to apply for a job in my entire career.”

http://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article73653922.html#storylink=cpy

Skeptics, cynics and nihilists will decry “networking” behavior as superfluously “working the system” and “pandering” to gain an advantage.  However, the reality is that life stopped being an individually engineered enterprise when our ancestors left the farm, quit making their own tools and clothes and started bartering with others to acquire what they wanted and needed.  In the 21^st Century, connecting and cooperating are how waves are made and big stuff gets done.  You’re a “Player” or you’re a “Cast-About”.    

Be a player [http://www.ertiaunlimited.com/?s=Be+A+Player&submit=]!  Develop your own unique ecosystem of ascendant “Slingshot Accelerators”.  Place yourself in the “gravitational field” of leaders-of-the-pack … not to become part of the “Pack”, but to gather an infusion of momentum toward your own destination.  Have a clear GOAL or DESTINY” in mind, but don’t become shocked if “encounters of the first-, second- or third kind” result in a transformational perspective with completely new horizons.  Then PLAY IT OUT for all you’re worth!  Quartermaster