Momentum Isn’t Magic. It’s Moments.

Every start begins with a cold start.

I grew up on the northern edge of the Great Plains. Winters in North Dakota weren’t just cold—they were brutal. The kind of cold where you could throw a pot of boiling water into the January air and watch it crystallize before it hit the ground. Forty below, wind cutting through you, and a daily question hanging over your head: will the car start today?

You never really knew. Engines froze solid. Fuel lines froze too—choking out the very thing that was supposed to spark life. That’s why people plugged in block heaters, hoping to keep engines just warm enough to have a fighting chance. Sometimes you’d turn the key and pray the engine would turn over, because once it did, you had something priceless: momentum.

That’s what building anything feels like. Starting a company. Building wealth. Launching a new project. The first spark takes faith. The first turn of the engine takes persistence. And once it moves, it’s easier to keep it moving—but never effortless.

Here’s what I realized recently: inside the word momentum is another word—moment.

That isn’t just coincidence. In Latin, momentum meant both “movement” and “a brief instant.” A moment of weight that tips the balance. And in Greek, the word was kinesis—motion, change, transformation. It’s where we get “kinetic energy.” Momentum isn’t just movement. It’s energy stored and released. It’s the frozen fuel line finally opening, the engine firing, the car rolling out into the road.

Momentum isn’t one giant leap. It’s stitched together from moments—the late nights, the tiny wins, the setbacks that force you to learn, the conversations that change your path.

If you ignore the moments, you miss the story.

And it’s not just business. Life is a series of these moments too—kids leaving for university, weddings, funerals, the chapters that mark time passing. They matter. They deserve to be acknowledged.

As leaders, as builders, as people serving others, our job is to recognize those moments. To call them out. To honor them. Because when moments compound, they don’t just create motion—they create momentum.

So here’s to the moments you’ll make today. Stack enough of them, and you won’t just move forward—you’ll move with kinetic energy. You’ll change lives.

Happy Saturday. Go make some great moments.eak, and when you’re ready to move up weight classes.

Rising Tide is written by Jud Mackrill. Have thoughts on this week’s edition? Hit reply—I read every response.