Jump the gun

Sport and business have much in common. Both encourage teamwork while rewarding individual success. They’re goal-oriented and highly competitive.

Business has adopted many sporting expressions — including “jump the gun”. The gun is the starter’s pistol. If you jump the gun, you start running before the race has actually started.

In business, “jump the gun” means to “start a project or process before everything you need is in place”, which may lead to failure.

Here are some more sports expressions used in business:

• “be neck and neck”: be level with the competition (horse racing)
• “cross the line”: finish a project or process successfully (running)
• “drop the ball”: make a mistake (US football)
• “par for the course”: an expected result (golf)
• “raise the bar”: raise standards/expectations (high jump)
• “throw in the towel”: give up (boxing)