Always Have a Plan B
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
- Mike Tyson
I saw a reel on Instagram where the narrator was telling his followers that only losers have a Plan B. I laughed because in life you better have a Plan B:
Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Helmuth von Moltke: “No plan survives first contact.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
Winston Churchill: Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.”
Robert Burns: “The best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray.”
Japanese Proverb: “Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
I can keep going. The internet is full of quotes from people who have struggled when they started but persevered and were successful at the end. Move or Die is all about this process. The stories I tell are about people who struggled and were resilient enough to push through the hard times and come out the other side a better person.
Frederick Douglass
The counter to the “No Plan B” culture is the “Fail Forward” people. Those who believe that if you don’t struggle, you’re not trying hard enough. I’ve quoted Frederick Douglass, “If there is no struggle there is not progress, in the past. Simple and to the point. It’s the grind that turns into the foundation that you build your success on or, without a Plan B, it becomes the wall that stops you.
The grinders have a Plan B, just in case life happens and Plan A is flawed. As we fight through the storms that come up in our life, we become stronger and we become smarter. We understand what works and what doesn’t work. Most importantly we understand WHY it worked or it didn’t work. This ‘why’ is the thing that we can build off of. If Plan A works, did you learn anything?
When Plan A works right away you may think, “Hey, I’m a genius!” Maybe it was sheer luck. Maybe you hooked it up wrong and it worked, in spite of your “genius”. As you go along the process and you follow your own plan later down the road. All of a sudden, your discovery doesn’t work. You tear it apart and put it back together … according to your plan … and it still doesn’t work. What now?
If you’re a Plan A person you throw your discovery away. The Plan B person goes back to the plans and backtracks all the way through the system. Eventually they find the answer and they are able to move ahead. They make millions and the person who initially came up with the concept watches from the sidelines.
DREAMS – GOALS – PLANS
Let’s make sure that we are on the same page:
Dreams are the endpoint. Dreams are achieved. Dreams are the pot of gold at the end of the journey.
Goals are the mile markers along your journey to achieve your dreams. Goals are accomplished. Goals keep us on the path to achieve our dreams.
Plans are the steps we take to get from one goal to the next. Plans are completed. If they are flawed then you must have a Plan B. It is the person who is resilient enough to continue to move forward to accomplish their goals so they can achieve their dreams.
Plan B Does Not Mean Failure
Now that we understand our steps to being successful we can better understand why we need to have a Plan B in place. Without a Plan B the entire journey would end when the first plan ended in failure.
Plan B is the exact opposite of planning to fail. It is an insurance policy to make sure the process of accomplishing our goals so we can go on to achieve our dreams. To say Plan B is a failure is like saying having health insurance is planning on getting hurt or getting sick. In reality health insurance is there to make sure we are able to (financially) stand up again after getting knocked down, and continuring our journey.
In war the endpoint (Dream) is to be victorious. The way that you become victorious is by accomplishing your plans of war. Like von Moltke said, “No plan survives first contact.” For those who don’t believe in Plan B … you’re screwed. Your war ended after the first shot was fired.
For the rest of us, we gracefully move to Plan B, and keep fighting. That’s why those of us who plan ahead, not only for success, but also for what might happen, end up finishing our dreams and moving on to our next dream.
And those who put all their chips on one spin, and don’t have a Plan B and their Plan A doesn’t pay off, they go live out their life working for someone else’s dream.
What Is Plan B
Plan B becomes a reaction to what “life” throws at us. It factors in the “stuff” that happens in between each breath. It’s a response to the other people who didn’t hold up their end. It helps us keeping moving forward because we understand that we can only control what we can control.
To not have a Plan B means you foolishly think that you control EVERYTHING. I live in the world that “Sh^t Happens”. I have written extensively about living through these events and understanding why it is happening to you. It’s all about how you handle the tough times.
Making a Plan B
· Understand your dream
· Make your goals that will help you achieve your dream
· Make your Plan A to accomplish your goal
· Have a Plan B in case something goes wrong with Plan A
It’s simple. If your dreams are big enough, it’s going to be hard to achieve them. Because of this we need understand that things will most likely hit some rough spots. The true Grinders in life, will build in the safe guards to keep us moving forward. When we do this we will be able to move smoothly along our path making smart decisions along the way.
Keep dreaming bigger dreams then you are able to reach right now. This is how we continue to move our life forward.
Always have a Plan B!
