Have you done enough planning? Have you learned enough yet to solve your most pressing problem?
The answer to this question is a lot like eating dinner. You will not know if you have salted the food correctly until you take your first bite. Continuing with the salt analogy, it is just as bad to over plan and over prepare as it is to over salt.
It seems that there are two types of people these days: Those that over plan (paralysis analysis) and those that just shoot from the hip without any preparation at all.
Success takes appropriate learning and planning before you are ready to take action.
As a type A personality, I personally have to fight the inclination to just "do something." In last week's article I dealt with the subject of the importance of learning what you need to know, today.
Today's article: Planning.
I am in the process of building my third company. In the first company, I built over 500 houses and bought or sold over 1,000 pieces of property in 10 years. The second company provided over 68,000 first time homebuyers a down payment. The third and I hope last company: We sell products and provide lines of credit for customers to purchase more products. We report these lines of credit to the credit bureaus. In many cases, this helps a consumer build or rebuild their credit.
Due to the fact that this is a new company, three years old, there are a lot of things that we just don't know. Learning and planning are integral parts of the daily operation. We do a lot of planning on the fly. Sometimes that works well but often it causes us to overlook another problem that will be caused when we implement a strategy that has not been given sufficient planning.
Planning takes a lot of effort. How do I do it? The best is to fully understand the problem by digging into it. If it is possible to know everything about it, take the time.
The best time for me to plan is about 4 AM at the kitchen table or after work on my back porch with a nice Scotch. No, 4 AM is better, really. Well anyway. The best time to plan is when you will not be interrupted. You must set aside a quantum (overly sufficient) amount of time. For me, I use a pen and paper but a laptop is fine too. Write out your thoughts in great detail. Write down the problem in great detail. Stop. Let your mind begin to do its job. And then keep writing and thinking. It seems that this release of information onto paper causes a flow to occur that is needed in this important activity.
Now, reduce the essay to an outline and a timeline. If you are solving an easy problem, you may be done. But, if the problem is significant, you should now spend a few hours per day thinking through the solutions, tweaking the outline, going back to the resources that you selected to help you with the solution. Once you are sure you have the correct solution, talk about the solution with a trusted advisor. Explain it to them at a high level and then explain it in lower level detail. On the points that just "hit you wrong" you know that you need to make an adjustment. When you re-read it and re-state your thoughts without "knowing" a part of it needs to be adjusted, you are really close to being ready.
Planning is a lot like knowing if you have added enough salt to your food. You will not know until the first bite.
Next week: Taking action.
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