Marion's Blog

People these days plan EVERYTHING. You want to go to school (well, most of you do), then quickly on to university, then you join a great firm where you will rise rapidly to the top, or you found the next big multi-billion company. Along the way, you get married, but you will not have children too young but at age 30+, you have 2.4 kids, you sell your business before you are 50 and buy a sail boat. You die at age 85+, and if the doctors by that time can give you a few more years unencumbered by illness and other nasty aging issues – you will opt for the treatment and live a little longer.

Ofcourse, this is stuff for fairytales – chances of making all of that actually happen are probably something ridiculous including lots of decimals after the comma. But we still go ahead and plan our lives to the n-th degree. I have watched in amazement as my friends plan things that should be natural, like children being born, to amazing detail – not wanting them at 34, or in the summer, but preferably being pregnant through the winter when you don’t want to move around too much anyway. And in the meantime, the earth population is aging at an increasingly rapid rate. Whereas people that have children when they are in their twenties, as nature intended, are often easier going with their kids and more flexible as parents, we see very few of those these days as more and more couples prefer to have their “me time” first before they have children. This planning is having a major impact on all of our lives – businesses included. And it actually means discrepancies from the planning that you actually started out with. Think about it – you want to retire at age 50, but you won’t be able to hand over to your 16 year old kid now will you? So you have just created another dilemma in your business-life – that of having to find another successor or someone who will buy you out. Which you need to start at age 45 if you intend to have it completed and have found that trusted person by age 50. Or you have to decide to work much longer then you intended so you can hand over to the next generation, but that means having to forego your dream of owning a sailboat and traveling around the world whilst you still young and fit enough.

Planning and having control are good things to do in business – but whatever plans you make, or however much you want to control all the details – it is equally important to be able to let go.  Just look at the past year. As the financial crisis unfolded, how many businesses have not been caught unawares? Those that were not able to quickly change their plans, adapt to new circumstances and move with the flow, failed. Completely. It is a time in which you can show your strength – your ability to be flexible and creative. That is what sets aside real entrepreneurs from the managers of large organizations. They lack the entrepreneurial spirit that we think E.Factor members have in spades. You have to be able to let go when things do not turn out the way you thought they would. Be creative when you find that your product actually doesn’t do as well, or sells to a different market that you intended. Be flexible and with all that, enjoy that life takes you in unexpected directions – forcing you to do things that you never intended, or imagined you would ever do or experience. It is what makes life so very interesting and so much fun.