Alpha to omega

At the moment I'm working on a variety of projects with clients - literally from start-up to exit. What's interesting is the way things rarely turn out as you expect.

As they say, 'Man plans, God laughs.'

That's part of the problem with planning. It seems not only a good idea but necessary. We plan our careers, our futures, our relationship journeys, our businesses and, more often then not, things come up and we have to adapt. That, of course, is how we got here. Human existence is not the survival of the fittest but the survival of the most flexible.

Business and life are pretty much the same. It's a good idea to know what sort of general outcome you want, what makes you happy, what success feels like but it's a very dangerous move to set that in stone. Because sometimes you end up somewhere other than what you planned and, by default, you think you've gone wrong somewhere. Whereas you might be exactly where you should be at that time.

So, my advice for businesses is the same as for life - wherever you are, see how that feels and if it is taking you in a good direction. It doesn't matter where you thought would be - it matters where you are. Measure it against more than the spreadsheet or last year's daydream.