The end of summer break has now become a reality. The traffic is a whole lot worse than it was last week. Leaving home at the same time you have been all summer will make you late to your destination. The act of indoctrinating and teaching children and young adults in a society creates a lot of traffic. More traffic also means you have more time to think on the way to work. All I could think about during today’s extended trip was how I could have better planned my morning to get on the road faster and, therefore, get to work earlier. What I really should have been thinking about was what topic I would talk about in this week’s column. Then I had an epiphany. I realized I could write about planning.
Planning was a perfect topic. It was simple, and it was an idea that was timeless. How could I go wrong talking about the simple truth that, all things being equal, planning brings about better results? It was a no-brainer. Then I started to wonder how many columns I had written about the very same thing. People have been known to get tired of reading the same thing over and over.
When I arrived at work, I logged in and looked for all the other columns that I had written about the value of planning. Searching by title, I was unable to find any specifically titled about planning. I was a little surprised that I had not directly covered the issue in the past. I know I have made reference to planning in the past, but this would be the first column that dealt specifically with the issue.
How many times in your life have you spent time planning and later wished you had not? I would imagine very few. Why is that? Because we all know that what I said above is true: Planning makes just about everything better. Planning does not make everything good, but that does not mean that it is not better.
I once read a study comparing businesses started with business plans versus those started without any specific plan. The study showed what you would expect: the businesses with plans tended to do better. Many of these successful businesses had plans and never looked at them again. Apparently, the insight gained from just thinking about contingencies at the beginning helped the companies succeed. Anyone that has ever run their own business knows that plans go out the window immediately, but the act of creating a plan better enables you to react to the constant changes encountered while running a business.
Life is funny. Sometimes, it is a lot more complicated than running a business. Laying down a plan for your life now can do nothing but help you in the future. Few plans you make will work without periodic reevaluation and tweaking. Sometimes, a plan will have to be scrapped, and you will have to start over. The new plan will benefit from the old plan, even if it is because the lessons learned from the old plan find their roots in failure.
The only true failure is quitting. As long as you are trying, you are in the game. They told us when we were little that winners never quit and quitters never win. There is no doubt that taking the time to plan makes the winning a whole lot easier. Easier in life is always better, especially for those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
This column was originally published in the Hamilton County Herald on August 24, 2012.
Bill James is a criminal defense lawyer and co-founder of the James Law firm, with offices in Little Rock, Conway, and Fayetteville, Ark.