Always Have Plan B Ready When You Launch Plan A

A Technique of BIG Achievers:With your body relaxed, form a mental picture of what you want. Concentrate! Hold that picture for two minutes. Picture it so clearly that you can see yourself doing it, or being it, or having it.



by Michael Masterson

Enthusiasm is a valuable emotion, and determination is a necessary trait for success. But neither or both of these qualities will make a bad idea work. I recommend that you develop the countervailing discipline of creating a Plan B.

Over the years, I have trained myself to recognize when an idea that I thought was good was actually bad. (There are plenty of signs - but unless you are looking for them, they are easy to ignore.)

So the first step is to see the writing on the wall. And the next step is to immediately switch to another course of action before you lose a ton of money and months (or even years) of time and energy.

You'll be much better at both of these critical business-survival skills (recognizing when your ideas are not working and reacting swiftly/smartly) if you establish a bailout scheme - a Plan B - at the outset of every project.

Don't make the mistake of thinking failure won't happen to you. I can tell you stories...

For example, there was a "brilliant" idea for a record club that cost me $125,000... a "can't-fail" celebrity health newsletter that sucked up an astonishing $780,000 before I gave up on it... and a perfume business that was "absolutely sure to work" that wasted $85,000 of my (and my partners') money.

When Ted Turner was planning to launch CNN, he found that he had done such a good job of promoting the idea that his partners weren't even willing to entertain the possibility that it might fail. Since Turner knew full well the value of being prepared for failure, he kept asking the question "What if it fails?" until they finally agreed to put together a fallback plan.

CNN started off terrifically, and when it ran into financial problems seven years later, they already had a solution. In this case, it was to sell a portion of the business to cable operators. Because of Turner's early insistence on a Plan B, crisis was averted without anyone breaking a sweat.

What is the most important project you're working on right now? Do you have a Plan B... just in case?

[Ed. Note: Maybe you've got a good job. Or lots of money to invest. Or a bunch of real estate holdings. But if all your eggs are in one basket, you REALLY need a backup plan. Let ETR give you a recession-proof Plan B that can help you secure your financial future. Get the details here.

Get more of Michael's surefire strategies for getting ahead in business and in life in True Path to Profits: A Master Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Success. Find out more - including how you can get a bonus subscription to Michael's VIP newsletter, Ready Fire Aim - right here.]

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