Foresight Is a Mindset: Always Have a Plan B

Foresight is an ability—and, more importantly, a mindset. Foresight is a key to success, in entrepreneurship and elsewhere. But what if someone without foresight wants to start a company? Can people who lack it at birth never succeed? Rather than an ability, foresight is a mindset: the habit of constantly looking ahead and having a Plan B for everything. Successful people’s foresight comes from a sense of responsibility to get the job done. At its core is constant attention to whether the goal can be achieved. They continually examine the situation, review progress, anticipate the future, and prepare a Plan B for everything so they can reach the goal whatever changes occur. You can develop foresight if you want to. How accurate or far-reaching it is comes second. What is certain is that a leader without foresight has bleak prospects. If you have it and your competitors do not, you have already won. We cannot demand that every leader be born with foresight. But leaders must know that they need to anticipate the future, try to do so, and prepare in advance. That is a basic responsibility; failing to do it is a dereliction of duty. #創業36條軍規 (36 Rules for Entrepreneurs, descriptive title) ---- Robin: ‘First, Plan B is absolutely not retreat or giving up. Entrepreneurship inevitably brings things you did not anticipate, so having a Plan B represents operational flexibility in responding to change. Yet many founders have only one solution. When problems arise, they hope raising money will get them through. Often, however, fundraising is the biggest problem itself. You cannot pin your hopes on fundraising to solve everything. I have seen a company rely solely on raising money, fail to secure it, and end up in dissolution and liquidation. In one sense, this too shows the quality of management.’