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Startups are all about execution, yet you always want to plan ahead looking at the longer term and the possibilities that are down the road. Not to say it isn’t important, but it’s easy to get delusional in imagining possibilities that may not exist in reality. A fork in the road only exists, when you take the first step down the chosen road. How do you then balance seeing the possibilities, but act in the present with here and now?

Seeing is Believing

Photo credit: kenjonbro

It’s good to separate between visions of the future and tangible plans being executed. Thinking of future scenarios may indeed be a healthy exercise in preparation and evaluating what path to take, yet intangible thoughts are not to distract you from the facts of the present reality. However, before these possible scenarios are brought to the present, they may allude you at the very best and distract and prevent you from fulfilling your mission, at the worst.

For example, you shouldn’t choose between the best distributor before you know what choices you have. Only by pursuing discussions with multiple parties, will you know what you have to choose from. Otherwise, if you choose the ‘right party’ ahead of any discussions and then only pursue discussions with that one party, then there’s no knowing how that discussion will turn out or if it will just disappear from in front of you.

Establishing a framework which to follow (your strategy), you should set yourself into execution mode and follow the tracks you had chosen. There will be times to evaluate and make decisions, but making a decision ahead of time is counterproductive, as you don’t know the decision is even yours to make. It’s like discussing fine print of a ten million dollar deal, without having the customer in the discussion.

Forks in the Road

In any path you take, you will find forks in the road, decisions on your path that have to be made. But making decisions based on real world input is part of your life as an entrepreneur, an every day part that shouldn’t be overly complicated. Sure you have to be analytical and make sure all plays into your grand plan, but over thinking every single decision will simply slow you down.

Ultimately there are few such decisions that have a fundamental impact on the path you are taking and cannot be taken back. In general in life there are few fundamental decisions, but it’s easy to see decisions as larger than they are. For example a cross pacific move is undoubtedly huge, however, there’s nothing that stops you from moving back. But it’s real easy to give meaning that may not even exist for small and large decisions alike.

It’s important to always weigh a decision and what actual impact it may have on your venture and try to be as honest as possible about where you are and where you want to be. And for you to stop on your path and have a look around, potentially switching the direction you’re going in, it has to be a substantial fork in the road.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2012 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Entrepreneur Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.