Lesson 9 of 12: Don’t Waste Time on a Plan. Do This Instead.

This is part 9 of a series of 12 lessons I've learned about life and entrepreneurship over the past few years of building a successful online business. I hope you click here and start from the very beginning.

Want to listen? There's an audio version below

12 Lessons I've Learned from My Journey

9: Focus Less On a Plan and More on a Mission Statement

Plans change, missions don't. To paraphrase an old saying,

“No plan survives your first call with a customer.”

First, you can plan every detail for months, but that plan will change as soon as you talk to a prospect. It's better to have a goal and a mission statement than to plan for what you can't even see. Second, a mission statement is like a backbone; it will hold everything together and be the guiding line that you use to weigh every decision.

A mission statement tells you to help the world communicate better. A plan tells you to use fax machines.

Mission statements are far more important than plans, which are mostly useless.