Above all, you must learn to become (and remain) flexible and adaptable.
As 19th Century Prussian military strategist Helmuth von Moltke so eloquently put it:
"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy."
Put a different way, when asked his thoughts on the strategy of his opponents, Mike Tyson responded;
"Everyone has a plan... until I punch them in the mouth."
There is no such thing as a bad business plan on paper.
But shit happens. Life unfolds with its myriad of unexpected and unaccountable variables.
You WILL get hit. It's not a matter of if, but WHEN.
And when circumstance does strike, how are you going to respond?
The amateur falls in love with the plan.
The professional falls in love with the mission.
But the plan is just the first draft map drawn, not yet bloodied by reality. Reality has teeth. Markets shift. Technology develops. Wind changes direction.
Encountering change, and emerging victorious is less a matter of "having a plan", and more about having the internal resources and architecture to keep moving, and adjust on the fly when your plan gets murdered.
Musashi said,
"Fixation is the way to death; Fluidity is the way to life."
YOU MUST STAY ADAPTABLE.
NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PLAN.
BOB AND WEAVE. ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES.
Plan lovers are one variable change away from being paralysed. When rubber meets the road, and life doesn't match exactly how they spreadsheeted it.. they freeze, they panic, they quiver, cower, and give up.
Then they look for someone to blame...
Be it the weather, the economy, the jews, their childhood, their competitors, the algo, their genetics, their parents, the nature of the other gender, their ex, their "trauma", their timing, their lack of resources. Anything.
ANYTHING, except the ugly truth.
They CUCKED. They folded under pressure.
They threw in the towel.
All because, what they failed to realise is...
Much like a rocket, which does not fly to it's destination by being perfectly on course the entire time... but rather, through TINY and CONSTANT course-corrections, deviations, and adjustments. Over and over. Again and again. YOU MUST LEARN TO ADAPT ON THE FLY.
(No pun intended)
Success does not come from being right at the beginning. Success comes from correcting course at a rate faster than the environment can kill you.
Darwin echoed this in his final conclusion, determining the exact quality that allows organisms to survive, expand, flourish, and prosper:
"It is not the strongest, nor the smartest of the species that survives. It is the organism MOST ADAPTABLE TO CHANGE."
FALL IN LOVE WITH CORRECTING COURSE.
Rather than having the goal of creating a life where nothing hits you, instead, aspire to become the kind of person who can take the hit, absorb the feedback and alchemise the experience, becoming better/faster/stronger because of it.
Be bending, but never breaking.
Pivoting, but never abandoning the mission.
Condition yourself day by day to be fluid in method, and violently resolute in commitment.
Above all, you must learn to become (and remain) flexible and adaptable.
It is the only way to ensure your survival.
Namaste.