“Plan Better”
When we began building The Workshop, I had grand visions for multiple membership-based studios. These studios would house creatives, artists, instructors, and small business hopefuls. The Workshop would be a hub of grit, hard work, creativity, and innovation. A year in, I realized my original plan for multiple membership-based studios was not going to pay the bills. Along with this realization, our “anchor tenant” was showing itself to be a non-reliable tenant. The Workshop, if it wanted to survive, needed more financial stability. And then COVID hit.
Sometimes in life, you get smacked in the face with the realization you need to plan better to do what you want to do, reach your life or business goals, and achieve the ever-elusive and constantly questioned state of, “success”. It’s important to know when a venture or project didn’t go according to plan because you didn’t have a good or realistic plan. This takes some serious self-reflection. You can’t be afraid of constructive criticism from your inner circle. You must turn an analytic and impartial eye toward yourself. You know yourself better than anyone. Where are you lazy? Where are you selfish? Where are you not living in reality? What weaknesses do you need to strengthen? What are your strengths and have you been playing to them or have they lain dormant? Ask yourself all of these questions and answer with brutal honesty. Heck, complete an online quiz if you need Dr. Google’s help organizing your thoughts or subconscious life habits. Seriously, get serious about self-knowing and self-improvement.
BUT
It’s equally important to know when there is a better plan for you than the one you’ve got. You know, The Plan you painstakingly and meticulously designed and poured your time, effort, and money towards. Maybe it’s not the way. I like to call this new plan, “ Plan Better”. Not to be confused with Plan B, “Plan Better” is when things happen around you to show you a better path forward rather than a fall-back plan. To see and get to Plan Better, the ability to pivot is crucial. If you’re too dogmatic about your original idea, you will not have the ability to redirect when necessary to survive. This quote has been a favorite of mine since my early 20s. “In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of style, swim with the current.”
The Workshop looks extremely different than it did at the end of year 1. If Adam and I had not been open to pivoting when certain things weren’t working, The Workshop would not exist right now. It would have died a hard-worked but half-baked idea. In my experience, “Plan Better” usually surfaces from a mix of having needed to plan better, new information and realities have come to light, and the cold hard truth that some things are out of our control. Our Plan Better turned out to be more private, long-term, rentals, and only one membership studio. This worked to stabilize the money coming in and also positively played into the social distancing nature of COVID. Our original goal of being a hub for grit, hard work, creativity, and innovation still exists, even more than it did in year 1. But our path to get there changed dramatically.
All of this to say, while running your business or working toward your goals, be on the lookout for “Plan Better”! It may very well be a Plan B and the re-phrasing of it to Plan Better is a way to fall forward. Winston Churchill is famously misquoted as saying, “ Success consists of going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” If he could claim the quote I believe he would. It’s a good one!
Alex
