5 Year Plan

Back in the day when I was the CEO, the thinking was “you’ve got to have a long term plan.” A well thought out 5-year flowchart depicting growth into the future was the intelligent, safe thing to do. That was when the blueprint on how to run a corp was cast in cement, protocol was king and the future was predictable. Not so anymore. Everything has changed. Unless your name is Nostradamus, you can’t possibly predict the future—not when the technology is sizzling and the economy shivering! And unless you’re a publically traded entity ruled by shareholders, you can run your business, corp, studio, web-biz or band any way you want. And if you’re pining for investors, most are looking for forward-thinking creative projects run by forward-thinking, intelligent creative innovators. Isn’t that what you’d be look’n for?  And a 5-year plan would be a total fabricated fantasy anyway. They should call it a 5-year surprise!
New Rule: Build your brand, exploit your commerce and promote your art on your own time-line—keeping quality, talent and loyalty way ahead of pretense, protocol and prognosis.
New Goal: Build a “rock-steady” career slowly and intelligently, and make it last a lifetime.