Creating Plans Vs. Following Them

Planning is the defining activity of an entrepreneur.

Not coding. Not selling. Not hiring.

Creating plans.

To create a plan is to say, 'I want this future state to exist, and these are the steps to get there.'

Plans will almost always be wrong though, which is why 'planning' gets a bad wrap (see midwit meme).

It's when plans are rigid and enforced that they're rightly opposed as bureaucracy, overthinking and procrastination--the opposite of shipping fast.

But good entrepreneurs know their plans will be wrong, and they continue to plan anyway. If they say they 'have no plan', the truth is probably closer to 'they are always planning'.

Always considering the next step, playing out various possible scenarios, assessing where they are now, and which moves are available.

The unique job of the entrepreneur is to direct resources as effectively as possible, toward some future end state they have forecast to be valuable to the market.

Yes, they may also build product, implement marketing, talk to customers, and hundreds of other tasks.

But ultimately, their job is to create plans.

And so, one way to discover whether your current role is entrepreneurial or not is to ask whether your best contributions come from 'creating plans', or following them.