On the importance of Having Backup Plans

About a year ago, I saw a quote that did not sound right from Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, "The minute you have a backup plan, you've admitted you’re not going to succeed."

It sounded wrong then but with the recent news of her fortune recently wiped to Zero it puts things in a different perspective and I certainly hope she does have at least one backup plan.

People rarely succeed on the first try and I would argue that success is all about having backup plans... plans to get backup when a failure occurs - when, not if because failure is a part of success. When they asked Edison about failure, he said "I have not failed, I have just found 10000 ways that did not work."

Whether it is Michael Jordan being cut off from his basketball team, Walt Disney being fired for a lack of imagination, the beatles who were told they had no talent at their first recording session, ... all people face failure at some point in their life and how well they succeed is determine by how much efforts they put in finding a plan b, then a plan c until things work.

As they say, "if things do not work on the first try, remember... there are 25 more letters to the alphabet" and even then, you may have to use a different alphabet. Many times, it way more than 26 tries... Kernel Sanders, when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken was told no over a thousand times before he succeeded.

Einstein is often credited with saying, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." Even if as we persist, repetition, we must adjust our sails, vary our strategies... move from Plan A to Z and sometimes plan 5 steps ahead.

Whether it is acquiring new skills to not become obsolete, trying different strategies to make sure success comes in the end, creating a new drug, making your data survives a disaster, a proper backup plan is key to success.

May everyone have many backup plans and persist all their way to resounding success, as in a way, finding flaws in your current strategy is one of the best ways to improve.