A big mistake made in business is to neglect things that have never happened.
Huh? Why worry about the endless list of things that have never happened?
Because. Because something hasn’t happened before does not mean it cannot happen.
So? How can you prevent the totally unknown from happening?
You can’t know everything that could happen, but you can prepare for extreme things that can happen.
Like what?
Like, what would you do if your business increased sales by 400% over 2 or 3 months? What if sales dropped by half? What if a key employee quit? What would you do if your plant burned in a fire?
Those are extreme examples.
Exactly. We seldom prepare for the extremes, the outlier events that greatly impact business.
How can it be possible to plan for extreme events?
Open a notebook. Make a list of extreme events. Write a paragraph about how you would handle those events. Add to it periodically. Review it annually. Some day that list might save your business.
Oh come on.
You think it’s the ‘expected’ events that brings a business down?
I’ll get a notebook.
Good idea.