CALF_News_June_July_2019

11 CALF News • June | July 2019 • www.calfnews.net All In Best Laid Plans  CALF VOICES By Chris McClure Contributing Editor W hen it comes to planning, a thousand different thoughts come into my head. Many of them are quotes that rise unbidden before my mind’s eye such as,“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” I also see pages from my old Franklin Planner floating there with to do lists on one side, a daily calendar next to it and a page for notes on the right. I have invested many hours in planning. When it comes to business of any kind, planning is both critical and important. Most lenders won’t consider loaning to a potential customer who is starting a new business if they don’t have a thorough business plan prepared. I have spent many hours both building them and going over them. They include everything from a summary narrative of purpose, or vision for the business, to detailed financial plans showing cash flow and projected returns. I currently work with an individual whose background includes working for large corporations. I have spent a lot of time going through his detailed spread- sheets that sometimes show cash flow projections on a semi-monthly basis for up to five years. They are often hun- dreds of lines long with separate tabs for calculating various factors that go into the roll-up projections. Debugging those spreadsheets can be a nightmare. Many times I have had to remind him that sometimes the quest for perfection in those plans is completely irrelevant because within a couple of months of initiating the project, all of the projec- tions will be off. I know I am mixing metaphors here, but the phrase “the best laid plans of mice and men go to hell in a handbasket” comes to mind. I guess what I am trying to say is that plans matter, but they don’t. As a “good boy scout” who didn’t make it past the first year of Cub Scouts, I am an expert on the phrase “be prepared.” My meaning may be a bit different than the Scouts intended because what I am thinking is, “be prepared for things to go wrong and your plans to go out the window.” They always do. Still, you should plan ahead. You need to expect things to break down and wear out. You need to prepare for growth and expansion. You need to anticipate adverse markets and weather and labor issues and … you get the picture. Things go wrong. Still, we plan. I remember planning to be a million- aire before I was 30. It didn’t happen. I remember planning to win the lottery too, but after plunking down a dollar for the first losing ticket, I thought better of it. I remember my first time in a casino and how I planned to walk out with a wad of cash. That didn’t happen either. Maybe I am confusing planning with dreaming. Hmmm … I think we all do some of that. Plans need to be step-by-step, methodical road maps to a desired destination. Yes, they need to include contingencies and possibly have backup plans labeled B, C or even D, but they need to be specific and measurable.“If you don’t know where you are going, how will you ever get there?” is another of those phrases bouncing around inside this thick skull of mine. Some of the best advice ever given to me was by a college professor who told me to “never forget there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” He was talking to me about plans – specifically my career plans after college. He knew I was starting on a winding path that would take me to strange places on the way to reaching my dreams, and he also knew the destination would change over time. He, perhaps unknowingly, handed me the best piece of wisdom that my young, unfettered mind could have received. He told me to keep on trying, to keep on planning, to keep on looking for ways to overcome the obstacles that would be thrown in the way of accomplishing those things I wanted from life. Plans are important, but at some point they must be turned into action. Many people plan and plan yet never accomplish anything because they are so focused on having the perfect plan that they don’t realize will never be perfect, that they never begin the journey. It really is all about the journey. It is about what you see and do and who else you bring along the way as you plan and exe- cute and revise and then move forward again on this crazy journey through life. I plan to live forever. If I don’t, how can I ever accomplish all the things I want to do? Surely nothing can stop me from that particular plan …. At some point along the way I realized that last one just won’t come true. That’s when it truly hit home that it is all about the journey. It’s about the people we touch; it’s about the dreams we spark in others; it’s about the impact we have on the lives around us in a positive way that matters. Time has a way of chang- ing our perspective and our plans. We learn to be flexible and to enjoy the challenge, even when the obstacles seem insurmountable. I know where I’m going when it’s all over. I hope each of you do too.  E-mail comments to cpaladinmc@hotmail.com Needless to say, weather – Arizona’s scorching summer – has something to do with that. I hope to see many of you at Beef Empire Days or Hy-Plains Research Center for a seminar or somewhere else as I take my annual trip along I-80 to revisit my old haunts. Life on the road again is looking great, and old friends, a good steak and a bit of scotch are in my foreseeable future. See you down the road.  Betty Jo Gigot bjgigot@calfnews.net GYPSYWAGON Continued from page 5