Mike Tyson is famously quoted as saying ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’
Truly, this is one of my favorite quotes. It speaks to the fact that you can do all the planning in the world, but you just can’t control everything. We in the building materials business know this well.
Think about this, what if Mike Tyson wasn’t one of the greatest boxers of all time? What if he was mediocre? Would the quote still ring true or have the same impact?
See, I think the reason that the truth of the quote resonates is because he was so good. Of course, when he first said it, he was talking about his competitor. I suppose you could say that later he found it to be true of even himself. He was one of the best, he did always have a plan, he still lost eventually.
In an industry where interest rates, commodity prices, political uncertainty, consumer sentiment, and a host of other fickle things can drive demand by big swings; this is a good truth for us to remember.
If you want to stay in this industry for the long term, you must have a plan. The question is; what are you going to do when you get punched in the mouth? But too often we don’t take time to think about disaster planning until it’s too late.
It’s actually not all that difficult, it can be as simple as taking 15 minutes and thinking through the most common scenarios that could happen, then thinking through what you would do. Better to decide now than in the moment. And hopefully, it would be a waste of time because it never happens. So, plan for the best, and plan for the worst. And if all goes well, we’ll all be around for a long time.