Dream, Plan, Do

I read The E-Myth a few months ago. I really enjoyed the book, there were a lot of parts that I agreed with and just as many that really challenged me. I’ve taken many of the concepts of that book and put them into practice as I help other businesses to create systems for efficiency and growth.

One of my favorite parts of the book happens very near the beginning, where the author talks about there being three different kinds of people:

1. Entrepreneur
2. Manager
3. Technician

These are given in a somewhat vertical structure in the book, but I actually see them on a horizontal plane. None of those is any less necessary than the other. At Turnkey Concepts, our mission statement is Dream, Plan, Do. But before reading this book, it would have been fair to say that the mission statement was “Plan, Do.” The lack of dreaming severely limited the true growth potential of not just the company, but also of the companies that Turnkey worked with…but we couldn’t see that at the time, of course.

It’s easy to get caught up in thinking that it’s all in the execution or that without a plan, you’re planning to fail. But those things assume that the other parts of the equation are already happening. Without a dream, there is nothing to plan. Without a plan, the tasks are not defined. Without work, nothing is brought into reality.

This isn’t just for someone who is building their own company to remember: this is helpful when you’re sweeping the floor. Every individual task has an end in mind before you start, else you’d be carrying around your broom all day. Without a plan, you wouldn’t have a dustpan ready. (How many times has THAT happened?) Without the doing, the floor would just stay dirty.

At Turnkey, we believe that everyone has a natural gift to excel in one of these three areas, and also that you can become truly good at the other two – but you have to be intentional about it. Whether you choose to become that yourself, or to make sure you put people in place around you who can fill in the gaps with their natural talent, just don’t forget to dream it, make a plan, and execute.