Why You Don’t Need A Five Year Plan

I did at one point want to be Vanna White, just for a day.

Just for a day.

I liked how she strutted.

(singing)

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be if you want to create a business and life you love, and I know that you do. That’s right, and this, it’s a little sound we’re going to include, it was Q and A Tuesday, it is Q and A Tuesday. It was in the past but this is not time travel, it’s today and right now and here we go.

Today’s question comes from Jillian and she writes, “Dear Marie, I feel like I’m just starting to hone my passions and I’m not sure where they’ll lead me. My question is, do you need to start with the vision of your end goal in order to create success? Did you always envision your business in its current form and what advice do you have for those of us who don’t see the whole plan laid out quite yet? Thanks, Jillian.” Jillian, this is a fantastic question. Now, I want to be honest, the reason that we chose to answer this question is for two reasons. The one, because we love this question, I will answer it in a minute. But the second is because you gave me a chance to talk about something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while.

You see, one of the pieces of criticism that we get about what I do here, Marie TV and my business, all that stuff is, “Sure it’s easy for you, Marie. You’ve got a stylist and a studio and this whole team.” And I just sit back and I think are you for reals? Do you think I just magically appeared here this way? I mean I am a Jersey girl that came from New Jersey, Italian American family, working class, and I’ve busted my buns my entire life. I have not been handed anything on a silver platter. I mean my parents are incredible. They’re amazing human beings. They totally supported me with my education, which I also helped pay for.

But once I got out of college, I worked like seven days a week, multiple jobs, busting my just to make ends meet. Plus like many people, after I got out of college, I was massively in debt because I was silly, but I got myself out of it. The point is that I didn’t just come here and arrive with all this stuff. I’ve worked my ass off to make it happen. Now, I’m not saying this because I have a chip on my shoulder, but I am saying it because I want to make something clear. You do not have to start off with all of this or anything like this if you want to be successful.

So now I will get off my soapbox and answer your question. Did I have a clear vision for what this business would look like when I first started out? The answer is O-M-G no. You have got to remember, I am the multi-passionate entrepreneur. I liked so many things and it was actually paralyzing. Plus I had no ability to see out past six months. It was really torturesome because I liked so many things. I loved hip hop, I loved writing, I loved marketing and I loved fitness. That’s a lot of things to love.

While Stephen Covey’s advice, “Begin with the end in mind,” is amazing and sometimes fantastic, other times it’s just not possible. I had to work really, really hard at multiple passions until I eventually found convergence for myself. I mean in 2001 when I first started, the only things I knew was that I was really driven to make a difference. I wanted to be successful. I wanted to help people, but I had no idea what it would wind up eventually looking like.

So back then I only had many immediate goals. So for example, in my hip hop classes it was all about how do I fill up my classes and make really bad ass choreography. In my life coaching practice it was how do I get people better results? And then with marketing and business, it was like, “Okay, how can I write more persuasive, more clear copy?” I had no ability whatsoever to see a longterm vision in front of me. I only had to take the steps I knew I had to take and do the best that I could do at the time.

This brings me to one of my favorite quotes of all time. And yes, you bet your bottom dollar is today’s tweetable. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So let’s land this plane Jillian. While I’m a big believer in having a clear vision in where you’re going, sometimes that is just not reality. So the game plan for you is to bring your A game to everything that you’re doing and then have faith that when the time is right, your clear vision will emerge. That was my A to your Q Jillian, hope it helps.

Now I would love to hear from you. So have you always had a longterm vision for your success? And if not, what advice do you have for those of us who don’t see the whole plan laid out quite yet? As always, the best discussions happen after the episode all the way over at marieforleo.com, so go there and leave a comment now. It’s that simple. Did you like this video? If so, subscribe and share it with your friends and if you want even more great resources to create a business and life that you love, plus some personal insights from me that I only share in email, get those sweet buns over to marieforleo.com and sign up for email updates. Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on Marie TV.

Oh wow, Eric, you have sexy glasses. This very sexy, right? I’m not an actress, but sometimes I play one on Marie TV. In the airplane, I’m going to stand by, can I get a seat? We’re all special and none of us is special. That’s the paradox of life. Chew on that for a moment.