Complete But Not Finished
I have started an important phase of an important plan and I’ve hit the accelerator but I know that when this phase is complete, I will not be finished. That’s an important realization to have, the difference between complete and finished. Tasks are completed, plans evolve.
Even knowing when a plan is actually a plan is difficult (and the topic of a future post). I’ve had this idea for a while (if you trace it far enough we’re talking about a decade) and just recently it coalesced into a real plan. Obviously that wasn’t the end of it. Once an idea becomes a plan, the real work begins.
With a plan comes tasks, lots of tasks; a website, a marketing plan, a business entity, a business plan, and so much more. Each of those things will have a completion date but I won’t be finished.
The last business I owned was a spa and I completed many tasks, and reached many goals along the way but even after selling the spa, I’m not finished. There are still responsibilities I need to address such as the final W2s all the employees need to complete their 2017 taxes.
Even after my responsibilities to the business are finished, the money and lessons from that business go toward the next plan. They are absorbed into the bigger plan called life.
If plans are made up of tasks then life is made up of plans. And yes, a plan can have a finish line but life goes on. When I cross the finish line of a race, I still have to get home. I still have to train for the next race. I have another plan.
In 2002, when PayPal was sold to Ebay, was Elon Musk finished? No, he had completed one thing and as we now know, he was far from finished.
Knowing the difference between complete and finished is what separates an entrepreneurial mindset from an employee mindset. It is the difference between What’s Next and What Next.
