“If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail”

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You know about my recent trip to Key West here, here, and here. One night, after dinner with friends, sitting around the outdoor dining room table, they shared stories about their COVID trip pulling an RV trailer from Key West to Colorado to Disney—specifically Fort Wilderness—and back. They made incredible memories, despite some scary hairpin turns driving up and around the Rockies.

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Afterward, I told them about our trip to Fort Wilderness as a kid. “I remember one time we pulled in around midnight in our Winnebago,” I told them. “Parked at the reservation building, we ran inside with my dad, got our site number and location, ran back, and when he went to start the Winnebago back up–nothing. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ he said, putting his head down and arms around the steering wheel in despair. ‘Come on,’ he said. Then, he gave the key one more turn, and ‘varoom!’ we were back in action.”

Now, this isn’t a Disney bashing story. This isn’t about “wokeness.” There’re plenty of paying guests, like you and me, who aren’t happy with what’s going on. This is about being able to go to Disney as a family when I was a kid and realizing today how hard it is to make trips like that happen. When my mom was asked how we did it, her favorite phrase was, “Prior planning. It’s all about ‘PP,’” she would say. “Prior planning.” Ironically, my parents will be in Disney World today as they make their way south for a winter reprieve in Delray Beach, FL. Isn’t it time you got out there and explored?

OK, changing gears for a second. This weekend we watched “King Richard” with Will Smith as Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena. We’ve wanted to watch it for a while now, and then came the “slap” heard ‘round the world. And we thought, “We’re not going to watch it and support Hollywood.” We watched it anyway.

As an aside, if people took the same amount of interest in understanding what’s going on in Washington as they have in the “slap,” we’d be in a better place. But this isn’t a political piece. I like Chris Rock from SNL, and my first ever concert was DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith).

The movie? Loved it. Especially the part where the five Williams girls, mom, and dad drive to Florida in a Coachman RV. I felt like I was there with them, bringing me back to our Winnebago, seeing America just like they were. It was fun. But the part that’s sticking with me this morning, as I write to you, is how Richard would tape a poster board to the back fence, of the public tennis court in Compton, California, before the start of every practice. It read:

“If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail.”

Action Line: The most important ingredient to prior planning is you, not some algorithm spitting out projections that have nothing to do with your work. You are your number one investment. Keep moving forward. Keep pushing. Before you know it, you’ll have a lifetime of success to look back upon. You can do this. I believe in you.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.