How I run a 7-Figure business with NO plan

Or no strategy or goals

Just stick with me for a second here while I cobble together a messy analogy…

I’m currently playing a videogame called Elden Ring. It’s a fantasy role-playing game based in a vast, open world.

What differentiates it from almost every other videogame I’ve played before is that it gives the player almost no guidance. You start the game in the middle of an open field, you see a castle in the background and you’re told nothing more.

The game map is also obscured, only showing the area you are in. As the player, you have no idea how large the world is and only slowly figure it out as you explore.

The slice of map you see when you start the game.

The only guidance system the game gives you comes when you find a “Site of Grace”. These basically look like a little campfire which you can rest at. These campfires sometimes have a “glow” which points to the next broad direction you could explore. And that’s it. You can choose to walk in that direction, go on a few adventures, and hope that a few hours later you find another campfire showing the next direction to move in.

In that time while you’re exploring, looking for the next place to go, you’re getting stronger. You’re learning the mechanics of the game, you’re building your skills. Every campfire is a place to rest, take stock of your supplies and decide where to adventure to next.

A Site of Grace in the game, showing where I could explore next

While I was playing it, I started to think that my business works in much the same way. We don’t really know where we’re going for certain, but I know that when we “do the next thing” it’ll show us the direction we should try next, without having to pre-plan everything.

When we created the Design Sprint Masterclass course, we didn’t know it would lead to starting Workshopper (my course company). When we started Workshopper, we didn’t know we would end up being leaders in Facilitation training. Those things only revealed themselves by moving from one thing to the next organically.

Doing things organically like this allows us to capitalise on newly revealed opportunities and interests in real-time rather than stubbornly sticking to a plan just because we have one.

It can be fun to sit down with my team and write out all the cool things we could do over the next 5 years… but that’s really all it is: fun. Because planning never survives chaos. And chaos is guaranteed. Plans can give you a false sense of security that really doesn’t exist. I’d rather have a team that knows how to improvise than a team that can blindly follow a plan.

Wars, pandemics, recessions, new technology, trends or just getting bored or burnt out. We never know what can throw our businesses off track. So for now, at least at my company, we’re going to continue moving from campfire to campfire.

Anyone else playing Elden Ring?

Cheers,
Jonathan