May 26, 2022

Canmore AB  – “Let’s go this way Skoki. We don’t want to alarm them.”

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There are group of islands near my home that are reachable nine months of the year simply by traversing a dry riverbed. Technically, then, they are not islands at all – until the spring flood arrives.  Then, only a desperate swimmer or a stranded canoeist or rafter would ever set food upon them.

This spring has been uncommonly cold, and the flood has not yet commenced. Which means I and my dog can still readily access the myriad trails on and around these islands.

Tuesday, during our usual walk, we came upon a cow elk and her calf. I spotted them some 30 meters ahead, by the river’s edge. The calf was likely only a few days old.

Knowing how ferociously cow elk protect their young, I chose to detour directly through the bush, to avoid any confrontation.

I was thinking, however, how much danger the calf would be in. The snow is still deep, low down below the tree line. The bears are out and hungry. Coyote, wolf and even cougar too, abound in our valley.

And importantly, the “island” is not yet an island. The flood has not yet started.

You see, normally, the calving season corresponds nicely with the annual rising of the river. That makes the island(s) natural “fortresses”, with the fast-moving river acting like a moat, protecting the calves from all the predators they face.

Such a plan, on the part of the cows, works wonders. Most of the time.

What about this year? What is their plan “B”?

This got me thinking about business.

• How many times have you worked on a project, built a marketing campaign and it did not go exactly as you planned?
   
• How many times have you spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on a product promotion, and it didn’t work?
   
• Worse – after such set-back, how long did you need to recover from your losses, before you were able to try again?

A mentor of mine once told me that before I went ahead on any venture, that I should list out all the things that could go wrong, so that I could plan for such an eventuality, should my original plan not work.

In other words, “plan for the best, expect the worst”.

Be “optimistically negative”, I think was the way Dan Kennedy coined this.

Spend a lot of time making your plan “A” great but have a plan “B” in place in case things don’t go the way you hope.

Yesterday, there was no sign of the Elk or her calf. Hopefully, her plan “B” is working.

Until next week…

Stay healthy and focus on profit!

- Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert

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