Career Planning: Do it Directionally

Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation, advises you not to plan your career too carefully or in too much detail because you might miss the opportunities right in front of you. The best you can do is to know generally where you are going and be prepared for anything. He writes in Augustine’s Travels, “It’s just not useful in my experience, to try to plan an entire career in detail. There are just too many changes ahead, too many things that are going to happen that you can’t anticipate.”

He shares a story told to him by Don Fisher, founder of the Gap:

Some Years ago, Fisher, who was in the real estate business, went to a store and bout a pair of Levis. In too much of a hurry to try them on, when he got home he discovered they were an inch too short. He took them back, but the store where he’d bought them had such a small selection that they couldn’t accommodate him. Knowing that the ubiquitous Levis had to be stockpiled somewhere, he became so frustrated that it gave him an idea.

He called the company at its headquarters in San Francisco and offered them a deal: If they would agree to supply him, he would open a store that had the largest selection of their products ever offered for sale in one spot. Fine, said the company, and thus the Gap was born. Don later told me, “If my pants had been an inch longer. I’d still be in real estate instead of owning The Gap!”