Planning in Practice

For any successful outcome whether it is connected to your personal project, goals or even a dream, there is behind a plan. Long term plans are the best way to connect to a vision that you have. By knowing that, you will be able to also create small goals every day, week, month, quarter. The discipline, the respect towards everyone, true intentions and never going against your vision is a huge step. From my personal experience I have many examples of when a proposed plan and clear deadlines was leading me to action and accordingly successful results- whether it was to complete my studies, complete or coming close to successful expansion of our yearly plans at work or successfully open my own blog and foundation. I’ve decided to introduce you to one of the best examples of a truly exceptional plan - the story of how the father of the sisters Serena and Venus Williams led them to what is one of the greatest careers in professional tennis.

Richard Williams, inspired by a plan he had before they were born, coaches his daughters Venus and Serena to become professional tennis players in Compton, California.

Richard works tirelessly to find a professional coach for the girls, creating brochures and videotapes to advertise their skills, but has not had success.

Most professional coaches don't take Richard seriously and keep turning him down. Despite facing challenges and skepticism from coaches and the tennis community, Richard's determination and unconventional methods lead to their success. He turns down many coaches who either refuse to coach his daughters for free and continues until he found people who actually land them a more then a hand, but a coaching.

Throughout all this years, King Richards encourages Venus and Serena to have the childhood and teenage years before going to tournaments and competing professionally. The family also turns down lucrative sponsorship deals, believing that Venus's talent will attract better offers once she starts playing professionally.

At the Bank of the West Classic, Venus faces top-seeded Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, initially leading before losing the match. However, her performance attracts the attention of major shoe companies, and nine months later, she signs a $12 million contract with Reebok.

Both Venus and Serena go on to become highly successful tennis players, with Venus winning Wimbledon five times and Serena becoming a 23-time Grand Slam champion. The story shows their life as a low income family and their daily struggles and only goal to achieve career for their daughters. Not an easy path for the parents but what an astonishing outcome for both sisters following a plan.

I strongly recommend watching this inspiring story in the form of a movie called: “King Richard”.

What is a story of a successful completion of a plan that you are particularly fond of? I’ll start by telling one practical from my professional life- It is the successful completion of a product launch. The first important investment was finding the people who could click, connect, respond, believe, support and even develop further our operational plan- the true people. After which we created a plan together that we have followed , stayed responsive, respective, dedicated, always prepared to respond to a need. Eventually more people connected to the idea and by executing also a measurable plan for the years ahead, we were able to expand and create new market opportunities for more individuals to benefit from the technology, for the physician to expand his practice and skills and for other accounts to connect and repeat after a great story from the practice.

Planning in practice means creating a visual representation of your long term vision and actually doing all the small steps associated.

When it comes to learning how to effectively plan, I recommend connecting to a job that will gift you a strong work practice and not fluctuate too much from it until bigger and bigger ideas, products, companies, teams are born.

A mind plan is also a plan but it needs to be somehow stored down for you to make the connection between the steps and categories, to start visualizing and acting upon it and beyond all, to always stay faithful.