My neighbor has started to build a house on his lot.
One of the funny things about living in Montana is there are no building plans required.
You do need to get a septic permit.
And your well needs to be registered with the state.
And an electrical permit needs to be obtained.
But there is no permitting for the foundation.
And an overall site plan is not necessary to start building.
So the neighbor shows up with a skid-steer and starts moving dirt. As he took a break, he described to me his ‘plan.’ He had gravel delivered. The square perimeter was compacted where his foundation was supposed to be.
A few weeks later, he returned and moved the house about forty feet to the north. In reality, I think moving the house’s location was a good idea. It’s a better location on the property. And the new foundation area is now rectangular.
The old foundation gravel is now a driveway and topsoil covers the old house location.
There are two ways to approach building something … be it a house or a business.
- Have a plan.
- Figure it out as you go along.
I personally am a planner. I like to spend time a lot of time figuring out what to do prior to extending a lot of effort doing.
My new neighbor is obviously a guy who will figure it out as he goes along.
Neither approach is right or wrong. They are just different.
The advantage of having a plan is you don’t have to backtrack and re-do.
The advantage of figuring it out along the way is you’re taking action and making things happen. You can learn from doing. You can learn from your mistakes.
As a person who likes to plan, I need to protect against not taking action because of overplanning.
The perfect plan that is never acted upon is clearly inferior to the action that needs redoing because it wasn’t correct the first time.
Balance between planning and taking action, or figuring it out as you go along, is required.
Are you a planner?
Do you prefer to figure it out as you go along?
Either way … are you taking action?
Next Blog Title: A Work in Progress
Next Blog Date: August 30, 2012