Extra Innings
by Vince Poscente
Author of The Ant and the Elephant and Invinceable Principles

In baseball, extra innings will likely force the team coach to draw on his pitchers in the bull pen.  In business, some projects take more time and money than expected.  In life, we will live longer than our forefathers did past the traditional retirement age of 65.  In families, the kids are leaving home much later in life.

What are you doing to plan for extra innings in your pursuits?

The fun thing about life is it is so unpredictable.  But this doesn’t mean that you have to leave everything to chance.

In sports, coaches have contingencies in place. Hockey coaches know to use their fourth line more if the game goes deep into overtime. In basketball, coaches know that some of their top players may foul out. They have some key players ready to come off the bench.  In dog sledding…well… I don’t know anything about dog sledding but if I did, I’d have a few extra dogs if those Iditarod pranksters moved the finish line an extra 100 miles north.

In business, budgets get blown when unexpected stuff happens.  The founder of Kos Pharmaceuticals started his company with a $30 million budget and three years. Nine years and $90 million later the first reps hit the street.  Ouch!  But the company obviously had reserves (otherwise known as a huge bank vault) to make their investment pay off.

In life, President and CEO of AIG Financial Advisors, James R. Cannon reports that people are likely to live 18.6 years past the traditional retirement age of 65.  He is positioning his independent financial advisors to meet a market demand that will need more retirement dollars than might be originally planned.

At home, kids are staying longer.  These are extra innings for parents good and ready for their kids to leave.  It must be hard to say no to your kid who has come back and won’t leave.  Here are some alternative ways to say, "We love you but it’s time to scram:"

1. Change their room into a sewing and Canasta parlor
2. Run a significant electrical charge to the fridge door handle
3. Join a witness protection program
4. Leave Planned Parenthood brochures on your desk with a Post It Note that says, To Do: Check to see how old kids have to be to put them up for adoption.
5. All of the above

Are you prepared for extra innings in your pursuits?

Here are three things you can do:

1. Have a contingency fund ready for extra innings ($60 million ought to be enough)

2. Decide up front that you will quit at a given point in time (NOTE: the withdraw method doesn’t always work)

3. Come up with at least six different scenarios that you could imagine if your pursuit did run longer than expected.  Imagine how you would handle each scenario.