Don’t set goals

The conventional wisdom says that extensive career and business planning are crucial, but the richest man in town is more likely to believe that planning inhibits success. Most of these rich men and women don’t plot a course that is more detailed than "get up each morning and do better than the day before."

What’s wrong with goals and plans? Too often, those who set them feel obliged to stick with them even when changing circumstances render the plans obsolete. Being ready to adapt to changing circumstances is a better policy.

Example: Jim Oelschlager, the richest man in Akron and founder of the investment company Oak Associates, Ltd., says that the only business plan he ever had was "answer the phone if it rang."

One day, a manager at his employer at the time, Firestone, asked him to manage its pension plan. This experience allowed him to create a series of successful mutual funds later on.

Despite the challenge of having multiple sclerosis, Oelschlager was able to take advantage of the best opportunities that came his way even when they were not what he expected. Over the years, Oak Associates has profitably expanded -- and Oelschlager also started CyGem, an information technology company, and Oak Air airline charters. Oelschlager believes that if he had moved his company in the direction he wanted to go rather than the direction that client feedback led him, "we would have failed miserably."

Larry G Potter