Russ Lowry argues you need three plans: a main one, a backup, and a contingency. Develop skills that matter, align your career with your partner's, and treat yourself like a business where pay reflects your value. Insurance and backup plans protect you when circumstances change.
Today, let's talk about always have a plan. You see so many people who constantly complain about, I don't know what I want to do with my life, which seems inconceivable to me. They wake up in their 20s, their 30s, and say, there's nothing going on, there's nothing for me. And the reason for that, it's their own fault generally, always is they didn't have a plan. They didn't have a plan in life. Always have a plan in the even. I like to say, always have a plan A plan B, maybe a plan C, because things don't always go according to plan. Like Mike Tyson famously said, everybody has a plan till they get hit in the mouth and then shit changes. So have a plan A. Just like you guys all are doing really well with that about looking for careers. But sometimes you might have to pivot a little bit and change careers. You know, government regulations might come up, things might change that you're like, well, it didn't quite work out, but I have that plan A, plan B, and maybe even a plan C just in case things changed. And plan A might be an overarching, I want to be in the medical profession. Plan B might be, I'm going to learn what I can about the medical profession and look for niches, and we'll talk about that later. And maybe do an esthetician or sonogram. So you'll want to maybe specialize in something, but you'll have a backup plan for that or even maybe something where you're like, I really enjoy doing this more than that, and I'm going to work on making my hobby my job. But the days are long, the years are short, and you wake up one day and you're 30, then you're 40, then you're 50, then you're 65, and time has gone by. So have a structured plan as best as you can for life. It sounds simple, but so many people have no idea what they want to do when they say this. They don't focus. They use it as an excuse. And they set no priorities in life. They don't study a field towards something they want to learn, focus themselves on that, look around all the time, constantly be learning, be reading about their field, about other fields. That's where you'll get a lot of. A lot of growth will be outside your organization, reading about how other companies do things, you can really learn and bring that into your passion. But always have a plan in place, be working towards that plan and then have, like I said, backup plans. A, B, C, just in case that primary one doesn't work out. And you guys are facing a unique time in life where AI is replacing jobs daily. So, and we have no idea where AI is going to go, what it'll be doing for us in the future. So you really have to be careful if you are working towards a job that could possibly be taken over by AI. You know, medical profession, probably not. Math, engineering, education perhaps, there's a lot of things like that that will be taken over by AI. So doing a job where it's really hands on, that people have to do, of course is a great plan A, but always have that plan B and that plan C. And especially as you get older, things are going to change, priorities are going to change. So you just never know what life's going to bring you as you get married, have kids and things like that. So always plan, be working that plan and you're never really surprised if something comes up. You have that plan B where you're like, well, I can now work from home or I can do this and raise my children, or I know my knowledge translates into this field really well. So again, as easy as it sounds, few people plan and that's why they wind up in the place they are. If you aim for nothing, that's what you hit, nothing. And that's why there's so many people these days that are wandering aimlessly between jobs, complaining that there are low paying jobs because they haven't tried to improve themselves, they haven't tried to focus their energies on getting better, learning trades, learning skills. And it's a business. People can only get paid what they're worth. That's what I tell my staff. Your value in what you get paid is commensurate with what you bring to the agency for us to make a profit and help our clients. So people get paid less. People with lower skills get paid less. As your skills grow, I can afford to pay you more because you can help more people and help them in a better fashion. So again, always be working towards a goal with a plan in place and backup plans. As an insurance guy for 28 years, I'm a big believer in backup plans because that's what insurance is about. It's always just the what ifs. So we have insurance to cover the what ifs. So figure that out. Work with your spouse, your significant other, make sure that they're on board with you as well, that they're planning for their career and they're on board with your plans. You don't want to have two people with completely opposite plans in life. That doesn't bode well for being married for a long time. So hopefully this helps you out. Simple sounding concept, but in reality, few people put it in place. And that's why when something happens and they stumble, it's the end of the world to them because they had no other planning or contingencies in place for things that are going to happen. Life's going to throw a lot of things at you and you need to be ready for that.
