There is a line of thinking in the industry of advice-giving: never have a backup plan.
If we have no backup plan, by necessity, we will figure out how to do things as we go along.
The idea is that backup plans are generally easier than the original plan, so we would be more likely to follow the path of least resistance.
Having a backup plan is a failure mentality, and a failure mentality leads to failure.
If you have a safety net, you'll invariably fall into it.
I get it.
I understand the law of attraction.
Whatever we think about, we'll attract into our lives.
If a Plan B is on our minds, we'll probably manifest it.
And I can think of lots of examples where jumping in without a harness may have forced people to work harder on their businesses.
You probably have examples of your own.
But here's the thing.
I can also think of lots of examples where entrepreneurs would have been better off having a Plan B.
Sometimes people give up their life savings, quit high-paying jobs, and borrow other people's money to fuel their business ideas.
And many, many, many of those businesses fail.
There could be lots of reasons for it - poor planning, weak management, feeble marketing, economic downturn.
But sometimes it's just a crappy business idea.
Is there greater success for those without a backup plan? I don't think the evidence supports it.
I think, all things considered equal, the lack of a safety net will not determine whether or not a business will be successful.
Commitment and hard work will make a difference, but these are not contingent on working without a net.
I have a friend who took a sabbatical to start his business, and once he knew it was a winner, only then did he quit his job.
Another friend started an alternative health practice in her third year of nursing at university.
She still finished the last year as part of her backup plan, but worked so hard on her business, she hasn't needed the nursing degree.
And a writer friend of mine continued to take jobs writing business plans, even while he plugged away on his fiction novels.
Having no backup plan might work for some people, but not everyone.
It really comes down to a person's comfort with risk.
Fear of having no money can certainly motivate people to work hard, but let me ask this: "Do we really want to operate our businesses in a state of fear?" How about we just love what we do so much that we will succeed no matter what? Wouldn't we rather run our businesses based on passion instead of fear? A minimalist entrepreneurial mentality would suggest that if we keep our expenses to an absolute bare minimum, we will have a profitable business after our very first sale.
It's not a bad place to start.
Certainly, I believe a success mentality works in the long run.
But when we're on the high wire, let's make sure the odds are in our favour before we tell the ringmaster to remove the net.