Initiate

Which start up founder gave us this advice?

The clear vision is important - then you keep pressing on, or indecision takes place. Of course you have to be prepared to change plans - it's a balance. Be inflexible and drive on into trouble, be a ditherer and get nowhere. You have to get the balance right.

Is this Elon Musk talking? Mark Zuckerberg? Or was is Anita Roddick?

None of the above. It was in fact not a startup founder at all. It was British Everest mountaineer Chris Bonington.

Chris was talking about the challenges in the mountains on reaching an objective, summit or route. Such expeditions are arduous, unpredictable and require courage, good judgement and luck to succeed.

This is no different in business or for that matter, life in general. No matter what our objective, to get started we need to make the first steps. A mountain doesn't get climbed by looking at it. You can plan all you like but you can't predict the weather and how your colleagues and the mountain will react to the challenge.

So make a plan, make a plan b and be prepared to come up with plan c on the fly. Then put your best foot forward and get going. Initiate.