Rob Artigo: Ray, planning late is very common. You probably heard about this, and we’ve talked about it in podcasts when it comes to companies. A lot of times things are going along and all of a sudden they’re starting a plan, but now they’ve already gone past the point of no return. So planning early is rare and is not the same thing as having just a backup plan or a backup exit. Today is the plan you make before the trouble, before the company, sometimes even before the job. Why does the calendar matter so much rather than the cleverness of the plan?

Ray Zinn: Well, as they say, yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today’s the present. That’s why they call it a gift. So you can’t do something yesterday. You can’t do something tomorrow. You can only do something today. And so planning early is just planning. You want to plan before you take off, and [inaudible 00:01:14] use that aviation example. Plan before you take off. Once you’re in the air and underway, it’s hard to plan. Now, you may want to update your plan while you’re in the air, but you want to make sure you can get to your destination, and to do so you have to plan before you leave the ground. Because once you’re off the ground, problems really stack up, and if you have an issue, that’s not the time to be changing your plan.

Rob Artigo: What should be on a plan before there is a product, maybe even in your personal life, health, marriage, where you live, what you will give up and what you will not give up? Did you have that list before Micrel or did the company write it for you?

Ray Zinn: I had it before I got married. I had it before, when I was in high school. My mother drummed into me discipline. Her father was a German, a staunch German officer, military officer, and he was extremely disciplined. I mean, he would often say, “Chew your milk,” which is kind of a laugh. And as a kid, when my grandpa said, “Well, chew your milk,” I thought that was ridiculous, but I know what he’s saying. You want to make sure you chew your food. It’s really part and parcel to this whole concept of discipline, as you would, having that ability to stay on task and not deviate.

So planning early, I could say maybe when I was just a child. I mean, even a pre-teen age, my mother was extremely disciplined. I’m the oldest of 11 children, and she had to be disciplined with that many children with homework and with yard work and just housework and so forth. That all had to be plumbed in. I began working and drawing a paycheck when I was 12 years of age. I had a paper route. So I learned discipline at a very early age. Trying to learn discipline after you’re 60 is probably too late. You want to learn discipline when you’re a kid. And so if you’re now past that point, at least focus on what you can do now to become more disciplined in your life.

Rob Artigo: Well, on planning early, professionally people often plan the promotion and skip the reputation. If someone is 30 years old and wants to be trusted at 50 years old, what has to be decided now that cannot be repaired later?

Ray Zinn: Is your character, your nature. What kind of culture are you? Honesty, integrity, dignity, respect for everybody, doing whatever it takes, that’s that culture you have to have. That has to be mastered early. That’s part of that planning early is having that strong, strong culture, and I liken it to being a spiritual culture. The more spiritual you are, the more likely you are to get along with people, more likely you are to be honest, not have any legal issues and just being what they call a top-notch person.

Rob Artigo: All right. On a business level, early planning is usually on a spreadsheet. And it might even be just notes on a napkin, who knows? You have talked about knowing what you’re getting into, the pros and the cons, before you start. What belongs in the first plan that founders leave out because it’s not a number that they can look at and really quantify?

Ray Zinn: We talked about that in a previous podcast. That being disciplined, being able to stick to your plan. And so whatever plan you put on paper, as you would, you have to be willing to follow it. I know of another airplane experience or example of where this pilot was experiencing problems before he even walked out to get in the airplane. He didn’t file a flight plan properly. He didn’t look at alternatives, at the weather issues. And then when he got in the airplane, he found there’s issues with the plane, but he though he could still make it to destination even though he was facing issues in the plane. And they ultimately crashed and killed everybody, and so this planning on paper is only good if you follow it.

Rob Artigo: Same question for the personal life. Does it work the same way in your personal life?

Ray Zinn: Absolutely. I mean, if you’re going to say you want to live a balanced life, work, family and personal, you have to have that regimented is, again, I hate to call it disciplined, but you have to have that baked in to your daily routine if you’re going to be consistent in your plan, your life.

Rob Artigo: Well, I don’t want to talk about pivoting here, but if somebody locks themselves into a plan, kind of makes it a cage, I guess that’s also a negative.

Ray Zinn: Well, a cage is not a plan. I mean, it’s like a bubble. I mean, if you live in a bubble, you’re not going to really mature, you’re not going to grow, you’re not going to progress. You’re going to stay inside that restriction, that cage. So when I talk about a disciplined life, I don’t talk about a cage. I talk about having those things you decide to do early that you say, “Okay, I’m never going to be alone with another woman unless it’s my family,” or, “I’m not going to spend more money than I make, and I’m not going to eat all this junk food. I’m going to eat good healthy food. Good sleep habits.” And those are ones you make early and you decide early and you live by them. You don’t just talk about it, you do it. If you say, “I’m going to lose 15 pounds,” you put a plan together to lose 15 pounds. You don’t just say, “I’m going to lose 15 pounds.”

Rob Artigo: Obviously there are things that you can’t plan, the loss of a buyer, an illness, a market that vanishes. What is the early plan for the thing you cannot foresee? Not the reaction, the actual preparation?

Ray Zinn: Well, the things you can’t foresee are the unknowns. As you say, that’s what we call the fear of the unknown, and so you don’t want to let the unknown hamper you and strangle you. Things are going to happen that you didn’t foresee. And in the 37 years I ran Micrel, at least half of the downturns I did not foresee, but we were prepared for them. Even though I didn’t see it, we were prepared, and we were ready for whatever happened. Now, obviously we weren’t as prepared for the unforeseen things as we were for the foreseen things, but still we were prepared. We had alternatives. We had a backup plan that we talked earlier about the ability to pivot. So you’ve heard of backup plans, I’m sure, Rob. So having a backup plan does kind of cover unforeseen problems.

Rob Artigo: Yeah, just anticipating those things. That can go in your early planning is what happens if, and then fill in some blanks, “What am I going to do if I have to do these things?” And that goes back to our long conversation about pivoting, which is good info, so-

Ray Zinn: Well-

Rob Artigo: Yeah?

Ray Zinn: … we talk about marriage. I mean, marriage is where two people are going to live together for some length of time. There are unforeseen things that happen in marriage, and you have to be prepared for it. Some of them are health. I had a friend whose wife came down with ovarian cancer at a very young age. And now obviously when he got married, he didn’t know about she was going to pass away from ovarian cancer, but that really affected the … He was a young guy. He only had three children, young children, and his wife passed away. Now that changed everything, and it was unforeseen, but he had to deal with it, and so it’s a … Tragedy and these sort of unforeseen problems are going to happen, period, and but we don’t want to let them destroy us. We want to grow from that. We want to build off of that destroying aspect of unforeseen problems. So recognize unforeseen changes are going to happen. You just have to be strong enough and have that discipline to be able to deal with it when they do happen.

Rob Artigo: Well, our listeners can join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Questions and comments are welcome there. Follow Ray on X, Facebook and LinkedIn, and of course pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First: The Essential Leader, and the Zen of Zinn Series 1, 2, and 3. Now including Ray’s new book, Zen of Zinn Daily. Until next time, do the tough things first, right, Ray?

Ray Zinn: I always like to say that. Love the things you hate.