“Ya gotta have a backup plan!”
How many times have you heard that phrase?
I can remember a few places where I’ve worked things at times seemed so chaotic I wondered how we ever got things done? I mean so many things going on, and half of them because some machine or other packed up, broke down leaving people stranded and all needing a ‘backup’
(What’s your backup plan?)
I work in a job where we don’t use one ‘backup’ but several, and we work out ahead of time “If this goes wrong, then we do this, and if that goes wrong, then we’ve got plan b”
We start at 5am, but by 10am we’re often on the third or fourth plan for the day, Hey, when a half-dozen vehicles break down, that’s how ‘ya gotta run’
See, I work for a bus company in my normal job, we’ve normally got anything up to a hundred vehicles, and when you’ve got that many around, things can go wrong!
A couple of years ago, I was writing my first novel, I’d got almost the whole manuscript written and ready, then my laptop died on me, the screen was useless, and my manuscript was nearly lost, I had an idea for a plan, but hadn’t followed it, it very nearly cost me dearly.
(The novel I very nearly lost)
We did manage to retrieve the novel and put the ‘backup’ plan into action, its saved me more than once.
This week we had another ‘issue’ occur, our internet access went down, and to say I was grumpy about it would be a major understatement, but then, a little while later we just went on to the ‘backup plan’ while our provider sorted the problem out.
Having a plan means you get things done, but having a backup plan means that when ‘Murphy’ plays his law (Whatever can go wrong will) you can turn round and say. “Stuff you, Murphy, I’ve got a backup!”
Lawrence's letters 