Is it Time for Plan B?

This American Life did a fine show last year on Plan B:

There’s the thing you plan to do, and then there’s the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon…switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life.

Conan O’Brien got bumped to Plan B a few months ago. A lot of good people have had to revert to Plan B during this recession, and all the animals at the shelter are waiting for their Plan B to begin.

But Plan B doesn’t have to be a bad thing. How many of you have found that Plan B led to a better life than you ever imagined under the original plan?

I asked the Fools to share their plans for their lives before BookFool. It was an open-ended question, so we had a wide variety of responses. I’ll kick it off with my short entry:

Luke

My plan went Motorcycle Driver > Chef > Radio DJ > Teacher > Videographer > Marketing/Strategy. When I was a kid, I thought that people driving motorcycles up and down the highway were being paid to ride. Then I planned to be a chef and talked about that plan a lot, so much that people I knew then still ask me when I’m going to culinary school. I guess now I’m on Plan F.

Kris

I’m on Plan B.

• Plan A: Play in the NBA.
• Plan B: Entrepreneur, which started when my father gave me a huge wooden desk around age 6 or 7.

Accountancy was the best avenue I saw to make Plan B work. From age 6 to 14, I went back and forth between Plan A and Plan B.

The Story of the Desk
My father’s office of Arthur Young was closing in Fayetteville, AR, I think around 1987. He chose not to move to Austin for the company. The office was giving away all the furniture and my mom pushed my dad to take something. So he snagged a desk. He didn’t take the nicest desk nor did he take something small.

The desk landed in my tiny bedroom and quickly became the fixture of my dreams. I would site behind this tectonic slab of wood and play “store.” I had old checks from my parents I kept in the drawers that felt like real money. There’s no telling what else I had in the drawers. I know I stored my basketball card collection there.

This is the desk I use today. The desktop needs refinishing, and I’ve never had a key to lock the middle drawer, but I hope to use it for many more years.

Casey

Still on Plan A.

Nicole

Jet Fighter > State Senator > Political Legislative Assistant > Human Resources Manager > Customer Care. I thought I was going to join the Air Force and be a Jet Fighter. Then I wanted to be a SENATOR only to find that the Political World was too harsh for my kind heart, but I fell into HR, which has led me to Customer Care and I couldn’t be happier!

Lou

Well, it kinda went like this:

1. In High School I wanted to be a starving artist.
2. At the end of High School I was starving and in love!
3. Married and had a child soon after graduating high school.
4. Entered the Air Force where I would live my life with my family and the military…Plan A.

Plan B Happened….

1. Marriage ended in divorce.
2. Was introduced to Lisa, my current wife, who was also in the Air Force.
3. Left the Air Force to go to college for Advertising Design (starving artist related!).
4. Started a wonderful career in that field and progressed to management.
5. Landed on BookFool.com mountain and am loving every minute of it.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

YOU!

How about you? What’s your Plan B?