Why Your 5-Year Plan is Useless (and What to Do Instead)
Photo by Polina Zimmerman
Ah, the 5-year plan…
The sacred scroll of the corporate world. The staple of career coaches and business seminars. The thing people love to create when they’re trying to look “serious” about their future.
And yet, if you’re a founder, entrepreneur, or anyone building something from scratch—you probably already know this deep down:
Your 5-year plan is useless.
Not because you’re not ambitious. Not because you don’t want to grow. But because the real world doesn’t care about your timeline. It’s too busy changing every damn month.
Let’s get into it.
Planning Is Not the Problem
Let me be clear. I’m not against planning. Quite the opposite.
I love strategy. I teach strategy. But what I’m not interested in is theater. Making pretty decks with made up numbers and bullet points that don’t survive contact with reality.
Because here’s what happens far too often:
You set a 5 year goal.
You reverse engineer the roadmap.
You start executing like a good little founder.
And six months in, the market shifts, a competitor launches, your tech breaks, your ad costs triple, and your team burns out.
Now what?
You’re not “off plan.”
You’re just in real life.
Iteration > Prediction
The most valuable founders I know aren’t the ones with the most detailed future forecasts. They’re the ones who know how to adapt without flinching. They don’t need certainty to move. They need data, feedback, and speed.
Long-term thinking is smart.
Long-term rigidity is deadly.
I’ve coached founders who’ve thrown out entire product ideas because customer feedback didn’t line up with what the spreadsheet promised. That’s not failure. That’s leadership.
In a world that changes by the quarter, your ability to pivot fast and often is more valuable than your ability to predict year five.
Here’s What You Actually Need Instead
If you ditch the 5-year illusion, what do you replace it with?
Here’s what I recommend (and use myself):
1. 12-Week Focus Blocks
Forget years. Start thinking in quarters. What can you realistically test, ship, and measure in 90 days? That’s your execution window. Anything beyond that is just speculation.
2. North Star Metrics
You don’t need a 10-page plan. You need a direction. What are you really building? Who are you building it for? What will you measure to know if you’re on track?
3. Weekly Iteration Rituals
Every week, look at what worked, what didn’t, and what you’re going to do next. This one habit will compound your growth more than any strategy workshop.
4. Scenario Thinking, Not Fantasy Forecasting
Instead of writing the story you want to happen, create 2–3 possible scenarios: best case, worst case, and most likely. Prepare flexible strategies for all three. That’s real planning.
The Illusion of Control Is Killing Your Momentum
Founders waste months chasing control when what they actually need is momentum.
Don’t confuse having a plan with having a grip on the future. They are not the same. The best founders I know stay flexible, stay listening, and stay dangerous, not stuck.
So if your beautifully color coded 5 year plan has been haunting your Google Drive, let it go.
Final Thought: Build for Agility, Not Approval
A 5 year plan makes you feel safe. It looks impressive. It sounds like you know where you’re going.
But most of the time? It’s just you trying to avoid uncertainty by faking control.
Instead, build a business that can move. That can evolve. That can survive a storm and still make sales next week.
That’s what Tech Startup Success is really about, building something strong, not something perfect.
And that starts by asking better questions than “Where do I want to be in five years?”
Try this instead:
“How fast can I learn what works right now?”
That answer will take you further than any forecast ever could.
Tech Startup Success is your no-BS blueprint to building, launching, and surviving the startup game—without losing your mind (or your bank account).
Skip the fluff. Learn what actually works.
Grab your copy now on Amazon: