Vision is a key quality for business leaders. Profiles of just about all the titans of industry will extol how they were visionaries, had great vision, or saw things differently than others. This may be true, but what is also true is that there is a limit to vision. A place beyond which even the most savvy business person just can’t see.

This uncertainty, this risk, paralyzes some people. The simple reality of not knowing leads these people to inaction and fear, which inevitably means missed opportunities. The question, then, is how do you manage this risk? How do you overcome the doubt produced by limited vision?

Have a plan based on the best information you have.

Execute on this plan. When the fog that limits your vision clears, adjust the plan as necessary and execute again. You can never know everything, you can only do the best with the information you have. Be proactive, even if that means waiting for your time to act. Vision is about seeing more from the information you have, not seeing further than everyone else.

I’m in California for a couple of weeks – it’s a working vacation full of awesome and after 4 days I can tell you that this is exactly what I needed. I feel like I was an old iPhone – never really getting to 100% charged for a little bit there. I would get 80% charged at different points but we were never fully juiced.  I can tell you that right now that I am so juiced you couldn’t stop me even if it was your sole mission in life.  Speaking of Mission – Santa Barbara, CA is absolutely amazing. If it’s not on your list you stop right now and go write it down.

Yesterday as I was driving from San Francisco to Santa Barbara the natural stop for lunch was In-N-Out Burger.  If you have never been to In-N-Out you can go check out their site and their NOT secret menu.  The chain is famous for having an extremely devoted cult-like following  and lines around the block when a new location opens. How is In-N-Out nailing it….

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1. They don’t over-complicate things.  They recognize that what they do best is burgers with cheese and french fries.  They have a couple of variations but their menu does not change – they just do what they do and they do it well.
2. In-N-Out then goes on and says “we like onions – but we get not everyone does” – so they explicitly call that out. The lesson here is that you should do what you do best but LISTEN to what people want and offer an option that gives that to them.
3. In-N-Out tells you their WHY. When they deliver to you you can read WHY things are important to them – they give you the behind the scenes of WHY they pull apart the lettuce themselves – WHY they slice the tomatoes fresh – How they do things matters – so they tell you.

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Bottom line – keep it simple. Do what you do, do it well while tailoring it as much as you can to your customers. Finally,  make your WHY apparent to your customers, explicitly or otherwise, and they will reward you for it.