Predictions and Master Plans

“The task of man is not to see what lies ahead dimly in the distance, but do the duty to see what lies clearly ahead."
-Thomas Carlyle

I have a distrust for people that try to predict the future and have a grand master plan. New startup founders do this all the time and hardly ever get it right.
They love to stand on a big rock like Moses and proclaim the future. And why does it almost never work?

People have a propensity to believe their master plan and predictions because THEY created them. And that blindness is a breeding ground for bad decisions and missteps.

Some of the best innovators in the world constantly question their decisions, and are just as apt to change their conclusions they once were so bullish on. 
Always learning. Always iterating. Always proving themselves wrong.

The best thing you could be then?

Opportunistic.

You can't predict the future but you CAN prepare for it.

Do your daily work to prepare for opportunities. And when you are presented an opportunity that you feel strongly about, you are then prepared to act quickly.

Personal note: Our company Soundstripe has been agile enough to seize one opportunity after another. There were no grand master plans to take over the music industry. Instead, we were prepared and nimble enough to take on things that presented themselves. And that's how we still operate. And I encourage you all to do the same.