As startups cant predict the future it’s crucial that these new business stay flexible and be ready to pivot when the business model proves to not work out.
Because the road is paved with uncertainty and discovered work it really is in the best interest of the founders to stay flexible.
Don't be chaotic
Leave the long term planning, setting milestones and thinking years ahead to established businesses.
This does not mean that there should no planning what-so-ever. It still bodes well to have a vision for the future and to be organised.
Reference
Ries, Eric. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. 1st ed, Crown Business, 2011.
Highlights or timestamps
Start-ups are different, though: they can’t predict their own future because they have no past, don’t know what their customers want, and don’t know which approaches are best for finding customers or creating a sustainable business. To find out what could work, they must stay flexible.
— ^6cb77e from The Lean Startup
In reality, managing a start-up is more like driving a jeep across unstable and shifting terrain, where the founders must constantly change direction and respond quickly to unexpected obstacles and dead-ends.
— ^fe6657 from The Lean Startup
start-ups shouldn’t abandon planning completely to adopt a chaotic “just do it” mindset either.
— ^ef7fa2 from The Lean Startup