The P ublisher Po stulates
MAN PLANS, GOD LAUGHS
I always planned to be somebody. I guess I should have been more specific.
34 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2017
Publisher / Editor
By Aaron R. Fodiman
When I was small, it seemed
that everyone advised me to
have a plan. I slowly realized
that they meant more than
just where and how I would get my next
candy bar. So I started planning, and when
things did not go as I thought they would,
I would look for the error in my plan so
that I would not make the same mistake
in the future. I still believed that to get to
a goal, you must have a plan.
As I continued to follow the course I
had set for myself, I noticed that many
of my plans didn’t come to fruition, so I
would simply develop a new plan or alter
the old one.
My plan to become a doctor was aborted
when I discovered that after four years
of college as a pre-medical student, I had
what the Mayo Clinic calls “vasovagal
syncope,” which means I faint at the sight
of blood. I didn’t know at that time that
there was a technical name for it, but I did
know that I needed a new plan.
After deciding that I would go to
graduate business school to get an MBA,
I learned that my pre-med courses in
chemistry and psychology would not get
me into business school and that if I wanted
to go in that new direction, I would have
to go to law school first. Being a lawyer
was never part of my plan, but I have
consistently been flexible. That means if I
came to a fork in the road, I took it. And
so it went until finally, I stopped making
plans and just kept plowing forward, or
at least in whatever direction I found was
the easiest way to flow, often letting the
tide sweep me in and out of wherever I
found myself.
Despite this eventual surrender to fate,
destiny or luck, I still held onto the belief
that I should have a plan. I continued to
go where my feet led me, reaching for
the stars so that I might touch the moon.
People would ask me about my plans and
I would reply, “I’m working on them.”
I am usually so tied up in the present that
I have no time for the future. At this point
in my life, my only plan is to consistently
be thankful for what I currently have. I
love being surprised by what each day
brings and by not having a plan, other
than to get through the day. I don’t have
to wonder if it will work or not. I hate
living with pressure, especially if I know
I created it myself. Take my advice. Stop
planning and just do what you want to
do, when you want to do it, or just adopt
that as your plan. I have. 9
My life is what happened while I was making plans.
ELAINE ZAGAMI