If you havent already, go back and read these posts.

If you want to be rich, you need a crew
How to pick your million dollar crew
Starting a business is like robbing a bank - organize your crew 

You need a plan - Fail to plan and plan to fail. That is the facts jack. The more time you spend on the plan and the more time you spend on putting together your crew, the better your chances of pulling it off. BUT! If you spend too much time planning and organizing, you crew will get restless. You run the risk of your team spilling your plan to someone else or going rogue. You will wake up one day and read in the paper how the whole thing went down without you. It has happened to me. It eats you up inside when you see your big idea in the newspapers. What do you need for a plan?

Goal Strategy - You want to get in and out with bags of cash and not go to jail right? Well right that down. You need to know what you are going to do. You need a direction, a general layout of what you are trying to accomplish. It doesn’t need to be detailed, it needs to be specific.

Plan the Details – Now you know what you are going to do, you have to figure out the best way to do it. There are a hundred ways to skin a cat (so I am told). There are equally as many ways to pull a job. Usually 95% of those ways will get you pinched. As for the other 5% - well that leaves you with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, as you increase your chances of success, you increase your investment into the caper. Making things safe takes money and planning.

Lucky (Stupid) – I call this Lucky and Stupid. This is where you have little planning. You pick a place because you have a “Gut Feeling”. You may or may not know the area. You may not know the people in the crowd. Your plan is to walk in, flash the teller and get a little bit of cash and walk out. Maybe you use a disguise, maybe not. Maybe you think no one will recognize you if you keep your head down or wear a hat. That’s why you are stupid. Wigs, hats and sunglasses may make you feel safe, but they actually make you look suspicious. If you don’t get caught – you are lucky. Unless you have been touched by God – this business will not work. You are under-prepared. What happens when things go bad?
Possible Earnings: $0 to $5,000
Flaw in Plan: Too many variables and not enough planning - beware the die pack

Fast – This is a little better than Lucky and Stupid, but not by much. This is where you run in with your piece in your hand and just start grabbing cash and running out. This is only better because you have the element of surprise and fear. People take a few minutes to acclimate to new situations. You might get out with a little more money – but what happens if you bump into an armed guard or a cop? Things can still go bad because your planning sucks. You think that you are safe because people may not be able to recognize you because they will be looking at your hands more than your face. In business you will hear this tactic referred to as “Selling the Sizzle”. Selling the Sizzle means that there is no steak to be had. You are all flash and no substance. This is no way to start a business.
Possible Earnings: $0,000 to $10,000
Flaw in Plan: Moving fast is good, moving fast while alone is bad.

Bold – Bold is when you have a plan but need to rely on teamwork and muscle to achieve your objective. A bold plan is the first level of real success planning. You have a plan with key selected players. Each player has a job. Each player has their own expertise. One guy picks the location. Another guy researches the security measures. Another guy looks into the employees to find out who is in charge and who can get you the most money. The strategy behind this plan is that you actually have a strategy! You go in. There are 2 or 3 people from your crew in place. Maybe you even have someone on the inside. You have someone make sure the cameras are off. You have someone disarm the guards. You have 1 or 2 guys cover the crowds to make sure there are no heroes that get in the way. Once you get the cash, and make sure no one gets hurt, you have to get out. The smart business person has an escape route planned in advance. You have your first car pick the money carriers up and move. If you want to split this into three cars – you increase your chances of the money getting out – even if one car gets caught. You drive those cars to another location where the money is dropped off in a safe spot – usually a car with a driver and a rider (neither know each other so they keep each other honest). These two drive the cash to a third location where they meet someone who takes the cash off their hands. This person holds the money until the team leader shows up to divide the profits. No one gets caught – everyone gets paid. This is bold, but calculating. There is some risk and a lot of players. You can’t do it all yourself and you don’t have the money to do it smarter. This is your first real business plan.
Possible Earnings: $0 to $50,000
Flaw in Plan: Too many players makes execution of plan hard to control.

Strategic –Instead of going for the cash, you go after the people. Study all the employees. Who is dirty? Who has been cheating on their spouse? Who has access to the money and who has kids? Now obviously I am not suggesting you kidnap anyone in real life. This is purely academic. If you haven’t figured this out by now, you are an idiot. Get off this site and go read the funny papers, moron. This plan probably wouldn’t work in real life anyway – it is just an example of how to think like a Hustler. Anyway, back to the plan. Strategy means using your head more than your back. It means not being seen. It means getting other people to do the work for you.

Get yourself an off-shore account. If you don’t know what that is – Google it. It is usually easy to find out who a bank manager is. Follow them home. Find out where they live. Watch them drive away. Get out of your white van painted with “Roto-Rooter” on the side with a blue jumpsuit. Walk around to the back of the house, put on your mask and sit down with the bank manager’s family. Call the manager from his own house and let him know that he has 30 minutes to wire $10,000 to 10 different accounts. Stay on the phone with him while he does it.
Walk away $100,000 richer.
Flaw in Plan: It takes research, steady nerves and killer instinct to pull this off.

Smart – This is the one that will blow your mind. Not because of how brilliant it is, because it’s not what you expect. You want to know how a Hustler robs a bank? He steals a bank. He starts 10 businesses and raises the money to open his own bank. Do you feel let down? Don’t be. If you do feel let down, it’s because you don’t get it. A bank is nothing but a business. It is a business that makes money, lending money to people like you. It isn’t even lending its own money! It lends the money it borrows from bigger banks for a commission. It provides services like checking and savings accounts that it buys from another bank and resells to people like you. A bank is no different than a coffee shop or a shoe store except that it carries no inventory.

There are a lot of different kinds of banks. You have traditional banks, you have credit unions and you have check cashing or money turning businesses. It is possible for any one individual to start any of these kinds of businesses. Read this to learn how easy it is to start a credit union. If you can pull this off, then laughing all the way to the bank is a short trip.
Possible Earnings: UNLIMITED
Flaw in Plan: The most difficult to pull off - but you likely won’t go to jail if you fail.

One thing I haven’t really focused on here is that while you are trying to make your money, there are other forces working against you. Some of those forces are planned like cameras, teller training, armed guards and things called Bandit Barriers and so on. Then you have what I call natural forces – things that happen by chance. This could be anything from a flat tire to an off-duty but armed cop in the bank. You could trip on the way out. You might get hit with a die packet.

You have the same obstacles in business. Look at Krispy Kreme donuts. They were HUGE. They were opening a couple of stores every month. People loved the donuts. They got a ton of press when they would come into a new town. People would camp out to get the first donuts off the conveyor belts. They had good management, good marketing and a loyal customer base. They were on top of the world. What happened? A doctor came out with a new diet that said you could lose a pound a day – you just had to give up sugar and bread. Within two years Krispy Kreme stores started closing all over the country as everyone went South Beach and Atkins crazy. That is death by natural forces. Krispy Kreme couldn’t forecast that this would happen. How could they have known? That’s where planning comes in. They were opening far faster than they really should have (See plan “Fast”). They had a decent product but they wanted to dominate the market too quickly and get out with the cash. It is a flawed strategy for long term success.

What is the point of this post? Easy – You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s it. Before you start any business or project – you need to step back and ask yourself “How can I accomplish the same thing, using a different tactic?” Why rob a bank when you can STEAL a bank? Education is a key - but not the only key. You don’t have to be educated if you can see things happening before they happen. It is called “Trendspotting” and I am pretty good at it. If you know what is going to sell before people know that they want to buy it – then you can be a millionaire.

Unfortunately they don’t teach trendspotting in school. It is something you are either born with or you develop over time with experience. But it still remains that you have to learn to earn. If you can’t learn from a school or a book - find someone smarter than you. If you can’t find someone smarter than you, find someone who is an expert in what you want to learn, and work for him or her. No one can walk into the game. To learn it you have to earn it. When you can think like this – you will be a Hustler.