People in business shouldn't be afraid to stray from their strategy and listen to their gut, media boss Niall McGarry has said.
Sticking rigidly to a business plan might seem sensible, especially where investors are involved – but this could actually hold you back, he told this week's episode of All In.
"You can listen to accountants, and I’ve often brought trouble on myself by not always listening to accountants but I guarantee you I’ve built more successful aspects of the business by just ploughing my own way and deciding what I want to do," the Maximum Media founder said.
"You can get to X next year and think you’ve done well or you can go to Y and sometimes the people who get to Y will be the people who’ve just decided to listen to their gut instinct and not be reigned in by a more practical response to something."
This intuition comes with time, he added, as an entrepreneur's gut develops the more they become immersed in what they do.
"People who are running successful businesses, how their gut instinct works generally is they become very, very, very in tune with the industry they’re in. They can see and sense trends probably better than any of the employees because they obsess about it.
"Gut instinct is something that will continue to grow and grow and grow and don’t worry if you don’t have it at the beginning because it comes from understanding your market better.
"Ultimately, because you’re so emotionally attached to the business at all times, that then makes you emotionally attached to the industry and that makes your gut continue to tell you stuff."
Niall features on this week'sepisode of All In, JOE's new business show.
All In, backed by AIB, is available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Wednesday
