While lecturing at the University of Utah, Stephen Covey popularized the now widely known “Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand” demonstration. He showed that sequence counts—you can only fit everything into the bucket if you start with the big rocks first. His point was that priorities matter. Big, important initiatives (Rocks) often don’t get done when lesser—but urgent—matters (Pebbles) and daily distractions (Sand) crowd them out.

Verne Harnish, and later Gino Wickman and others, turned “Rocks” into a practical discipline that businesses should prioritize if they want to grow. Wickman defines Rocks as “the most important things” a business needs to accomplish in the next 90 days.

Pebbles Are the Present; Rocks Are the Future

I’d like to offer a different lens: Pebbles are the present; Rocks are the future of your business. The present is hungry and impatient—it will force you to feed it. You’ll feel pressure every day to close sales, serve customers, and manage cash if you want to stay in the black and make payroll. The future is—seemingly—much more patient. It will let you limp along without a critical hire, without learning AI tools, and without implementing an operating system for your business, such as Summit OS. The most you’ll feel by delaying these actions—however critical to your future—is mild shame or disappointment.

The Founder Must Manage Both

But here’s the thing: you need to manage both the present and the future. The present will press on everyone in the company who wants to keep their job or earn their bonus. The future is primarily the Founder’s concern. After all, you are the statesman of your business, with a multi-year time horizon. Your team typically operates on a much shorter—weeks- or months-long—perspective.

Disruption Makes Forward Thinking Non-Negotiable

We’re living in an age of disruption—both in business (AI) and geopolitics—that makes forward thinking more necessary than ever. You can no longer afford to limp along. You need to build in a margin for failure, because disruption and dislocation are inevitable in the coming years. You have to eliminate chaos and build an intentional growth and profit engine in your business—whatever field you’re in.