[Proverb Of The Day] Do not dig a well only after the house catches fire

YourStory is delighted to announce its new publication, “Proverbs for Startups,” to be launched in December 2013! Curated by research director Madanmohan Rao, the book has over 750 proverbs, drawn from all 5 continents.

“Proverb Of The Day” is a new daily post from YourStory, featuring the wisdom of one proverb each day. The proverbs show how timeless wisdom about entrepreneurial behaviour and risk taking has been captured by cultures around the world in their proverbs.

In keeping with the celebration of November 1 as the formation of the state of Karnataka (Kannada or Karnataka Rajyothsava), we are pleased to begin this proverb series with a Kannada proverb translated into English:

Do not dig a well only after the house catches fire.

- Kannada proverb

The message for the reader is clear:

Plan ahead for things that may go wrong, otherwise it may be too late. It will take you a long time to dig a well and find water, and by then it will be too late to use that water to put out a fire. So if you are a startup, take care to plan for unforeseen circumstances – such as backing up your data, guarding against hackers, using cloud solutions to manage traffic surges, a PR plan to handle crises, and so on!