Setting Goals --- Really, really big goals

In my business plan class this week we have been discussing how one can possibly put together pro forma business statements before the company has even opened its doors? The questions abound from the students. Should I be super-conservative? Should I shoot for the stars? How can I be realistic? And, best of all, what does being realistic mean?

There are of course no easy answers to any of these questions and yet it is absolutely crucial that we set goals and make sales projections that will convince or entice or excite investors – or, of course, all of the above. So where does one turn? One piece of advice that has always resonated with me is to set what Jerry Porras and Jim Collins called in their book Built to Last Big Hairy Audacious Goals or BHAGS for short. Here’s what they wrote: "A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines."

And yet, how does a startup know where to draw the line? When is that super goal just too fantastic; how does one do it? An entrepreneur ultimately must be very comfortable with the vast contradictions that are inherent in starting up business; setting BHAGs while paying extreme attention to making the next sale or the first sale. How does one walk that line?

Let’s listen to what Abraham Lincoln said about Charles Blondin. Likening himself to the French acrobat who was famed for being the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tight rope, Lincoln asked: "Suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had to put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across Niagara. Would you shake the cable, or-keep shouting at him, 'Blondin, stand up a little straighter — Blondin, stoop a little more — lean a little more to the north — lean a little more to the south'? No, you would hold your breath as well as your tongue and keep your hands off until he was safely over .”*

Clearly the course a startup must follow is: don’t listen to the mob – set your course and as Nike says, just do it. Blondin, by the way, never fell.

*From Time magazine, 1967
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837603,00.html#ixzz2Azz2Zq55