From the book What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack:
"Mark McCormack tells a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In that year, the students were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all.
Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together."
The more I do what I do, there is a resounding truth that comes to me time and time again. I like to say it this way, "You will never rise beyond your level of expectation." Take my industry, for instance. There are no shortage of doe-eyed, uninitiated newbies who have the dream of one day "making it" in the business. (By the way, I love it how in our vainglorious attitudes we like to call it "the business," as if there's no other kind, but I digress.) Making it in this line of work looks a lot more like this:
November 1, 2011
I have a full-length CD of 10 songs
I sell 300 copies of the disc every month (this can and should be broken down weekly, by the way)
I sell 25 of both T-shirts and hats each month
I sell 500 stickers every month
I am booked for 200 dates out of the calendar year
Daunting? Maybe. Going it alone. Out of the question.
No matter what you do, it is in a person's best interest to play to their strengths and delegate the things that are someone else's strengths to, well....someone else. Goals are the gateway to those accomplishments. From getting that pet project done, to deciding who's on your team, goals are invaluable. A person with a fraction of the talent may well run circles around another who has superior talent and no clear direction on where they are going and what they are doing. What would you desire out of life? Now is the time to decide, for it will never come again, and you may never rise above your level of expectation. It's time to raise the bar!
"Mark McCormack tells a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In that year, the students were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all.
Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together."
The more I do what I do, there is a resounding truth that comes to me time and time again. I like to say it this way, "You will never rise beyond your level of expectation." Take my industry, for instance. There are no shortage of doe-eyed, uninitiated newbies who have the dream of one day "making it" in the business. (By the way, I love it how in our vainglorious attitudes we like to call it "the business," as if there's no other kind, but I digress.) Making it in this line of work looks a lot more like this:
November 1, 2011
I have a full-length CD of 10 songs
I sell 300 copies of the disc every month (this can and should be broken down weekly, by the way)
I sell 25 of both T-shirts and hats each month
I sell 500 stickers every month
I am booked for 200 dates out of the calendar year
Daunting? Maybe. Going it alone. Out of the question.
No matter what you do, it is in a person's best interest to play to their strengths and delegate the things that are someone else's strengths to, well....someone else. Goals are the gateway to those accomplishments. From getting that pet project done, to deciding who's on your team, goals are invaluable. A person with a fraction of the talent may well run circles around another who has superior talent and no clear direction on where they are going and what they are doing. What would you desire out of life? Now is the time to decide, for it will never come again, and you may never rise above your level of expectation. It's time to raise the bar!