Any book or speaker on success points out the need for setting goals. In fact, if you have heard many motivational speakers or read books on the topic, you have heard the story of the 3% many times. It goes something like this.

Back in 1953, the graduates of Yale were surveyed to find out who had written and definite goals for their future. The result was that only 3% of them did. Then, 20 years later (in 1973) these same graduates were again surveyed. And of all the graduates, those in the 3% who had written goals had achieved more and made more money than the other 97% of graduates.

Is the 3% rule of goal setting true?

The details of the story are often embellished. Sometimes you will hear it coming from Harvard. The story is often followed up by telling us that we need to all set goals if we expect success.

Goals study Challenge

Here is the shocker. The story is NOT TRUE. Tons of reputable authors and speakers use this story – but it is NOT true. I had used this same story since I had heard it so often, but one day as I was planning a talk I thought I would research it so that I could give some real details. In my search, our found no such study ever documented. In fact, I did find this from Yale about the 1953 3% study.

“It has been determined that no “goals study” of the Class of 1953 actually occurred. In recent years, we have received a number of requests for information on a reported study based on a survey administered to the Class of 1953 in their senior year and a follow-up study conducted ten years later. This study has been described as how one’s goals at graduation related to success and annual incomes achieved during the period. The secretary of the Class of 1953, who had served in that capacity for many years, did not know of the study, nor did any of the fellow class members he questioned. In addition, a number of Yale administrators were consulted and the records of various offices were examined in an effort to document the reported study. There was no relevant record, nor did anyone recall the purported study of the Class of 1953, or any other class.”

So we skip goal setting? 

The reason I write this now, is because my last post on overplanning. Often goal setting can become part of the overplanning process.

I personally still think goals are highly valuable – but we have to have some balance. More on that next time.

What do you think?

Is goal setting useful for you?

Has setting goals helped you achieve anything? 

BTW – someone did do a study to prove goals work. Not near as impressive in scope, but a good start. And not by Harvard or Yale. See about the goals study at Dominican University.

The other day Lea told me I needed a planning intervention. She told me that since I had moved to a new method of managing my time and my projects, I was really busy planning, but getting a lot less done! WOW! That stings! Especially since I had invested a lot of time, energy, and money in the new planning method.

Overplanning is like chasing your tail

Are you planning insane?

Here is a test!

1. Do you spend more time planning than doing?

2. Do you have lists of things to do all over your desk, car, IPOD, etc?

3. Do you find it frustrating that you have a ton more ideas than time or people to do them?

4. Do you have trouble answering the question “What did you do today?”

5. Do you constantly rethink your decisions wondering if they meet the long term goal?

6. Do you constantly come up with a new long term goal?

7. Do you change plans for you and your team before they start to implement the last plans?

If the answer to most of these is YES, you may need planning intervention for your overplanning personality! I will join you!

Reality Check

There is a fine line between too much and too little planning. Too little costs time and money. Too much costs, well, time and money. But then there is obsessive planning. How can you tell how much planning is enough? Here are my rules-of-thumb (which I just found in all my lists of plans!)

Planning time should be proportional to the amount risk. This includes risk to life and limb as well as financial risk. A lot more planning should go into a bridge over a river as opposed to a software app that allows me to track the number of sit-ups someone does.

If you find you have more plans than action, perhaps you need your OWN intervention.

Your favorite subject – YOU.

You talk about YOU.

You think about YOU.

You tell people about YOU.

I want to talk about ME!

Right? This is the way you SHOULD do, especially when your are operating as your personal Chief Marketing Officer! But YOU are SO mistaken!

STOP TALKING ABOUT YOU!

If you want people to listen to you, consider you for a position, hire you for a contract, you need to QUIT talking about your favorite subject. In fact, you need to STOP TALKING.

Instead, get them to do the talking! Or at least get them thinking about them!

This is the premise for Dale Carnegie’s famous book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” In simple terms,

if you want people to like you, get them to talk about themselves! 

And I will add the Dale Callahan corallary.

People only do business with people they like!

(OK perhaps I cannot take credit for that, but it is my blog)

BTW – This is one of the MAIN reasons ! Look at yours, who does it talk about? Do I care?

You know that feeling of being overwhelmed. Your whole world seems to be spinning out of control. Things are coming faster than you can deal with them. Perhaps you have an illness such as diabetes which leaves you feeling hopeless and out of control. Perhaps a financial issue is hammering at you and you see no way out. It may be a small issue that has sent you crazy, but to you it is not small at all.

The result of these kinds of pressures is often stress, anxiety, and/or depression. Your whole life gets consumed with the problem, and the problem seems to get bigger. As my daughter said to me the other day “I can not deal with one more thing or I will loose it!”

Gee, we all have problems. But have you ever noticed that some people seem to deal with them better than others?

I have observed three kind of responses.

1. Hopelessness. Often no matter how trivial the problem becomes, we get hopeless and depressed. We basically give up, complain, and of course whine so the problem becomes a problem to others also. This describes WAY too many people today. They focus their  attention on the problem and how it limits their lives. I was reading about Jim who had arthritis, which led to being a couch potato, which led to being overweight and depressed, which led to heart issues. He felt hopeless on on the path to death. Others might have a job problem which leads to drinking, then leads to marital problems. One thing can lead to another. (In case you were not depressed enough already.)

2. Faith of a child. This person I love and admire. They can not seemed to get rocked off their feet. They have true faith – usually in Christ. They can smile through it all saying “God is in control.” I am not making fun, I really do admire the solid faith of these people. But – I do not have it.

3. Take control. Then there are other people who take control. No matter the problem they seem to take the same path. First is stress and maybe depression for a moment, then like a shot of adrelinie hits them they start to research the problem. They then develop a plan and take action. The outcome is to improve the problem – if not solve it all together. The Jim I mentioned was told of his heart issue was going to kill him. He was on the path downhill. He got busy. He researched his issues, developed a plan, and took control. The result is that Jim now is healthy. In fact he goes by the name “Jim Healthy” now. He is now more fit then most Americans, and leads a full and active life. All about taking control! He is even making money now off of his problem. See myhealingkitchen.com for his story.

YOU?

Which one are you? What problem do you have plaguing you? Try this approach and see if it gives you hope and perhaps even success.

• Write down the problem in clear language. Be clear of the problem.
• Decide on a goal to make it better.
• Develop a plan and take action DAILY until you have licked it!

The end result is that you will likely wildly improve your situation, and you will feel much better about it all along. I would call that success!

While at Growco I was tweeting out the five shark points presented by Daymond John from Shark Tank. I was convicted to start tweeting off my Droid since everyone around me was doing it! Social pressure I guess. But some of you have told me that I missed the points. I can barely type as it is – much less on a Droid. So here is the complete list.

Daymond John from Shark Tank

SHARK points from Daymond John

Set Goals – Daymond set a goal to be part of the hip-hop culture and make a living doing it. He wanted to make a living doing what he loved. This goal propelled him forward. Zig Ziglar has a great video on goal setting. In case you are not familiar, he created the FUBU line.

Homework – Do your homework. Daymond explained many mistakes he made because he knew NOTHING about business. One of the things they look for when they grill people on Shark Tank is the homework issue. Do they even know what they are talking about?

Amore – Do what you love! No matter what, find what you love and go after it. Daymond made $300 million in market that did not even really exist when he started. But his love for the market and the people drove him forward.

Remember you are the brand. At the end of the day, it is all about you. How do other see you? His example was that on Shark Tank, in the first 30 second when the people walk out, before they have opened their mouth, the team has sized them up and knows if they will invest. The are reading the brand before the brand starts talking.

Keep Moving – Stop and you die. Sure you can take a break and celebrate success, but keep moving. You might end up moving in another direction like he is, but keep moving.

Shark Tank on ABC

Are you a SHARK?

Look at the list above from where you are. Daymond was not talking about starting a business, he was talking about living. How do each of the points above impact you and how you make a living? Are you a shark, or are you shark bait?

Back to the story. Last week I was at Growco, so my post was about some ideas I took away from the conference. One of these ideas, being an agile entrepreneur, will appear here today!

For your calling search, you should have done all the background work and investigation by now, or perhaps still doing it today. Plans should be starting to develop. You should be feeling excited about the possibilities! If not, you are not doing it right!

WARNING: This is often the place where analysis paralysis kicks in. We treat the idea of a career as something that has to be studied for a long time. We think now is the time for careful attention and thought! Pray yes! Slow – no! Let’s be bold here! The word we use to talk about moving forward aggressively is “agile”! We have agile project management, agile software development, and last week I heard a lot about agile entrepreneurs. And this is what you are – or should be – an agile entrepreneur!

Become an agile earner

Move Fast

The idea here is to test your new options as fast as possible with as little work as possible. How can we do this?

• Shadow and expert (perhaps one of those people you did the reverse interview with)
• Volunteer your services
• Do a test case
• Find a second job in your area – getting as close as you can to your dream job as quickly as you can. Forget the long job search, just get near the dream. If it works out and you do love it, adjust from this position.
• Oh yes, if you have a day job now, do not quit yet! This is experimentation.

My Example

How will I take my last list and the information I got from talking to the leaders in my field.

First, I clearly want to serve people who are struggling with how to earn a living and love what they do.

Second, I notice that my job with the university already affords me to do a lot of this. What I need to do it experiment with how to do more of what I love and delegate or eliminate to others the things I would prefer not to do. For many of you, you might find that your current employer will work with you to allow experimentation of ideas.

Third, time to test ideas in the open market.  What I am thinking now is that I will create products and services related to what I do at the university. Some basic ideas are educational and/or coaching programs helping people to realize their work and career dreams. Details on those trials later! Right now I have to get to work with some trials. I have to be agile!

Your example!

Thanks to each one of you who have been sharing your stories with me! Over the last few weeks I have had many interesting phone calls, emails, and other converstations related to your trials in this area.

If you are like so many, who think work should be something more than what you experience daily, then I encourage you to act now. Make something happen. By summer you could find a whole new life. Go back and give it a try!

Find your calling

Connect your calling to a career

Talk to those who have gone before you

And then start to act!

And of course, continue to share your story with me!

I spent the last few days in New Orleans at Growco – and wanted to share some things I learned. As listened and participated, I could not help but to think of you and how what was being said applies to all of us.

GROWCO

First, in case you are not familiar with Growco, it is a conference for entrepreneurs and the focus is on company growth. Speakers including Bill Clinton, Daymond John of Shark Tank, as well as many other successful entrepreneurs and the INC staff. But even better than the speakers is being in a room with energetic entrepreneurs of all types from all over the country. If you can attend one in the future, well worth it!

Key Concepts

Some learning points at the conference and how it applies to us as a Company of One.

• CONCEPT: Each speaker seemed to have many failures along the way. They just kept trying new things. Daymond in particular had a massive string of screw-ups on his way to create the FUBU brand. His persistence alone seems to have pulled it off.
• APPLICATION: We need to accept that some things will NOT work, in fact we should expect it. If you can accomplish easily everything you are shooting for without setbacks, you are shooting way to low!

• CONCEPT: Try new things FAST. Long cycles to try new ideas are no longer acceptable. The world moves faster, and this allows us to test ideas faster. Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, pointed to a failed software application he built. He said after thousands of lines of code, no one looked at it. He could have just as easily tested the idea with zero lines of code and had the same result.
• APPLICATION: Want to move to a new career model? Why waste years and money on education and certifications, how can you jump in from where you are and test the idea. Do it now.

• CONCEPT: Find what you love and go after it – no matter what. One participant working with me at my table told me how he wanted to work for a company – but they would not hire him. So he hung around the lobby everyday and did what he could. Eventually someone put him in a closet/office to get him out of the lobby. One day the company owner found out he did not even have a job. The owner told his manager, “if you do not hire this guy, you are crazy.” And they did.
• APPLICATION: Duh – just go do it. Everyone is hiring, it is up to you to go show value and determination.

• CONCEPT: You ARE the brand. Daymond pointed out that when people walk out to pitch their idea on Shark Tank, that is the first time the team has seen them. He said “We size them up in the first 30 seconds before they open their mouths.”
• APPLICATION: This point is definitely about you too! You must remember people are ALWAYS watching and judging you. How are you dressed now? Are you whining to others when you think no one is watching? What do others think about when they see you?

I know, this is nothing new. And that, my friends, is always the case. Sound advice and practices never change much. You already know what to do – do it!

Oh yes, as a patriot, here was my favorite quote when President Clinton was being asked about China economically burying the USA.

“Trying to bury America is like trying to play whac-a-mole.” Bill Clinton

Last week I continued the process of moving from calling (things you love to do) to career (things that pay you money). I have been using myself as an example for two reasons:

1. I am always rethinking where I am going and based on my earlier post this year I decided to rethink in public.
2. I frequently get asked about how you do this process. People will hear it and get it in theory – but few can do it. They tell me “Can you show me an example?” So here it is.

This started where most of YOU start.

• The dilemma of your career hiding itself in a goal 
• The search for your purpose and calling in life
• Figuring out how to actually get paid by doing what you love

Now what?

Once you have an idea of your calling, you have to figure out who is living your dream!

The next step – who is living my dream? 

The next step in the process is to look back at the list of ideas you came up with about connecting money to career. Look for patterns. From my list I had some patterns:

• teaching/speaking/writing show up quite a bit  –  Seems I have something I want to say, hence the blog and my speaking engagements.
• people taking control — A lot of what I am talking about is people taking back control of their own lives.
• consulting shows up a lot — Somewhat like the last point.
• investing shows up a few times — Some of this might be that I hate to be inside and like to be out and about a lot so real estate shows up?
• helping people is an overriding theme
• positive thinking is an overriding theme — May not show up to you, but I guess I know what I mean in several of these better than I wrote it down.

So my question now is who is going what I have listed, and doing it well. So here is the list.

• Dan Miller, author of 48 Days to the Work You Love
• Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade
• Tim Sanders, author of  Today We are Rich
• Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich
• Dale Carnegie, author of many books
• Henry DeVries, author of Marking with a Book
• Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Insanity
• Patrick Cash, Internet marketing expert on education
• Dave Ramsey, America’s debt counselor
• Gary York, serial entrepreneur
• Tim Taylor, entrepreneur

The Reverse Interview

Once I know people who are doing work I would love to do, I now need to learn from them. The normal process here would be to contact these people and go learn from them. Alternatively, you can learn from people by their writings and their work. (Especially true of authors). The process is called the Reverse Interview. So here is what I have done, or plan to do.

1. Since several of these people are no longer with us, I can only glean from what they have written. So I have already done this, and continue to do it today.
2. Over a year ago I met with Dan Miller. While we did not do a formal reverse interview, my 90+ minutes with him were invaluable to shaping where I am now. Since then he has provided me guidance and support several times. He has also always been honest with me, even when I did not like what he had to say.
3. While Patrick Cash is not in my direct market, he is an expert at communicating over the web. He is a good friend and invaluable support to what I do.
4. I found Henry when I was researching another book on the Internet. Henry had made a comment on Amazon about the book. I loved what he had to say and contacted him and did a 15-minute reverse interview over the phone. Again, invaluable!
5. Some others are friends I work with closely or know via the internet. While no formal reverse interview has taken place – I have asked them the key questions.
6. Others I have had minimal engagement with to date – at least in terms of me asking for advice. But I have gotten a lot of information from them about their writings and speaking as well as from the times we have talked or emailed.

You and the next step

I will cover some key things I have learned and some directions I am taking next time. But here again, I am talking about me only as an example. What I am doing or will do is not that relevant to you. What is relevant is what YOU will do.

So I challenge you now, if you have not already done it, go back and

• search out your calling,
• then search our your career options, and
• then do what I have done in this post – find who is living your dream and go seek them out.

And please continue to share with me via comments, email, Facebook, or other what you learn!

My previous post on finding your calling walked you through the process of finding work you love – or finding your calling.

My example was me!

As you should have guessed, that post was part of a process which defines your calling, career, and job. I have seen this many places – but first learned about it from Dan Miller, author of 48 Days to the Work You Love.  I have also detailed this process in my book, Resumes are Worthless.

A List for You?

Hopefully you too have created a list of things you love to do. If not, I encourage you to go back to the post on calling and give it a try. Now  we will look at how you can find a way to make a living doing what you love. REALLY.

Caution

Many words are caution are needed here:

• Write everything down. This is brainstorming, do not second guess the ideas. No one is committing you to them!
• Do not worry about job descriptions or jobs you know of. Instead, just think about how you can get paid even a few dollars for doing something you love.
• Forget about the box that confines you! We can define the box as those things that confine your options. Below is a list of the things that confine many people. How many OTHER things can you think of where your thinking limits you?
• Degree (or no degree)
• Certifications
• Work Experience
• Personal status (age, married or not, kids or not, etc)
• History (fired, immigration status, convicted felon, bankruptcy, etc)
• Financial status (broke, in debt, wealthy, conservative, non-risk taker)

My Example

Starting from the list I made as my example, I will now do step two of the process. Here you are to look back at your list and write down ways to make money from the last list. For me some ways I could make money doing what I love…

• coaching others in finding jobs
• job counselor for county, city, state or some agency
• outplacement coordinator
• book author about how to get work
• book author on taking control of career
• paid speaking on the subject of career
• paid speaking on the subject of empowering your employees to act like a business
• teaching entrepreneurship at college, high-school
• teaching entrepreneurship in seminars for people who want to leave their jobs
• financial counselor, speaker, blogger
• investment advisor for company
• independent investment advisor
• start a university that focuses on teaching real stuff that matters to getting people to work
• sell newsletters on investments
• sell how to guides on real estate investing
• sell how to guides on homeschooling
• sell how to guides on fitness and diet
• real estate flipper
• real estate investing
• commercial pilot
• faculty member in forward thinking business school
• faculty in forward thinking engineering school
• curriculum designer
• success coach
• motivational expert
• healthcare success coach – related to weight, fitness, various medical conditions treated with mind and activity
• speaker on apologetics
• management consultant – helping leaders motivate team and solve issues
• management consultant helping leaders overcome obstacles
• consultant teaching people or companies how to raise income/revenue
• marketing consultant
• TV or radio show around above topics (advertising game)
• Sell advertising for my blog

Our parents wanted us to go to college and have a better life. Our parents worked hard and sacrificed for what they had and to provide for us. We can thank them – today we have a lot more opportunity because of all their hard work.

What about our kids? Are we just working to pay for their college, so they can have the same life we have? It seems we are no longer bettering the generations – instead we are in status-quo mode.

Perhaps the model has changed. Perhaps we need to reconsider what we think works and why.

• Is what we are doing offering hope, or despair to others and ourselves?
• What are our assumptions? Are they still true?
• Have we become lazy?
• Do we need college?
• Do we all need that great job?
• Is anyone innovating anymore?
• Do people really produce today?
• Are we working with blinders on and not seeing truth?

I have my thoughts, but what are yours?