On Apr 17, 2019, at 2:27 PM, Oren Klaff <oren@pitchanything.com> wrote:
My company only works with experts, is that you?
Do you buy into this ... "To be successful, you need to set big audacious goals."
I'm hearing that everywhere.
Every consultant we use is telling me:
"Hey Oren, you know what your PROBLEM is ...
You need to set some "Big Hairy Audacious Goals."
Uh, No .... I really don't. And stop telling me that.
Despite what you might read in the "you can do it" books and regardless of what the motivational speakers may preach at their "change your life" seminars, my research shows that setting big goals for yourself and your employees can actually send you spiraling in the completely wrong direction.
Let me explain:
A couple months ago, I hired a new guy to run business development for my online program, Pitch Mastery.
His name was Joe.
When we first met, a green light went off in my head.
"He's perfect!" I told my team.
Some people just have a look that inspires confidence, and Joe is definitely one of those people. This twenty-six year old is tall, athletic, and tanned, with a winning smile and a voice that was hypnotic to listen to.
His last job?
A producer on Shark Tank, and before that he'd worked for the TED conference..
Of course, I hired him on the spot.
First day on the job, Joe called me into his office.
What's up?
He had spent the morning "analyzing" our lead-flow and "customer acquisition process".
He said, "Oren, we can sell an additional $1.5 million per month."
Whoa, hey, that's great, because... I'd sure love another $1.5 million, per month!
Then came those fateful words ... AUDACIOUS GOALS.
"Oren," he told me, "if you want to grow your business, you've got to start setting big hairy audacious goals for yourself and putting everything on the line to achieve them. It's the only way you're going to get huge results."
This was all sounding great. I know how to "put myself on the line."
I've done it in sports, in business and in life.
Joe, the 26 year old wunderkind, was going to 2X my product sale in a single month? And then 2X it again?!
I started to imagine all the extra motorcycles I could buy with an extra million or two a month. I could even take my team to Switzerland for the summer and write a new book on the idyllic shores of Lake Geneva, which I've been wanting to do.
"Alright," I nodded, as I wondered which motorcycle I would buy first (probably a Ducati Superleggera)...
"Let's do it."
During the next few days, Joe lived up to his word.
He plastered the hallways with motivational quotes like "Your attitude determines your altitude" and "If you want to be better, you have to do better." This guy was a force of nature.
But something happened that week that I hadn't anticipated.
Although revenue was going up ...
This process started consuming more and more of my time. I was being pulled into hour-long calls left and right with clients, partners, and leads.
On Wednesday night I missed my son's hockey practice.
On Thursday night I missed my CrossFit workout.
In the mornings, I started grabbing breakfast on the way to the office and scarfing it down instead of making my wife a cappuccino, eating with my family and taking my son to school.
"It's ok," I thought to myself, "this is the only way we're going to get huge results. We have to achieve the big hairy audacious goal no matter what..."
But something felt "off" about the whole thing. Sure, it was all pretty reasonable on the surface, and I do like to work harder than the next guy out there...
...but there was something bothering me all week that I couldn't put my finger on.
So, Friday morning after getting caught on a particularly long and tedious call with a group of new customers...
I barricaded myself in my office and started dialing all of the most successful people I know—entrepreneurs in industries like banking, real estate and software.
This is a group of serious players worth at least $5 billion.
As I talked with these contacts, an interesting pattern started to emerge.
Not a single one of these multi-millionaires told me they'd gotten where they were by setting "big hairy audacious goals" and "risking everything to achieve them".
In fact, they basically said the exact opposite.
"I didn't want to push too hard and blow my business up," one told me, "it's not possible to double overnight without taking huge risks .... think carefully before you commit yourself to any hyper-growth business plan."
"There's always risk in business" another told me, "but I make sure to focus on trying to reduce risk, not add more."
"We worked up to it slowly," said the most successful of the bunch, "I only devoted the bare minimum to any initiative until I could be 100% sure it was a winner."
Armed with these new insights, I put in a call to the head of my research team and asked him to dig around and see what he could uncover about so-called big hairy audacious goals.
Are they even a good idea at all?
He came back a couple hours later with a much more definitive answer than I had expected: absolutely not a good idea.
Studies show that successful entrepreneurs don't act on anything until they are sure it's going to work. They don't waste time and resources on big moon shot goals. They work up to success methodically, one step at a time.
So how is it that so many of us get pulled into setting these crazy moon-shot objectives for ourselves (when the richest and most successful don't)?
Because it's a convenient myth we want to believe in.
Consider how the media works, how books, TV shows, and Hollywood films are built on this simple premise:
1. Create a character you can identify with.
2. Put him in a crazy situation.
3. And set him on a collision course with a HUGE obstacle.
This collision course with a huge obstacle (usually a nuclear bomb, serial killer or rogue police officer gone bad), is there to show you the character has no way out. He's completely committed!. Failure cannot be an option.
When the character triumphs (and he always does), he becomes a hero.
Regular guy turns into a hero.
The Hero Frame is exactly how we get sucked into big hairy audacious goals.
Because it does feel good setting out to conquer something huge and daring, and putting everything on the line to achieve it.
The problem is that it's not smart from a business perspective.
The risks are too big, and the rewards don't make your life any better.
What, do you need a huge house, a bigger swimming pool, a Lamborghini or something? Trust me, you don't. You can have mine.
Ok, sure, I get it, companies like Google and Tesla and Amazon spend $100 million on crazy ideas all the time, but:
1. They are using other people's money.
2. When they screw up and lose $100 mil., it's like you spending $500 on a new idea, it's nothing.
3. Who cares what Google is doing...are you Google? Are you the best company on earth with 98,771 employees?
I told Joe, my new hire and master salesman, to call off the BHAG goal program and focus instead on good and steady growth of the existing marketing funnel.
"I'm open to testing some new ideas," I said, "but I'm not ready to blow up my current business model and personal life to chase this arbitrary mission. Sorry."
And with that, I left the office early to go watch my son play hockey.
Anyway, where's the lesson in all this ...
First, ask yourself what unreasonable goals are you setting for yourself? What is it costing you?
The most successful entrepreneurs will tell you this:
Take the cards that were dealt to you, work with them, and shoot for goals that you can realistically hit without:
- stressing everyone out,
- compromising your values, and
- risking your business.
In other words:
Don't shoot a cannonball from a canoe.
If you really want to grow your company faster (and without added risk), contact me here, and I'll show you how I would do it.
www.workwithoren.com
I invest a lot of time and money to research how people behave in stressful situations, especially when it comes to buying and selling from each other.
Accordingly, my book Pitch Anything is a good way to learn how to make selling more fun, less intimidating and less stressful.I take the time to share these stories with you in recognition that it may give us a reason to connect and work together on a new and interesting project.
If you've got a big idea and want to grow your company (or it's time for you to sell your company), there are a lot of ways we can and should work together, let's talk.
Pitch Industries, 5825 Avenida Encinas #110, Carlsbad, CA 92008
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