There is a commonly reference proverb that states:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”

This is used to encourage you to set goals and aim for success. The idea is to not focus on how you are going to do something or what road you will take, but rather focus on where you want to end up – your destination – to determine the route. Even if you don’t know the route to take, but know the destination then as you live your life the route becomes known – the opportunities arise.

First things first, set a goal – determine the success you want to achieve.

Many years ago, I was soldier stationed in Germany and while I was there, I met an older gentleman who was always willing to give me advice on any topic that I asked. He was a retired office and at the time worked for a Defense contractor. The best advice he gave me was to always do my best on what I am working on at the moment and let the details of what to do next work out for themselves.

Ever since I was a teenager, I was always looking toward the next things I wanted to do. When I was fifteen, I wanted to start working toward certain college degrees, but I wasn’t focusing very well on completing my high school diploma. I spent more time focusing on the topics that interested me, but didn’t give my best efforts in the general topics of high school. Of course, later in life, I learned how important the foundation of general knowledge is in working toward higher learning topics.

When I was in college, I remember taking an assessment to determine my learning style. I scored nearly even across all categories. What this indicated was that I was driven by the topics that interest me at the time that they interest me. I can delve into single topic and learn more about it in a short period of time, but when it comes to learning and studying specific topics as set by a University curriculum, at times, I didn’t have the interest, so I didn’t delve in to the same motivation as I focus on non-curriculum topics. Completing my degrees, while simple from my intellectual perspective, became difficult because of motivation and working on the topics as given to me rather than those I sought myself.

There is an un-sourced quote from former Secretary of State and General Colin Powell that I have always enjoyed:
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.”

In this one quote, Colin Powell breaks down a three-point process for success: Preparation, Hard work, and Learning from Failure.

1. Preparation – Set goals. Don’t focus your attention on all the details of how to achieve your goals, but focus primarily on the goals.
2. Work hard – In everything that you do, do it to the best of your abilities. The opportunities will come your way, but you need the foundation set in place in order for the opportunities to come.
3. Learn from Failure – This has been a common theme on this blog. Failures are not the problem, but rather one of the opportunities. How you respond to failure better determines success in the future than nearly anything else. How you respond to failure demonstrates your work ethic, your determination, your perspective, and your level of experience.

As 2008 becomes history and 2009 becomes the present, this is a new year with new opportunities – make the most of this year starting now.

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Dustin Wax wrote an excellent post at LifeHack.org for 8 Ways to Achieve Success in 2008. Specifically, there were two parts in the post that I really enjoyed:

1. The SMART acronym which is credited to George Doran is an excellent breakdown for developing goals. In short, you should set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevent, and Time-bound.
2. The step to “accept failure graciously” is, as readers of my blog know, a pertinent point.

 Failure and Success

I wrote an article on October 9th titled 3 Steps for How to Respond to Failure. The article has been widely read for the topic (and the 2nd most popular page on this blog). Failure is a significant topic for a lot of people. I would dare to say that very few people achieve anything of great significance without some set-backs and, most likely, were able to succeed in the end for how the person responded to the failures.

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Last week, I wrote Dreams, Goals, Planning, and the Decisions that Matter with the core message that dreams can become reality through implementing long-term goals with sound planning and decisions.  I want to build on that with the business and leadership focus on vision.

Leadership quote from Allen Pathmarajah:
“The difference between vision and hallucination is action.”

3 Steps to a Successful Vision:

1. Have a Vision

Many corporations and organizations have a corporate vision.  These are usually developed by top management and reflect the long-term goals for the company.

This vision should be definite, but broad.  It is better to say that company is seeking to have the largest market share in its industry or to develop the highest quality products than to merely say the company is seeking to be the best.

2. Communicate the Vision

A corporate vision is a top-down message.  Top managers from the CEO and COO to the department directors should communicate the vision.  There should be publications (posters, newsletters, and email messages) that make the vision known by everyone in the company.

3. Take Action on the Vision

As Allen Pathmarajah notes, the vision is useless to the company if it is not acted upon.  To ensure the vision gets needed action:

A. Keep the vision up to date, fresh, and relevant.

The vision should be continually reviewed, updated, and kept relevant.  If the company has achieved the largest market share, then the vision should be changed to “sustain the largest market share.”

B. Continually communicate the vision.

It is not enough for one newsletter to communicate the vision.  If the last time your employees read or heard about the visions was three years ago when the new CEO put it out, then your employees have forgotten about it.

C. Demonstrate what the company is doing.

There should be evidence of how the vision is implemented within the organization.  This evidence should be shown and communicated with the vision.  The words of the vision should be exemplified through the activities of the company.  This is the “how to” message from the CEO to every manager.

For more on action, read Ready, set…Action and Do Something.

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Every leader has dreams.  Most of us have had dreams since we were children.  We had dreams of who we wanted to be – a fireman, a policeman, a soldier, the President of United States, a CIA spy, or, maybe, rich.  Whatever it was and whatever it still may be, dreams can come true.  In order to make them a reality, you have to think of them as something different than dreams – goals, or, specifically, long-term goals.

Goals

I once told a friend, “All your dreams can be realized with the mere implementation of incremental goals.”  In college, most of us learned about creating long-term and short-term goals.  You can have short-term goals without long-term goals, but, generally, you cannot have long-term goals without short-term goals.  Short-term goals are the steps on the path to long-term goals and planning is the key to the gateway to that path.

Leadership quote from Lester R. Bittel:
“Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.”

Plans

Creating a plan lets you know what to do and when to do it.  Planning creates tasks for every day and detailed plans even create tasks for every minute and every hour.  Planning and tasks keep you focused and direct your effort to accomplish the short-term goals.  Once you have reached the short-term goal, your planning drives you past it to the next short-term goal.  If you have created a good plan that accounts for problems, stumbling blocks, then you can work your way around those obstacles on the path toward your long-term goals.

Decisions

The better your plan is, the better your decisions will be.  Planning requires you to think about the many facets of a task and objectives (short-term goals).  When you plan, you should thoroughly consider the points of who, what, when, where, why, and how, and, also, realize that each may have multiple sub-points.  When you plan, then when you encounter a decision point, you have the knowledge and the considerations to guide your decisions.

Remember: “All your dreams can be realized with the mere implementation of incremental goals.” ~Jonathan Frye

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