Goal Setting Tools for Your Success

(Appeared in the San Diego Business Journal, October 7, 2002)

Pet Rocks and the millennium-ending tech bubble aside, success is not an accident. Success in business (e.g., wealth) and outside business (e.g., doing what you are passionate about) don't just happen, and aren't just the result of working hard and paying dues.

Moreover, even if you do create wealth – perhaps by building one of the fastest growing companies on this publication's list – it can just as easily enslave you as empower you. As Steven Covey wrote in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, "It's incredibly easy to get caught in the activity trap, in the busy-ness of life" without getting any closer to what you would consider personal success.

The difference between being enslaved and empowered by your success is running your life like you run your business, that is, according to plan. The personal strategic plan and its power is something to which every business owner should be devoting time and energy.

The Personal Strategic Plan

A personal strategic plan must be both visionary (have your "best" end in mind) and specific (including the steps to get there). It must be in writing because that drives focus and provides a reference for assessing progress.

Importantly, a personal strategic plan must engage a "success team" in order to be converted from plan to reality. If the team helps craft the plan, you gain the benefit of different perspectives and they will all be vested in the results (i.e., success). Finally, like a business, to achieve optimal outcomes, your team should be comprised of "A-Level" talent.

As Paul Hynes, senior vice president at Salomon Smith Barney Inc., says, "Planning for your personal enterprise should involve the same acumen that you use in planning for your successful business. You will want to have the best people working with you and a road map for everyone to follow.

"Communication is key," he continues, "so you should convene meetings of your team on a regular basis. Finally, the client should probably appoint one the team members to keep track of everything and keep things moving, a personal chief financial officer, if you will."

This may seem obvious when you read it, but it is a point of departure for most successful business people. Consider your personal wealth (and life success) as an enterprise. It runs, has ups and downs, and can be managed. Now consider your wealth/success advisors – attorneys, CPAs, investment bankers, financial experts, macro strategic planners, etc. – as department heads of the enterprise. Then answer this question: When was the last time you brought the department heads of your personal enterprise together, if ever?

When Success is Not Success

They were in the process of buying out their partners. Most of their not-insignificant net wealth was tied up in the business (sound familiar?). Wright asked them questions about what their perfect life would look like, and then dropped a bombshell by pointing out that working 70 hours a week to run the business wasn't on the list.

They got it. If they bought out their partners, they would encumber their lives – they would be enslaved by their success. If, on the other hand, they sold the business, they could take their money, focus on their perfect lives and be empowered by their success.

Success is not success if it doesn't allow you to live your perfect life.

Nontraditional Questions Essential to Planning

• If you could wave a magic wand to create your perfect life, what would it be?
• How would you empower your spouse, children and grandchildren?
• If you could exchange your current calendar for your "perfect" calendar, what would it look like?
• What is preventing you from doing that right now?
• How much business success and wealth would be enough for you?
• When will you get there and what if you could get there sooner?

Then consider your team of advisors and ask these questions.

• Which of your advisors have asked about any of this?
• Which advisors have the necessary skill sets to help you articulate and achieve your ideal life and business?
• Do you see how working together as a team, skilled experts will produce a better outcome?

When Success is Success

We know that today's business owners and executives are increasingly concerned with, and motivated by balance and personal success. Since personal strategic planning is the way to achieve that balance and life success, it begs the question of why more successful businesspeople aren't doing it. Having read this, are you ready to start?

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