Hi GirdleyWorld!
Thanks for reading. Today explains my system for long-term goal setting.
I’ve also got a couple of reader questions in the mailbag section — if you have questions about holdcos, entrepreneurship, or which is the best American casual dining restaurant chain, reply to this email and ask away!
Let’s go!
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Personal Update
Mrs. Girdley and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary next spring. To celebrate, we’re going to Barcelona for a week or so.
Given I’ll be 18 months into my “get conversational at Spanish” journey by then, I’m excited.
In the meantime, I have lots of Spanish-speaking travel coming up to work on it. That’ll include trips to Mexico City (long weekend) and a week in Buenos Aires with the Near leadership team.
I’m most worried about Argentina. Their Spanish is the most challenging for me to understand.
To speed things up, I added a second tutor to my weekly lessons. He is Leonardo is from Venezuela. Compared to my tutor in Spain (Elizabeth), his accent and pronunciation is downright crystal clear. If you’d like referrals to either of them, I think they’re great.
So, two questions for you:
- Should I do a future newsletter on my “How I’m learning a 2nd language as an old AF adult” system?
- What should I do and see in Barcelona in April 2024?
Reply here – I read everything.
OK, on to the system I use that gives me the time to go on these trips…
Working hard but getting nowhere
Early in my career, I didn’t make any long-term plans.
It’s a big regret.
I worked hard. I was always busy. But I didn’t seem to get any closer to the big things I wanted to do.
It wasn’t until I was about 41 that I realized I needed to make a change.
So I took the goal-setting system I use in so many of my businesses and adapted it for my personal life. It’s been transformative.
I’ll run you through the system first, then give you some things to think about.
10-year goal
I start with picking a 10-year goal.
Here are the rules:
- It has to be a single number (like earnings, etc) or a state (like “retired”)
- It has to be a bit scary but achievable
- It has to be measurable
Some examples might be, “Be worth $X million” or “Retired with $Xk fixed income”.
3-year goal
Next I write a “vivid vision” of what my desired life will look like in 3 years if I’m on track for that 10-year goal.
This one isn’t just a number. It’s a bulleted list of everything:
- Earnings
- Relationships
- Living situation
- Cash flow
- Vacations
- Etc.
If possible, each of these should be defined by a number as well. That makes it measurable.
1-year goals
Then I ask myself, “If I want to achieve the 3-year vision and be on track for the 10-year, what do I need to accomplish this year?”
Then I write down the S.M.A.R.T. goals I need to do this year to stay on track.
“What are S.M.A.R.T. goals?” you ask. Read on…
To stay on track for the year, you want to set at most 7 S.M.A.R.T. goals.
That’s an acronym for how you write effective goals:
- Smart
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
So, “I will climb Mount Everest this year” is S.M.R.T., but not Achievable because I’m old AF. :-)
Quarterly goals
I break each of the 1-year goals down into quarterly goals (3 months each).
At the start of each quarter, I set the 3-7 SMART goals needed to keep me on track for the year.
Then I track the heck out of these items.
In some ways, these quarterly goals are the most critical, since they’re the building blocks of everything bigger.
Some thoughts on this system
The beauty of this system is what’s NOT in it.
The harsh truth is that items 8 to 200 on my to-do list won’t move the needle on my dreams.
Setting goals this way forces me to focus, even though it’s hard to cut things down so ruthlessly.
But it saves me from “entrepreneurial purgatory”: being busy but never getting ahead.
How long does this take?
Overall this doesn’t take a ton of time to put together.
You probably have some idea already of what you want your life to look like. This exercise just makes you think about it in concrete ways.
For me, the 10-year goal is a soul-searching process that took me lots of long walks.
For my one-year goals, I go away by myself for a weekend each year. I try to come back with the next year planned out.
What’s your goal?
My goal is to have freedom from things I hate and power to do things I love.
I quantified that as X number of ventures with Y amount of net-worth increase, basically.
Doesn’t a 10-year goal change over time?
Sure, it might. And you can revisit it as often as you want.
As long as it matches what’s in my heart, I keep mine the same.
But the moment it’s impossible, or too small, or not my “best life”, it’s time to make a change.
In practice, this is at most every few years for me.
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Reader Questions
Want your questions answered? Just reply to this email — I read everything that comes in!
Do you ever require your CEOs to invest their own money into the business? If so, can you finance it? Do they get a loan? Do they have cash? How do you figure this out BEFORE you hire them?
I don’t require this, but it’s a huge plus. Skin in the game, as a principle, has a ton of benefits. It’s impossible to BS the existence of committing your own savings to a venture.
In putting together ventures, I want to have a frank conversation with everyone involved. What are we each trying to achieve? What resources do we want to bring? Where do we want to be on the risk-reward spectrum?
If I can’t have that conversation, I know it’s a huge red flag. If we can, I can then try to make magic happen to work with everyone to structure things to achieve our collective goals.
How much of your success depends on your ability to attract skilled people who you can hand off ideas for them to execute?
I think most people way overvalue ideas. They’re important, but given the choice between a 10x great person as a leader or a great idea, I’d choose the great person every time.
Inverting that thought: If I’m the one providing all the ideas, we have a real problem. If you think about it, there is no way I (as someone removed from the situation) can make better decisions than a smart person who lives and breathes it every day.
Given that, the real challenge becomes one of crafting scenarios where everyone wins. Choosing the right partners, and getting everyone arranged appropriately, gets you to 1+1=5.
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3 things that caught my eye this week
Appetizer: This worm farm for sale. How great is that? We looked at this deal on Acquisitions Anonymous, and loved it. (Check out the episode here!)
Main: If California was a country it would rank in the top 10 largest GDPs worldwide. Check out this state-by-state breakdown of the USA’s $20T economy.
Dessert: We started a #wins Slack channel for Scalepath. I love seeing CEOs benefiting from our stuff!
That’s it for this issue! Looking forward to your questions, and see you next week!
Michael
