The 150-Year Business Plan
Most everyone in my life knows I'm a big fan of Scott Galloway. He's one of the few Twitter follows where I allow push notifications for new Tweets. It's a close contest between he, Adam Grant and Jay Rosen for which feed I spend the most time crafting responses and RTs about.
In my framework of content creator fandom - which is personal to me, based on how I consume content and spend attention, and likely differs from yours - fandom has nothing to do with rightness, correctness, perfection or accuracy. Sure, I likely self-select content creators that have more overlap to my existing worldview and beliefs than creators who do not. But I also gravitate toward, and prioritize, creators who balance deep, detailed, differentiated thought with emotional awareness, compassion, honesty, humanity, empathy and grace. Scott is definitely one of those people.
No lie: one of my career aspirations is to appear on a show hosted by Scott and be called a "blue flame thinker". The "blue flame thinker" label is a thinking man's blue checkmark. The algorithm that bestows this honor is merely Scott's judgment and his bullshit detector. I want it one day.
It's this little professional aspiration of mine that made my eyes and brain cycle into overdrive when I read this passage of the entertaining and enjoyable profile at The Information, of Scott (subscription required, below emphasis mine):
True to form, Galloway is jarringly direct about his hopes for the show. “I have two goals: One is to be the most influential thought leader in the history of business, and the second is to create economic security for the people I work with. And I think in order to accomplish the first, you have to be multichannel, you have to be in different mediums. …
"But Galloway—who lives with his family in Florida and regularly commutes to New York—downplays the extreme degree of his productivity. “It’s really kind of a cocktail,” he says, one comprised of three key ingredients. “The first is, I’m a narcissist and I’m desperate for relevance. I want to be not only famous, but I want to be relevant. That drives me. I’m not trying to solve world hunger here; I’m trying to be awesome and be famous. I realize how ridiculous that is, but I’m now old enough to acknowledge it. And it’s motivating. …"
Modern humans are culturally and professionally trained to look at goals in near-term prospects first. The next brass ring is the ring, at least until I have that ring; then, identify a new ring. The goal is a promotion, a house, a child, an income level, a degree, etc. If you define most people's goals in terms of emotional fulfillment, the goals are mostly situational joys or realized achievements; they're outcome-based. This is a perfectly fine way to set goals.
In comparison, two things blew my mind about Scott's articulation of his goals. First, the situational joys that satisfy most people are subgoals of Scott's larger objective. Wealth, respect and fame are stops along the drive, not the destination.
No, the destination - the second thing that blew my mind - is something audacious, aspirational, big, unique. It's impossible to measure without breaking it into smaller bits (which, at times, is a sign you're on the right track). It also might not be realized during Scott's lifetime. I love that approach to goal-setting.
If we looked at a mishmash of Scott's competitive set for such a title - Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter, Malcom Gladwell, Marshall Goldsmith, etc. etc. - and wrote a rough strategy for Scott to achieve this goal, it might look something like this:
GOAL: become the most influential thought leader in the history of business, capable of creating enough wealth for Scott, his family and his colleagues
STRATEGIES:
The bigger the time suck of the content, the more transcendent and lasting its insights must be; do not waste time on insights someone else can say
Create content on popular business analysis channels in a way that allows for trademark traits to shine and for awareness to build; double down on what makes you, you / be memorable
Develop multiple recurring revenue streams that can make money without much intervention
Take occasional huge swings at big revenue streams without compromising the above
Continue to block purposeful time for mental health, personal growth, and emotional fulfillment
MEASURABLES:
Direct: content sales/subscriptions, email newsletter signups, class signups, content virality and staying power, quality and depth of relationships
Indirect: quality of media requests, award lists, book bestseller lists
TACTICS: a whole bunch of content development, books every 3-5 years, time management protocols, opportunity identification, diversification… … …
To accomplish all of this might literally take the entirety of one's life! Some of the direct measurables - to use the late Clayton Christensen as an example - see as much or more growth after the creator has passed, which, one might argue, is the purpose of the goal: for impact ("awesomeness") to last even beyond the life of the creator.
This made me think of a new approach to goal setting: what if we set goals on time horizons that extend beyond our lifetime? Without checking if anyone's ever used such a term before, I'm calling this thought process the 150-Year Business Plan.
The 150-Year Business Plan requires zooming out, and into the future, and attempting to summarize your life's desired output and impact…and then working backwards. ("What do you want written on your tombstone?")
Even allowing for people's goals and dreams to evolve - as everyone's does over the course of their lives - if Scott did even half of this stuff, woke up in 8 years and said, "my new goal is to be the world's most legendary cocoa farmer," he will have accomplished a lot, with more structure, focus and foresight than if his goal was merely to publish a book, or to ink a TV deal, or to make a certain salary, and chances are, some of that awesomeness would be quite lasting.
This is both easier than you think, and harder than you think. Many of us are quite good at it when defining non-professional goals (such as, creating a better future for your child than you had) but set more near-term goals professionally (such as, getting a promotion). How different professional goal setting might look, if the promotion represents merely a milestone of something more lasting.
Many of us are also way better at helping others think bigger about their own lives, while viewing their own existence in smaller, more narrow lenses. We can spout thoughtful, almost mythological advice to friends and colleagues about how to untangle life's most complex mysteries, while we ourselves might debate our own extinction while we wait for a response to an email.
I'm guilty of this myself, and it makes me particularly excited to conduct my own 150-Year Business Plan exercise. A few starter questions I'll use to aid my brainstorming:
What impact do I want to have on the world?
What do I want to create, personally and professionally?
When I'm honest with myself, what validations matter to me?
What do I need to do over the next 15-25 years to set this plan into motion? (ex., what kinds of jobs will aid me? What certifications or qualifications would help? What routines, best practices, rituals, etc., do I need to adopt?)
What kind of community do I need to create to aid my success, keep me accountable, and enrich me, personally and professionally?
What does my personal life look like as this transpires? Why is that not the case now, and what needs to happen for this vision to come to pass?
While it's happening, how do I know it's working? What KPIs and milestones can I set to monitor progress?
I'll report back what I create, and I'd love to hear the results of yours.