EP3 – Connecting Goals to Vision

Joshua MacLeod:

One of the immaturities in goal setting is that we create goals based on receiving instead of creating goals based on giving. The most successful businesses are those that figure out a way to meet a tangible need.

Voice Over:

Welcome to the Growability Podcast, teaching business owners and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run their business. This episode is the beginning of a four-part series about setting goals. In this episode, we will learn the first step for setting goals, developing vision.

Bernie Anderson:

So, I am an entrepreneur. I love coffee. I’m going to open up a coffee shop. Joshua doesn’t have coffee today. So, I’m going to make sure people like Joshua have coffee, right? So, I’m going to open up a coffee shop. I come to you and I say, “Joshua, I just really like I’ve got the capital. I’m really ready to go here. I’m going to set up this coffee shop thing”. Walk us through that vision and the things you just said about how is that going to change society? How is that going to create abundance for others? Walk me through that as a new potential coffee shop entrepreneur, restaurateur in my community.

Joshua MacLeod:

Okay. So, the first thing I want to point out is that 50% of the people that try to do that are going to fail.

Bernie Anderson:

Thanks. Man.

Joshua MacLeod:

Like within the first like year because there’s some crazy idea that running the organization is the same level of difficulty as working in the organization. Not true. Anybody who runs an organization will quickly say, yeah, this is actually a ton harder. 80% of those that don’t fail are going to fail eventually. So, if you don’t fail in the first two years, in the next five years you’re likely going to fail.

Bernie Anderson:

You probably will fail.

Joshua MacLeod:

So, only like 20% of entrepreneurs that start businesses actually last. Now here’s an interesting statistic, 80% of people who start a second business succeed. If your first business fails, which is highly likely you got an 80% failure likelihood, your second business actually has an 80% success likelihood. Here’s the difference. First business owners typically start a business because they want to change their environment and they want to have more fun and they just feel like I could do this. And it really is focused on me. I want this change. I can do this. I can make a better coffee than anybody else. My logo is cool or my t-shirts are going to be cooler and my coffee is going to be better. So, I want to go and do this. And so, I’m going to jump out and do this.

Joshua MacLeod:

Second businesses realize what is the need in society that I can actually fit that also aligns with what I want to do and who I am and how that works. But that’s the secondary question. The primary question is what is the need in the market? How do I create abundance for others? The first business launch is what you call an education. The second business launches is what you call a career. If you’re thoroughly passionate on the first go around about really getting outside of your own head and really looking at how to serve other people, that’s the only way that you’re going to make it work. So, take an example of Starbucks. It uses coffee, having an addictive substance as your product is not a bad [crosstalk 00:03:45] growing the profit line. But what Starbucks looked at in society is the pre Starbucks if you want to have a business meeting, you can have one at your house, which is kind of unprofessional or you can have one at the office, which is a little bit stuffy. Instead, what Starbucks did is they said, okay, well let’s create a third space.

Joshua MacLeod:

Let’s create a space where you can come sit all day long. It’s free office rental. You have to paid $19 for your coffee, whatever your fancy brew is. I look at that $6, I just said three different prices. That’s probably $6 if you get a mocha latte skinny whip, whatever. It’s $6 but I’m paying for a great meeting space for two hours, for six bucks. Business owners are like, this is great. So, they created this third space that really created an abundance for so many people. I mean think about the amount of meetings that you and I have had at a coffee shop that is comfortable, it’s professional. And so, then they’re like, well when people come they need wifi because they got to show the reports. They got to show their analytics or things like that. Well now wifi is free. So, I think that the very first step for goals is to get out of your own head and say, “how do I create abundance for others?” And that’ll serve you all day long.

Bernie Anderson:

Well what you said was really good. Getting out of your own space, getting out of your own head. If you don’t have the mindset of I am actually going to be changing the culture in which I am living, wherever that may be, you’re probably not going to make it. Just another cup of coffee is another cup of coffee, right? Like I’ve got lots of options there. It’s kind of what Seth Godin talks about is the race to the bottom. I’m just going to keep going and then see if I could do it better, faster, cheaper than the next guy. As opposed to actually thinking in terms of how is this business going to impact the culture around me? So, I think that seems to be really important. How does someone think about this? How do we think about like, all right, so I want to make a difference? I can hear people in the audience saying I want to make a difference. I don’t know how to do that.

Joshua MacLeod:

There’s a great book. You’ve read the book, The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman.

Bernie Anderson:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joshua MacLeod:

Yeah, its a great book. Yeah. So, in that book he made a list of basically value adds in a society. So, what ways do you create abundance for others, like as a business? One is efficacy, which is a question like how well does this work? If I have a wood splitter and a wood splitter gets out 16 logs but like of the 16 logs, 10 of them I have to redo through the machine. If I create a machine where 16 logs 16 out, it’s perfect then that’s really good. So, I can ask myself is my business solution like is efficacy is how well it works a big deal? Another one is speed. Okay. I can get you this a lot faster. If my core benefit is a speedy turnaround, then my goal might be we need to reduce delivery time from three weeks to two weeks on every order. But if my goal is create reliability, our goal is 6,000 uses without fail. What is the core function of the value add that you bring? And really start to create goals from that point.

Bernie Anderson:

Yeah. Oh, that’s so good. I almost see those value adds it’s almost like a series of leavers and there’s no way because of things like cost because of things like speed, there’s no way you can just say, I’m just going to be awesome at all of those things. Right? I’m just going to push it all forward and we’re just going be… We’re going to end, that’s like actually impossible. You may have to sacrifice certain things in order to really excel at other things. So, sure you might be able to say, all right I’m going to be the cheapest. But that means like aesthetically you’re probably not going to be great.

Bernie Anderson:

You’re not going to have a whole lot of status. You may or may not be able to deal with speed because you have to pay people to do this or that. So, I really see those as almost leavers that you’ve got to sort of customize to your product or your service. What is your key takeaway here then today, Joshua? What is the key principle that a leader, a business owner or a nonprofit leader listening to this right now would need to just walk away with?

Joshua MacLeod:

I think if there’s one thing I hope people learn is asking the question before you make a goal and after you make a goal, how does this create abundance for others? That is the point. What is the key to success in an entrepreneurial endeavor? Creating abundance for others. What is the key to creating abundance for your own organization? Creating abundance for others. I think that’s the main takeaway.

Bernie Anderson:

It’s so tied back to what is our purpose? What is our vision? What is our mission? What are our values? And really all of that ties back to that.

Joshua MacLeod:

One of the immaturities in goal setting is that we create goals based on receiving, instead of creating goals based on giving. The most successful businesses are those that figure out a way to meet a tangible need. So, your goals are really missional but they always need to have a vision anchor. First, it’s a vision question. How do I create abundance? And then it’s a mission question of what am I actually doing?

Voice Over:

You have been listening to the Growability Podcast, teaching business owners and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run their business. This podcast was edited from the Growability Weekly Live Lunch and Learn, hosted on Facebook and YouTube at 12 central each week. Thanks for listening. For help growing your business, visit growability.com to discover a great coach, course, or consultation for your business. You can also find great content on our Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn pages.