I was listening to David Hyner being interviewed by Ian Brodie recently. No, not Ian Broudie of the famed 1990’s pop combo, The Lightning Seeds, but he of the Authority Marketing Podcast.
David Hyner interviewed 149 people who are at the top of their fields. Sports, business, celebrity, people who are the best at whatever it is they do. He found that the one common factor between all of these people was that they all had what he calls ‘a massive goal’
They did not have a realistic goal, they all had something totally unrealistic, even fanciful, to aim at.
But the really interesting thing that Hyner found was that beneath having a Cloud Kookoo Land goal nearly all his interviewees had a real driven purpose that meant they became more fearless than others. They were on some kind of mission.
So what about we mere mortals?
Most of us have never really considered that we have that passion driving us mercilessly towards some kind of Nirvana. But do not despair. I regard myself a pretty average at most things; average height, average intelligence, average weight, but the good news is that the sense of purpose can grow and it certainly did with me.
I give business advice to people. It covers many areas but actually it boils down to using a lot of experience gained over many years, listening and collaborating openly with my team of people because, lets face it, as the average man I am almost never ‘the cleverest person in the room’. My passion seemed to grow on me, my ‘why’ found me.
Actually, even David Hyner’s massive goal grew on him over a period of time, it was not a eureka moment.
By coincidence I have been reading Verne Harnish’s book ‘Scaling up’ and he talks about having a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal as a key thing that enables businesses to succeed.
I don’t know about you, but I now certainly have what I call my BFG; The B is for BIG and the G unsurprisingly stands for GOAL. And in polite circles the F stands for FANTASTIC.
It’s nothing new and nothing revolutionary but in simple terms what the top people often do is set big goals, think of the things they need to do to achieve them, prioritise, take action, and then never give up.
They also seem to listen to their gut brain as much as the supposed more logical brain in their head.
As a good friend of mine once told me, ‘I have seen a lot of people who have worked really hard and not had the fortune to become really successful, but I have never seen any successful person who has not worked really hard’. So for startup companies, work hard and aim high!
Maybe that’s the answer?
Patrick Burge is Co-Founder of Smorgasbord Startup services who offer a range of business advice, services, funding and mentoring to Startup and growth companies in the UK.
