The other day I came across a short presentation on entrepreneurship by Larry Page, co-founder of Google. In the presentation Page discusses setting aggressive goals and quotes a rather catchy motto which I think is just brilliant: “Have a healthy disregard for the impossible”.
In this post I thought I’d discuss some of the benefits for entrepreneurs and startups to setting aggressive goals and creating deadlines. But first let me begin with a story from my own experience…
Twenty times and twenty times again
At the beginning of 2007 I sent an email to our fledgling Envato team saying that our goal for the year was to grow our revenue by a factor of 20. While our revenue was quite small at the time, growing such a large way is of course no mean feat. Still the year passed with a lot of hard work, and it transpired that we hit the target almost to a tee by the end of the year. It was a huge milestone, the story of which I will no doubt make into a future post. As you might imagine there was much celebration and many remarks of “Holy Cow!” and “I can’t believe we actually did that”.
When 2008 rolled around, I thought “well if it worked once, maybe just maybe … ” and I sent out another email saying one of our goals for the year was to again grow revenue by a factor of 20. Of course this time our baseline was much higher. So the year ticked along and this time growth wasn’t coming quite as fast but I wasn’t phased because as you know in the beginning of the year it always feels like there is mountains of time.
It was around August that I think it dawned on me that unless something really changed there was no way we’d hit the mark. So we started planning like fiends, trying to figure out what we could do to meet our goal. It’s not that we hadn’t been working hard until then, but I think this realization forced us to see that it was going to take something special to hit this target.
Around August we completely revised our site launch schedule and dumped a site we’d been just a couple weeks away from launching (GraphicRiver) in favour of a different one (ThemeForest) that the team had a much stronger feeling about. We then embarked on our heaviest marketing campaign to date to get the site moving as fast as possible.
Did it work? Well, we never did hit that 20x goal, perhaps that was a tiny bit of unrealistic thinking on my part. However we did quadruple the revenue that year and this huge result was in no small part as a result of the August change of course, ThemeForest’s subsequent launch and focus.
Deadlines
I think to some degree or another most people work best to a deadline. Whether it’s the last minute all-nighter finishing a university project, the rush of getting a client project out to print before the printers close, or the manic activity of making sure your job is all set before you go on holiday. There’s something about a hard and fast end-point that has no give to it that creates laser-like focus.
This deadline-induced behavior is really useful because it encourages you to prioritize, dump the unimportant and focus purely on results. For me waking up in August and realising that the end of year deadline we’d set was looming large meant refocusing our energies in the most productive, results driven way I could think of.
The question then is given that there is no boss or client to set deadlines, how do you create this behavior by yourself?
Setting and Publicly Claiming Goals
When I was 15 I decided I wanted to go bungee jumping. Just to clarify, I’m a pretty normal person, standing on top of a bridge with nothing to hold on to and just a giant rubber band tied around my ankles is not my idea of relaxation. So when I found myself up 150 feet looking out over a snarling river I started having second thoughts, big second thoughts. I distinctly remember the bungee jumping man saying “Just hop out to the edge” and thinking “OMG, you hop out to the edge crazy man!”
But when I looked to the side of the cliff where all the onlookers were gathered I realized I couldn’t back down now. You see it turns out that there is something stronger than my fear of plummeting to my death in a freezing cold New Zealand gorge, and that’s my fear of not doing what I said I was going to do, of looking like a coward and of backing down.
So I jumped.
I don’t remember much about the jump itself, only that moment of frozen terror and the realization that there was no other option but to do what every nerve of my body said I shouldn’t do. Fear of failure is a strong motivator and fear of public failure is an even stronger one.
How can you use that motivation in business? Simple, just announce your goals. Tell your team, tell your friends, or if you’re really game you can even tell the world. Because once they are out there, there’s no way to bring them back, and you either have to live up to them or go down fighting.
For me in 2008 I’d told the team that we were going to hit that 20x growth goal, and once it was out there, I felt a personal responsibility to make it happen … somehow.
Have a healthy disregard for the impossible
When you create goals, no matter how unrealistic they might be, you are deciding that they are possible and that you are going to find a path to meeting them. When those goals are aggressive you set the bar really high. By inducing a deadline mentality in yourself, you force a ruthlessness of thought to pare down inefficiency and go for the heart of the problem and solution.
You may not always hit those goals, just as we did not in 2008. But as the old adage goes: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
Very well said! Having a deadline is probably one of the most important parts of creating a successful objective.
On a side note, you somehow in the process of writing this post got me wanting to go bungee jumping.
Thank you for this bit of inspiration. Thank you also for having such a lovely large (actually, normal) font size – just the thing to let my eyes relax after staring at monitors all day at work.
Awesome. I too fall under pressure. I think Tony Robbins mentioned that we tend to live up to our image/expectations. When I say that I’m a lazy bum, I will make sure that people believe me. When I say that I am very organized when it comes to such and such, I will push myself to make that I live up to that expectation.
I guess my question is, does logic play a role in these goals? Do you think about the details ahead of time or do you just set a goal and think about the details as they come?
Well this has certainly inspired me to work with higher targets!
I have no idea what target to set myself, but that’s besides the point.
Thanks Collis!
This is a fantastic post! The quote from Larry Page is extremely inspirational and a great motto to live by. Your explanation of your experiences really help to hammer away the points and help them make sense.
I love this blog in particular (as well as the other Evato projects). Your content is always motivational and keeps me on track.
i m inspired from u Collis.
i like nettuts the best !
Nice article Collis, interesting and motivational
This is how I used to push myself to cross the limits.. and it really worked, but from a time on I stopped to feel afraid to public failure.. how can I feel motivated again? Please I would really appreciate an advice from your part. Thanks in advance!
Any advice for motivating Chinese who don’t know culturally what a deadline is?
Seriously – I’d appreciate some tips.
Very nivce article, collis!
Great post, really inspires me =)
Very interesting!
I recently read ‘How to castrate a bull’ (Dave Hitz, about NetApp), which discusses hypergrowth, and setting an amazing goal of doubling revenue every year for five years. A very similar strategy to yours!
He talks about the knock-on effect that such a strategy has on management, recruitment, training and so on – did you find something similar, or were your systems already in place to handle this?
Fantastic post Collis I especially liked the part about “Setting and Publicly Claiming Goals” – I discovered this a while back and have managed to deliver on a few key, seemingly impossible tasks using this method.
Yes, it may sometimes scare the hell out of you, but it’s healthy stress and can really be quite motivating.
I also wish you and ThemeForest all the best, it’s a great resource and I’m sure it will go from strength to strength.
I think sometimes setting deadlines and goals publicly does not work in your favor. You will begin doing things for others without enjoying them.
This kind of mind state drive you away from your passion.
I prefer setting goals for myself and not making promises for others unless I’m sure to keep them.
Awesome post Collis. Thanks, incentive to push yourself and strive for excellence is always a must in order to be successful.
I do agree that deadlines can bring focus and can have some value – without ship dates we’d likely be in the stone age.
However, I hate deadlines and really have a very mixed feeling about them. Douglas Adams got it right IMHO when he said “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” I’m currently listening to that whooshing sound – hence this arbit procrastinatory comment.
On an aside, please resist this adage: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” It is the most contrary to logic adage ever. I had a teacher in school who said it routinely and for years my classmates and I would die of laughter thinking this teacher the biggest idiot on terra firma. Obviously, as a class full of 11 year old boys and girls figured out immediately, you would shoot for the STARS and get the MOON as your participation prize, not the other way around.
I was really shocked when I discovered this medieval phrase is often used by intelligent people, especially in America, a country where clarity of thought especially in language is typically rewarded. Use of this phrase comes across as almost insulting, which is sad because I know your intention is to motivate and even though I disagree with your conclusion, this is a fairly insightful blog post.
Nothing that hasn’t already been said but I still wanted to leave a comment to say I found this piece inspiring even more then I found it educational. A great piece I’m glad I stumbled on.
An easy piece to read not just because of the great writing but also because of a great design. It is a relief as Jason said being able to relax your eyes for once in a day of computer work.
Keep up the awesome posts!
@Derek Herman
It’s funny you say that, cause after I read the post; I’m even more terrified of the idea of jumping off a bridge with hopes that the industrial strength trojan doesn’t break.
In fact, not only am I now terrified of bungee jumping, but I’m now second guessing the pull and pray method of birth control.
Good post, Collis!
I realy apreciate this post. Set agressive goals and maintain itself focused is hard. Valuable tips.
I recently started sharing my todo-list with clients. Every task has a deadline, so I can’t afford to miss the deadline.
When I started my business I kept telling everyone I would have an office and staff by 2012.. I think I’m on the right track already..
Great post. Hit home for me
Collis,
This is invaluable information. I can’t believe the amount of confidence I continue to get after each post.
Thanks a lot. You are going to make me a better entrepreneur.
Great post mate – even if you did spell prioritise ‘wrong’
Very inspiring post. I’m glad I found this blog today.
/Martin Leblanc
Great post! I agree with you 100 percent. Deadlines force us to focus and get it done whatever it takes. And as stated in Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour-Workweek, the effort we put forth in a sustained and focused shorter period is usually as effective if not more than having a longer period to complete a project. Deadlines force us to act, and action is ultimately what we want, day after day. Action = results.
Very good post I’ve ever seen in this site
Thanks, this is a really inspiring post.
You may want to check out http://www.GoalsOnTrack.com, a very nicely built web app designed for tracking goals and todo lists, and has time tracking. It’s clear, focused, easy to navigate, worth a try.
really well stated
I use this kind of approach-
always tell to my friends,family means everybody
then i did it in the past
its been always fear of failure and fear of public failure works as great motivator .
Really interesting post, now I’m a goal enthusiastic!