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It’s About THEIR Goalpost
This is episode three of a three-part series. I didn’t tell everybody what I was doing, but it was a three-part series on goal-setting and what I call taking a flyer and taking a chance. I finished the year with the concept of taking a flyer and taking a big chance and I started this year with the previous episode about some examples, a clear-cut of written goals that have happened to me and happened to others. I’m going to finish this one with a different twist on goal-setting. I know people have heard the cliché, “If you want to get everything you want in life, just help enough other people get what they want in life.”
A lot of people don’t have a vehicle to help other people get what they want in life, so they let that one roll off. I’m going to say it again, if you want to get what you want in life, all you got to do is help enough other people get what they want in life and there you go. I want to give you a different way. I got this idea as Cody Parkey from the Chicago Bears somehow magically for the sixth time this season kicked a field goal for the Chicago Bears that ended up hitting the goalpost and not going through. This happen to cost them the game, with no time on the clock and the Bears are no longer in the playoffs. Where I was emotionally distraught and in denial for the next hour or two walking around the house like a zombie, I woke up realizing this could be used as a great stage to teach goal-setting.
Whether it's in your head or whether it's written down and it's clear, you have a goal and it is what it is. Click To Tweet
This is something that I expressly need the business leaders to pay attention to because this is one of the things that can be done with the least amount of energy, that can produce the greatest amount of both physical reward and financial reward. Physical, meaning things can be built faster, things can be produced faster, ideas can be implemented faster and then money can be made faster with this little exercise. I want you to first picture yourself. You’re the business leader. Let’s say you’re a one-person shop and you don’t even know how you’re going to sell, what you’re going to sell or what you’re doing. You know eventually, you’re going to need vendors. You’re going to need suppliers, you’re going to need distributors, platforms and put your website on. You’re going to need to talk to people. You’re going to need people to help you in some way, shape, or form.
I want you to fast forward and pretend that you have three employees, three virtual assistants, three vendors, what have you or you already own a company with all that plus 1,000 employees. It doesn’t matter. Most people are going into the year or any January and you’ve got somewhat of a goal in mind. For most of you who don’t write goals down, you say, “I got it in my head. I know what we’re going to do.” For years I used to say to people, “We double every year. I don’t need to write my goals down.” That ended about years ago. My point is whether it’s in your head or whether it’s written down and it’s clear, “This is the goal. This is how I’m going to get there per week, per day, or per month,” it is what it is. You have a goal and I’m going to call that goal a goalpost in football or the soccer net in soccer.
Most people’s goals are so far off, they say things to themselves like, “This is cool but it’s going to take me sixteen weeks to lose all this weight. That’s four months. If I could just see the fat come off faster or here’s our financial goal for the company. It’s going to take every bit of six to twelve months. If I could see some first fruits immediately to know this is going to work.” Here’s the thing, setting goals is often daunting and because we subconsciously put the goalposts so far out there, many of us quit quickly or don’t even start. One way to do a different version of goal setting, make it emotionally stimulating and show much faster results, is if you take it away from your goalpost and start looking at other people’s goalpost.
Jeff Hoffman, the Cofounder of Priceline, who’s a lot of times the closing speaker at our big Digital Footprint events. About every other time he comes out and speaks, he reminds the audience of a story of an employee he had in, which one day he walked up to the cubicle of this employee and said, “John, I see that picture of that house. Is that your next home?” He says, “No, that’s a dream of mine. I want to retire my mom and I want to move her to Florida.” It was a small home. It wasn’t a real big mansion or anything sizable. It was a ranch. Jeff Hoffman got so moved by that little picture of the house and how this young man wanted to retire his mom that he literally grabbed a chair with wheels, sat next to the kid all day long. He helped him on the project he was on and for the next X amount of weeks, he started working on John’s project with one-fourth of his hours each week. The office got wind of this and each person’s started dedicating one hour a week to John’s goal of retiring his mom.
This was so emotional for Jeff Hoffman that his company rallied around one of his employees that when it was all said and done, his employee earned enough money and Jeff helped out and a couple of nuggets. They ended up flying out the mom to Florida with Jeff there and a lot of the employees to show off this person’s new home. They didn’t even tell her it was her home. It was all big surprise. The bottom line is everybody’s crying. Jeff tells the story. He can’t stop crying. Everybody in the audience is crying because it’s a story of the founder of a company taking his eyes off his goalpost and putting them on an employee’s goalpost.
He was a dog on a bone. Jeff Hoffman was not going to let this kid miss this goal of retiring his mom and buying her this ranch house in Florida. Jeff wanted to be a part of it. Since that time, Jeff takes it upon himself to make sure every single week of whatever companies he’s running. He has some time set aside to sit next to an employee and work on their goalpost. What Jeff found is when he starts taking his eyes off his goalpost and putting them on the employees’ goalpost, the other employees rally to that as well. They also get reminded to set their own goalposts, their own dreams, which often take their eyes off themselves and put them on other people. Here’s my question to you, “Who’s on your team? Who’s in your family? Who’s close to you that you can walk up to and say, ‘What is your goalpost right now? What is a dream of yours? What is a goal of yours?’” They go, “I don’t know. Why are you asking?” “Don’t worry about that. I’m just curious.”
What are you working on right now that’s a dream or a goal of yours? I would love to help you with that. I’ve got some extra time. I’ve got some extra talent. How can I help you? I take this seriously that every single week people call up Income Store and they say, “I just sold this piece of property. I heard you guys can help us move this money into a revenue-generating website. I hear you’re a property manager at this stuff.” I get on the phone and I will not let five minutes go by and I always say the Jeff Hoffman type of line. I said, “I got to stop you for a minute. Tell me a little bit about your 9 to 5.” “I do this.” “How did you hear of Income Store?” “I heard you here. My buddy told me about you.” I get those out of the way. I build rapport. I get to know who these people are, where they live, what they’re all about, then I say the most important thing. Here’s the most important question, “Are you doing this because you’re looking for some extra cashflow? You need to diversify what you’re doing or is there actually an end goal in mind?” I say it exactly this way every time, “Is there actually an end goal in mind? Are you trying to generate leads for your business? Are you trying to maybe retire your wife? Are you trying to put kids through college?”
I list off a few things based on their background, where they live and what they’ve told me so far. I list a few options and inevitably, it’s never one of the three. It’s always, “I’m glad you asked. Honestly, I’m trying to help my dad or I saw this.” They always have something that I’m able to pull out of them. I say, “I want you to know something. I’m not going to forget this. I’m going to write this down and I’m going to tell it to your project manager that the reason you’re doing this is for this. They’re going to literally help you get that goalpost a little closer.” I cannot tell you how emotional this is for some people when they realize we don’t just have 150 employees running around in two different countries trying to help people make more money through websites. They know we care, they know we get what they’re trying to do and they love us for it. Here’s my question to you, “Who is close to you that if you take your eye off your goalpost, you can get involved in their goalpost? You can help them achieve their goal and every time you help them achieve their goal, it moves your goalpost a little closer.” I hope this does make sense. Help somebody else out with their goalpost. Take care.
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