Lesson 5 - BHAG

Coaching for College Students

Lesson 5 – “BHAG” part I

This lesson introduces you to the “BHAG” – Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  

Technically the term BHAG comes from Jim Collins in his book “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies”.

But, the concept of big, hairy, audacious goals has been around for centuries.  Columbus said “We can get to the East Indies by sailing west, not east” – and while he didn’t make it to the East Indies, he did discover a new world.  John Kennedy said “We will put a man on the moon by the end of this decade” and the USA / NASA did it.  Settlers from the Old World said “we can create a new life in the Americas” and did.  The United States said “We can build a canal across Panama” and did it.  Of course there were others that had big, hairy, audacious goals and didn’t achieve them.  But this lesson is on creating the vision – YOUR VISION.

Last lesson was on “Who are you”.  In that lesson, the author wanted you to think about where you wanted to be at 40 and at retirement age.  This lesson will take that farther.

First, if you had a magic wand or a genie in a lamp you could rub and the genie would grant you wishes; what would be your wishes in terms of your future?  

What WOULD you like to be or become?  Do you want to become President of the United States?  CEO of Google?  CEO of Apple?  Do you have goals for a  family?  For advanced degrees?  For doing humanitarian activities?  For being the best in some category? For climbing the highest peak on each continent?  For going to the moon?  For flying your own airplane solo?  For being in the Olympics? There are obvious a lot of things you COULD be – but for each one of us, we can have a BHAG.  (One of the author’s big goals is to get this published and have it be a significant self-help document for college students and pre-college students.)

Now, big hairy audacious goals don’t just happen.  For example, it doesn’t happen that yesterday a person was an average 40 year old high school math teacher, with three kids a job and a mortgage and today, that person is the President of Citigroup. 

First you need to set an ambitious goal – or … a BIG goal, a HAIRY (maybe even ‘hairy scary’) goal; an AUDACIOUS goal.  Now there is a difference between a goal and a wish.  I’d like to win the PowerBall Lottery.  That is a wish – there is little you can do to achieve that goal, other than buy tickets – and theoretically the more tickets you buy, the better your chances, but even with a 100 tickets your changes are still very low. 

To achieve a goal, you have to have a definable goal – what exactly are you looking to achieve?  The more specific the better (more on goals in later lessons).  A goal to be rich is still more of a wish, a goal to have $1 million in investments and banks by age 45 is better defined.  A goal to be the starting quarterback on the Dallas Cowboys might be a real goal, but if you are not much of a football player that is probably only a wish.

Then you need to work on that goal.  When President Kennedy set the goal of putting a man on the moon in the next decade that was only the start. What also happened was that resources were set aside to reach that goal; sub goals of test flights sub-orbit manned flights; 1 to 3 orbit flights, multi-day flights and more. 

If your goal is to be CEO of Apple by 2055, you will have to seriously determine the path to get there.  What college degree would you need?  What experience?  What kind of person does Apple hire for entry level jobs?  What career path to get to the “C” suite of officers?  Then start working the plan. 

You might have to alter your goals.  Maybe as you get started, you get hired at Google and then maybe you want to shoot for the CEO of Google. 

Assignment:

1. Take some time (suggested two hours) to determine what your BHAG is. 
2. Take additional time to research how to reach that goal.
3. Write how to get to your BHAG plan down – pick specific dates – for example: such as by July 1, 2025, I will be a team leader at Apple in User Interface Design; by July 1, 2028, I will be an assistant director of the User Interface Design department for phones. 
4. Print enough details to put on a Post-It note – and review it multiple times each day.

Quote for today’s lesson:  “The more I accomplish, the more I know I'm capable of accomplishing.” 
― Tawny Lara