Create a Realistic Roadmap for Your Long-Term Business Goals

Step Out of the Slog and Onto a Path to Success

The problem with most business books is that they focus on the easy parts of entrepreneurship. Rather than starting from the very beginning, they pick up the stories of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak with Apple or Howard Schultz with Starbucks after luck has struck. They leave out the long, agonizing slogs these founders had to endure to get to the high business growth periods that cement their names in history. 

While it’s nice to imagine achieving overnight success, in reality, most companies endure long periods of tepid growth before they stumble upon a formula that works. For Apple, it took three decades, and for Starbucks, it took two. 

So, what happens during those long slogs? A lot of wild-ass guesses, misses, and learning. Any CEO of a company striving to reach its scaling point knows how demoralizing this slow-footed march toward growth can be.

Thankfully, there is a better way.

End the Cycle of Frustrating Goal-Setting

Are you tired of telling your board and your company where you plan to be in 3 years, yet know deep down inside you don’t have a real plan to get there? I was! A critical difference between companies that achieve their goals on a consistent basis and those that do not, is the former take the time to plan, and as Kevin Lawrence states in his book Your Oxygen Mask First, "plan, plan and plan again." 

Develop Your 3-Year Highly Achievable Goal

In 3HAG Way, by Shannon Byrne Susko, she offers a step-by-step process to shorten the time it takes to reach your scaling point, and the “3HAG” is my favorite part of that plan. “3HAG” is your “3-Year Highly Achievable Goal,” and Susko’s overall methodology shows you how to stop guessing, and thereby find a shortcut to growth. 

Ultimately, her 3HAG framework relies upon a methodical, orchestrated approach for driving growth, as it acts as your company’s roadmap for aligning your daily actions and near-term execution with your company’s long-term goal. Indeed, your long-term goal should drive your day-to-day activities, rather than the hopes, prayers, and luck that many business owners blindly wish for – the stuff that magically appears in those popular business books.

Over the next quarter, I’ll be taking a deep dive into each of the concepts discussed in Susko’s 3HAG Way, how they can be applied to your organization, and how you can start making your goals achievable.

If you feel overwhelmed by your unrealistic long-term goals and you’re tired of having no roadmap to achieving them, sign up for my tri-monthly newsletter to learn how to strategize a better, more effective plan.