“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
– Seneca
Begin with the end in mind. That is Stephen Covey’s habit number two, and it’s damn fine advice.
Get clear on your vision and values.
Go beyond simply setting goals, even the SMART ones, and clearly envision the outcome you desire.
What does it look like? What does it feel like?
If you plan on running a marathon, you start by putting the race on your calendar. You work backwards from that date, setting up the training schedule.
At least, that’s what I did.
And my Big Hairy Audacious Goal? Just to finish. To survive.
If you’re really getting after it, you might set a goal of running those 26.2 miles in under four hours. A feat only one percent of marathon participants accomplish.
Goals like that are terrific, but they don’t provide much in the way of motivation. When you are on mile twenty-two, falling off your pace, you’ll wonder what the real difference is between a 3:59 marathon, and a 4:01.
Unless the 3:59 comes with a special tee shirt you can show off to your running friends.
Feel that tee shirt motivation!
For a few minutes at least. But why are you running?
People will run for charity, but that isn’t completely altruistic. It helps them. It puts more meaning behind the run.
Do it for the children!
What else will help you get out of bed on those cold Seattle mornings? What else will get you to lace up for interval training?
Beginning with the end in mind is more than just targets and timelines, it gets into the psychology of accomplishment.
What will it feel like when crossing the finish line?
Who will be there?
Can you feel your legs, see your family, taste the beer?
I know, lots of questions, right? But I’m serious, you don’t want to go into the race or the project without answering them for yourself.
Start with the press release:
Amazon has a method for beginning with the end in mind. They start with the press release. Before they start developing the next product or service, they envision their result, craft the press release, and work backwards. Maybe.
Development teams will take the time to detail what the product does, who it serves, and why it exists. They start with the customer rather than the idea. What problem does the customer have that this product solves?
And then they ask themselves, is it compelling? Are they a buyer of the product as stated in the press release?
If the press release doesn’t have teeth, if it doesn’t sound as useful as they initially imagined, they push back or cancel entirely.
If the press release holds up, if it inspires, if it gets the team more excited than before, it becomes their battle cry. It becomes their north star.
The press release provides clarity of vision, and that clarity aids decision making and team alignment as everyone works through the project.
They are all rowing in the same direction, creating the product that fulfills that press release.
Back cover blurb:
Jack Carr, bestselling author of the Terminal List series, does something similar before starting in on his next project.
He writes up a one pager.
What is the outcome going to be in 12 or 18 months? And do you really want to go all in on that?
Jack said, “It’s kind of like what you’d find on the back of a paperback. Something that describes it. It’s a one pager and it’s like an executive summary. And then I read it to myself, and I ask myself a question. Is this worth the next year and half of my life? And if the answer is yes, if I’m excited about it, then I read it again and I ask myself another question. If someone is walking by Hudson News in the airport, they’re pulling this off the shelf and they’re going to read this same thing or something similar, does this idea get them excited enough to spend the time — that they’re never going to get back — in these pages? So, as I’m writing, I’m thinking about that.”
Carr starts with himself. Is the idea something he is excited to work on? He knows, if he is not excited about the work, the quality will not be there, and neither will the willpower.
And then he moves to his audience. Is this story something that people want or need? If not, he might as well just share it with friends and family.
If the answer to both is a resounding YES, he gets to work.
Write your obituary:
You can take this beyond a project or goal and create a vision for your life.
For several years, I had a birthday tradition. I’d go to Float in Bellevue and enjoy the chaos of my mind. Inside their sensory deprivation tank, I’d try to see my future. I’d imagine my life the following year, and then I’d keep going farther. Five years, ten years, and eventually I’d see myself as an old man.
Who was surrounding me?
My young children, grown up, as parents and grandparents?
What friends did I still have left? How did I spend my days?
I stopped short of my death. The idea of writing my obituary felt morbid at first but it’s less about death and more about how you want to spend your life.
Writing the press release for David Flynn, beginning with the end in mind, gives me a lot of clarity about how to spend my time.
What does it say?
Once I got clear on that, I was able to work backwards and start living my life accordingly. Simple. Just live life in a way that ends with that obituary…or something close enough for a dead guy.
How did you make people feel? Who did you impact? Who will get up and speak when they pass the microphone around, and what story will they tell?
Why is working backwards so helpful?
1.) It saves time.
Upgrading a product that is half built, a book that is half written, is much harder than getting things directionally correct from the start. If the press release doesn’t sound all that great, you can quickly make an update, test it, and reimagine what you are going to build before you get to work. Every company will have their Fire Phone, their John Carter, but ideally you will have more winners than losers. And you can improve those odds by focusing your time. Focus on the things that get you closer to your desired ending.
2.) Protect against bias.
You know what happens when you spend 12 months on a project? No matter what it is, you start thinking it’s pretty friggin great. You can’t hear the feedback, and you can’t see the flaws. This press release can get you some valuable feedback before you fall in love with your work.
3.) It’s galvanizing.
The press release, the end state, it can bring people together and create clarity about the mission. Any time someone brings up an idea, an update, a change to the plans, you can look at your press release and ask, “does this change support the project we are so excited about?”
Pretty cool, right?
The applications are endless.
Does finishing the marathon feel so good you want to get up before the sun every day for training?
What about a career as a doctor or a lawyer?
Begin with the end in mind, write the press release, the back cover blurb, and bring clarity to the work before you start the work.
Oh, and you can do one more thing if you start from the end and work backwards.
You can detail all the ways this project could fail, could catch fire, and could blow up in your face. You can hold a pre-mortem. And that is what we will talk about next week…
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