is just a › themackayroundtable › ... · A dream is just a dream—a goal is a dream with a deadline My good friend, the Reverend Dr. Robert Schuller, offered up some wisdom about

2 © 2012 Harvey Mackay Roundtable

A dream is just a dream—a goal is a dream with a deadline

My good friend, the Reverend Dr. Robert Schuller, offered up some

wisdom about four kinds of people a while back:

l First, there are the cop-outs. These people set no goals and make no

decisions.

l Second, there are the hold-outs. They have a beautiful dream, but

they’re afraid to respond to its challenge because they aren’t sure

they can make it. These people have lost all childlike faith.

l Third, there are the drop-outs. They start to make their dream come

true. They know their role. They set their goals, but when the going

gets tough, they quit. They don’t pay the toll.

l Finally, there are the all-outs. They are the people who know their

role. They want and need and are going to be stars—star students,

star parents, star waitresses.

They want to shine out as an inspiration to others. They set their

goals. The all-outs never quit. Even when the toll gets heavy, they

are dedicated. They are committed.

Welcome to the “All Outs” of the Harvey Mackay Roundtable—17

alums and 13 new members. What better way to kick off our second year

than to talk about planning and goals. That’s what we’re going to do over

the next 90 days.

A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a deadline.


Put yourself in front of your deadlines with a stainless-steel plan before they roll over you

Deadlines always happen. The challenge? Put yourself in front of those

deadlines with a stainless-steel plan before they roll over you.

Get in front of that deadline with a workable goal.

Because it’s baseball season, I’ll start with a baseball story from my

favorite cartoon, Peanuts. Charlie Brown is having an especially bad day.

After striking out for the third time, he says “Rats!”

He mopes back to the dugout and laments to Lucy, “I’ll never be a big

league player. All my life, I’ve dreamed of playing in the big leagues, but I

just know I’ll never make it.”

In typical form, Lucy replies, “You’re thinking way too far ahead, Charlie

Brown. What you need are more immediate goals.”

“Immediate goals?” Charlie asks.

“Yes,” Lucy says. “Start right now with this next inning. When you go

out to pitch, see if you walk out to the mound without falling down.”

How about another baseball story. In 1930, the New York Yankees

paid Babe Ruth a jaw-dropping $80,000. This was long before profes-

sional sports salaries went stratospheric. Ruth made $5,000 more than

President Herbert Hoover.

Reporters taunted Ruth about his paycheck.

Ruth shot back: “I had a better year than Hoover.” Swimming in the

Depression, who could say Ruth was wrong?


Get in front of your deadlines with workable goals

Everyone expected Babe Ruth to retire from baseball with the Yankees.

How could the Sultan of Swat ever leave Yankee Stadium—the House that

Ruth Built?

By 1934, Ruth was slowing down. Ruth didn’t just want to hang up his

spikes. He ached to manage the Yankees. The then-Yankee owner Colonel

Jacob Ruppert had no intention of replacing manager Joe McCarthy. The

Boston Braves lured Ruth back to Beantown, first as a player…with the

carrot he might soon be manager.

By then, Ruth wasn’t much of a player. Four-baggers were becoming

more scarce. Run? Forget it. Field? A trio of Braves pitchers announced

they would strike if Ruth was in the lineup: His ball handling had gotten

that dicey.

The Braves win percentage plummeted to .248. The franchise was a

mess. Then Ruth learned Braves’ management wanted the Babe to buy into

the team. Ruth simply shelved it. He retired from the game.

The numbers that drive professional sports aren’t on the scoreboards.

They aren’t on the jerseys. They’re on the contracts and in the bank books.

Look at 4-time NFL MVP Peyton Manning—Mr. Indianapolis Colt. He

had to leave his career to chance.

In 2006, a tackle around the neck by a Washington Redskins player

injured Manning, and that event appears to have caught up with him. In

July 2011, he underwent additional neck surgery.


Plan ahead, and be prepared to revise those plans and make mid-course corrections when circum-stances warrant

Manning didn’t play a single game last year. The Colts nonetheless

faced paying him a $28 million bonus, as part of his contract. The team

chose to cut the 35-year-old Manning loose. The Bloomberg Internet site

reports no underwriter would insure Manning if he plays elsewhere, due

to his age and health.

Mark McNeilly wrote a blog about Peyton Manning’s career planning

strategy for the e-zine Fast Company.

McNeilly’s take:

Despite all the talk over the past season that this move might occur, it

appears Manning was genuinely surprised and unprepared when it actually

happened. When asked at his “exit interview” about what team he wanted

to play for now he said, “I have no idea who wants me, what team wants me,

how this process works. I don’t know if it’s like college recruiting where you

take visits. I mean, this is all so new to me.”

Does this sound like a man in charge of a clear-headed goal?

Did Ruth and Manning position themselves with workable objectives?

Their actions and words suggest they miscalculated the outcomes.

Sure, Manning was in demand and had his pick of teams. And he hit

the jackpot in Denver. Do you think he saw himself in the Mile High City

a few years back?

Plan ahead…all the time. And be prepared to revise those plans and

make mid-course corrections when circumstances warrant.


A good battle plan that you act on today can be better than a perfect one tomorrow

Getting by without setting goals is the ultimate form of self-delusion.

It is a guaranteed way for us to achieve failure without ever having to

admit it to ourselves. Maybe that’s why in Dante’s Inferno, the outermost

circle in hell is reserved for those who went through life uncommitted

and uninvolved.

Consider new circumstances. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

The truth is: People don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan.

Some of the best planning models come to us from the military. Karl von

Clausewitz was a brilliant Prussian military strategist at the beginning of the

19th century. Clausewitz believed that “Everything in war is simple.”

But he hastened to add that being simple does not mean it is easy.

Also, two American battlefield titans uttered unforgettable wisdom

about planning:

One was World War II General George “Blood & Guts” Patton who

believed the following, “A good battle plan that you act on today can be

better than a perfect one tomorrow.”

Allied Supreme Commander (and later President) Dwight Eisenhower

had another gem: “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are

useless, but planning is indispensable.”

The spotlight should always be on the process, not the document or the

computer file that sums it up.


In any strategy, it’s not the ground you take that’s important—it’s the ground you keep

It’s smart to keep tabs on how the military adjusts its planning processes.

About four years ago, Wired magazine did a piece on a woman named

Montgomery McFate. McFate is an anthropologist. She’s been a force in

getting the U.S. military to use anthropology in its planning.

A little over a decade ago, McFate “was an unemployed, overeducated

Army wife with advanced degrees in anthropology and law from Harvard

and Yale—and few career prospects… She wrote on a cocktail napkin [in a

bar in D.C.]: ‘How do I make anthropology relevant to the military?’”

She figured out a path. Struggling in complex land wars abroad, the

Pentagon learned: “You can have the most advanced sensors, the toughest

armor, the most precise GPS-guided munitions[. B]ut without any insight

into the civilian population—or at least some sense of how they’ll react to

your moves—your war effort is sunk.”

McFate became “the senior social science adviser for the Human Terrain

System. It’s a $130 million Army program. [This program embedded] polit-

ical science, anthropology, and economics specialists with combat units in

Afghanistan and Iraq.”

“‘What you’re trying to do is understand the people’s interests,’ [McFate]

says. ‘Because whoever is more effective at meeting the interests of the

population will be able to influence it.’”

The logic is hard to argue with: In any strategy, it’s not the ground you

take that’s important. It’s the ground you keep.


When you know your human terrain, you can identify potential partners among neighborhood leaders

The “Human Terrain Teams provided cross-cultural interpretation.”

Offered a dish of lamb? Accept it; it’s a symbol of welcome.

Get frantic if a blood-smeared car chugs by? Chill out. Blood smearing

is part of an automobile “blessing ritual.”

The Human Terrain Teams got “police chiefs to crack down on cops

who moonlight for the bad guys. They identified potential partners among

neighborhood leaders.”

General David Petraeus, now CIA Director, was a fan. He said: “The

Human Terrain Teams have evolved into important elements in our oper-

ations in Iraq.”

In business, where is the value of Human Terrain Teams most ignored

in planning? In takeovers and acquisitions, without a doubt. I call this

checklist Acquisition Anthropology 101:

l If I’m planning a takeover, do I know the most influential internal

voices of the target company? (That includes the production line and

the maintenance team, as well as the salesforce and Mahogany Row.)

l Who are the most influential local media in the firm’s key manufac-

turing and/or service facilities? How will I ingratiate myself with them?

l What do I know about the humor and company legends of the

targeted business? How well-versed am I in the company’s culture?


It’s knowing how to do the high-fives that makes for harmony

l Where do I “lay the wreath of respect” to the company’s achieve-

ments? In what achievements are they most proud?

l What turns-of-phrase or idioms are part of the new company’s

culture? In other words, what can I say that will make me instantly

sound like an insider?

l Where are traditional signs of stress and tension in the company’s

policies? Can I honestly suggest some relief may be forthcoming?

l Is there some administrative or industry goal that this company could

never have achieved on its own? Is it now possible—by virtue of this

merger—to realize that goal?

This is the sort of human-relations planning that companies never do.

It’s also absolutely essential in integrating cultures often brought together

by bean-counters. High finance can do dreamy deals on iPads. It’s knowing

how to do the high-fives that makes for harmony.

Denny SchulStaD

harvey: Now let’s get to our first resource today.

General Denny Schulstad has had two successful careers—

one in the military and another in politics. He is a retired Air

Force Brigadier General and was an elected member of the

Minneapolis City Council for 22 years.


You need to set specific goals for yourself in every field you are involved in

Denny and I have been heavily involved with the Univer-

sity of Minnesota over the years and both served as National

President of the Alumni Association representing more than

400,000 graduates.

Denny is extremely active in the community and sits on

several non-profit boards and commissions. He has won many

awards and received much recognition over the years.

As the most recognized Air Force person in Minnesota,

Denny is invited to give more than 50 speeches each year at

civic and ceremonial programs and is often interviewed by

various media outlets.

Roundtable members, I give you my friend, Denny Schulstad.

Denny, welcome. I’m just elated that you can join our

Roundtable for this session.

Denny: Harvey, it’s always a pleasure doing anything with you.

harvey: You have had successful careers in politics, the Air Force, and

as a civic leader. What are some of the goals you have set for

yourself in each of those fields?


Some of your goals should be very ambitious because when you set your goals high, you have the chance of achieving greatness

Denny: Well, obviously, I’ve set a lot of goals over the years—but

I’ll mention three or four for now. I also have some goals

that I didn’t meet, but I will only mention ones that I did

successfully accomplish.

First, I wanted to be a general in the Air Force—knowing

that only about one out of every 300 brand-new lieutenants

will ever make general.

Second, I wanted to win election to the Minneapolis City

Council as a Republican in a Democratic area that was about

7-to-1 Democratic.

Third, I wanted to properly honor and recognize my dear

friend George Mikan while he was still alive. George Mikan

was the Shaquille O’Neal, as you know, of basketball. He was

Mr. Basketball when Babe Ruth was Mr. Baseball.

Fourth, I also wanted to win approval at the legislature for

the new Minnesota Gopher football stadium, which was to

be named Twin City Federal or “TCF Stadium,” even though

veteran groups were opposing it as a result of the name not

including “memorial stadium” in it.

harvey: Boy, I would say these goals were very ambitious. As I recall,

you’re the only Republican in how many years to be elected?


To see regular accomplish-ments, you must be sure to set some smaller, workable goals that can be achieved daily

Denny: Well, I was on the city council for 22 years. The last 14 of

those, I was the only Republican. That is in a city that had

33 partisan offices, 32 Democrats, and me. I retired about

15 years ago. I was replaced by a Democrat, and there has

never been another Republican, nor is there likely to be one

in the future.

harvey: That’s quite a record. Also, about George Mikan, I’m almost

positive he was voted the greatest basketball player in the last

50 years, wasn’t he?

Denny: Yeah. For the first 50 years of the century, each sport had its

own number one person. It was Babe Ruth in baseball, and

Man o’ War in horse racing. Well, it was George Mikan in

basketball, and he was a unanimous selection. He led the old

Minneapolis Lakers, which are now the Los Angeles Lakers,

to six world championships.

harvey: Yes. I saw a lot of those games. Of course, most of the people

that know me know that I’m a basketball junkie.

Next question. Denny, briefly describe those goals now and

the results. What did you do to accomplish them?


When you face opposition in meeting your goals, strive to find out the reason for the opposition

Denny: Okay. Well, let me start with the TCF Stadium and with the

veteran dispute. I had a call from Bob Bruininks, who was

at that time the president of the University of Minnesota.

We were trying to win approval at the legislature for this new

stadium. We found out that the American Legion, the VFW,

and other veteran groups were going to oppose us.

Well, since I was a general in the Air Force and was also

the president of the University Alumni Association, Bob

Bruininks came to me and said, “What can we do to get

them to support us, rather than oppose it?”

I found out the reason they were opposed is because we didn’t

have the word “memorial” in the name. The people who were

donated $35 million for the naming rights were not going to

add the name “memorial.”

So what I did is worked with all the veteran groups, and I

said, “You’re not going to get the name. What would you like

instead?” We worked and decided to put up a tribute wall to

veterans, which they all helped design. That is now erected.

It cost us $600,000. We raised the $600,000 for that.

The veterans groups, instead of opposing it at the legislature,

were our best friends. That is one of the main reasons it was

able to be approved at the legislature. So I was very pleased

about that.


You should sprinkle your goals with creativity

harvey: I give you an A for creativity. What about the other goals?

Denny: Okay. For George Mikan, how do you honor a guy like that?

What we decided to do is to build a life-size statue. I found

out that would cost about $100,000. I raised that money in

about a week from 10 people who each gave me $10,000.

So then we decided that now that we were raising so much

money, we went together with Max McGee, who used to

play for the Green Bay Packers. He had a son with juvenile

diabetes. So we raised another half million dollars to give to

him for juvenile diabetes.

The statue for George Mikan turned out to not only be

a statue for the locals to see, but it was dedicated at a Los

Angeles Lakers/Minnesota Timberwolves’ game on national

television. During the ceremony, we had all 20 living Lakers

who had played with George on all of those championship

teams together at one time. The event was featured in 23

newspapers around the country.

So we now have the life-size statue; we raised half a million

dollars for juvenile diabetes; and George was able to be there

to be properly honored for that event.

The next goal I want to share with you is the goal I had to

become a general. Knowing that only one out of every 300


You need to surround yourself with the right people and give them ownership in the tasks you must do to accomplish your goal

lieutenants will ever become a general, I surrounded myself

with people. I started meeting generals when I was a brand-

new lieutenant. I kept questioning them to find out things

like: what jobs did you have to have; what have you done

during your career to become the very highest rank in the

military. Many of them became very close friends of mine,

and many also became my mentors.

I studied the Harvey Mackay system for networking and how

to get ahead. After 30 years, it paid off, and I became a general

in the U.S. Air Force.

The final goal I want to share with all of you is the goal I had

to become a Republican on the Minneapolis City Council.

This was probably the most difficult thing of all.

I lost my first election. I lost it because it was during Water-

gate. I was knocking on a person’s door, while I was watching

Vice President Agnew resign inside. It was a year that every

single Republican was losing across the state of Minnesota.

But what I did was again surrounded myself with the right

people. I gave them ownership of the campaign, and I gave

them each specific tasks to do. I would ask one person to be

in charge of lawn signs, and that person would go out with

me and find lawn sign locations. Another person would be in

charge of block working, where we were knocking on doors.


A realistic time frame for goals will depend on the specific goal you are striving to achieve

My message, of course, was there isn’t a Republican or a

Democratic way to plow streets, pick up garbage, or run a city.

It’s just general good management. I was able to get past the

party label and win with 69 percent of the vote.

harvey: I just love your results. Those are great stories. Let’s continue.

What is a realistic time frame for goal setting?

Denny: Well, that depends. For the Twin City Federal aka TCF

Stadium, we had four months. When Bob Bruininks called

me and said we need to turn this around for the legislature,

we had a four-month window, and that was it.

On the other hand, for me to become a general, I spent 30

years working to achieve that. Right from the time I was a

student at the University of Minnesota in Air Force ROTC, I

started working toward my goal of becoming a general.

With George Mikan, I had the idea three or four years earlier,

and everybody agreed that we should do something to recog-

nize him —however nobody did anything. I finally said, Okay,

I’ll take it on and lead the effort and raise the money. From

there, it took us the better part of one year.


There are goals that can be accomplished in hours, but there are some goals that can take many years to achieve

For my election to the City Council, I would say that was

about a five-year goal set back when I lost the first election,

but then I just continued campaigning and won it after that.

So your time frame should be realistically based on how long

it will take to accomplish your specific goal.

harvey: Yeah. That 30 years to become a general sounds like a lot of

the time frames I have heard from Asian leaders and Japanese

leaders for their goals.

One time I was in a meeting and asked: Do you have a long-

range plan? Yes. 250 years was their long-range plan.

Denny: Absolutely.

harvey: I actually saw that in front of a Japanese restaurant in 1983,

right when they were real hot and everyone thought they

were going to take over the whole world.

Next question, Denny, who should be involved in goal setting?


Before ever setting a goal, you always have to check with wise people

Denny: Well, that again varies by the goal. In goal-setting, most of

them I set for myself. The one for the stadium, of course, was

set by the president of the University of Minnesota. He had

the goal, and he came to me and asked me to go to work on

that and make that goal happen—and we were able to do it.

The others I did myself.

However, before ever setting a goal, you always have to

check with wise people. And that’s another lesson that I’ve

learned from you, Harvey, is that you surround yourself with

people who can help.

I would always surround myself with very bright people. We

would talk about the goal. We would talk about how to

accomplish it. Then I would take charge and assign very

simple, easy-to-follow tasks, but each person would have

ownership in that goal.

That particularly was the case in my winning elections. I

had people who truly had ownership in the campaign. They

would feel just as bad if I was to lose as I would feel. Even

today, some of those people who were kids who had been out

delivering literature for me will come up and see me now.

Now they are a police officer or somebody who is a business

executive in town, and they say, You know, I helped get you

elected the first time. I was a nine-year-old kid, and I would

deliver literature for you.


When you don’t achieve your goal the first time, learn from your mistakes and try again

That’s what I wanted. I wanted the people who would help

me to have ownership and to share in the results. Believe

me, I thanked them appropriately. They were all shown

great appreciation.

harvey: Well, I certainly salute and applaud your strategies. That’s

for sure.

To continue on, how do you revise goals if circumstances

change or they aren’t working? In other words, what do you

do if you’re kind of forced to make what I like to refer to as

“mid-course corrections”?

Denny: Yeah. Well, I’ll give you a good example of that from when

I was trying to be on the Minneapolis City Council. As I

mentioned, my first campaign was during Watergate, and

we ran a heck of a campaign. We did better than any other

Republicans, but we lost.

I just continued working at it and said, Two years from now

things will be better. We learned from some of our mistakes.

We learned we needed to raise more money. We learned that

we needed to have more good people surrounding us. We

were able to do it the second time and, as I said, with a 69

percent margin of victory.


Sometimes you have to give up a goal that is less important to you in order to achieve the goal that is most important

The other one is my goal to not only be on the city council,

but to also become the mayor of Minneapolis. I thought I

was going to be the Republican mayor of the city. I would

have won that election.

I had all of the endorsements lined up. I had the financial

donors lined up. We had everything ready to go. That’s when

I realized that I could not be both a general in the Air Force

and the mayor of Minneapolis. I could be on the city council,

but I wouldn’t be able to do both my Air Force work and

continue my political work.

That’s when I had to make a decision, Harvey, that you would

appreciate. Did I want to be the Republican mayor of Minne-

apolis with very little respect, or a general on an Air Force

Base where they salute your car when you drive by?

That’s when I left politics and went after being a general, and

I achieved that goal.

harvey: Well, it is just fascinating.

Last question. Denny, who are two individuals, or so, who

have influenced you the most in your career and why?


Think of the one or two people who have influenced you most in your life and in your career

Denny: Well, that’s an easy one for me. The first one is General Mike

Loh. You’ve probably never heard of him, but he was the

Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force during the first

Gulf War. That was the war that we overwhelmingly won.

General Mike Loh was the person who taught me about plan-

ning and about attention to detail and leadership. He’s the

one who told me that when you fight a war, you try to avoid

it; but if you have to fight it, you’re not trying to win 50 to 49

in overtime—you want to win 99 to nothing.

He is the person who would use technology and stealth, which

means that an airplane is not seen by the enemy’s radar. He

was able to use that high-tech gadgetry in the first Gulf War

to win overwhelmingly with very, very little loss of American

lives. He revolutionized the way that America would provide

national defense.

He is a very dear friend of mine to this day, and he has been

my mentor in the Air Force all of these years.

The other one I hate to even tell you, and that’s because it’s

Harvey Mackay. This is a true story, Harvey. When I first met

you, and I was on the city council, and you were helping to

get the Metrodome built.

I remember you calling me at 5 o’clock in the morning on

some days about a vote that was coming up. You were the


You need a system of networking because you can’t get anything done unless you surround yourself with the right types of people

most tenacious person I had ever met. You taught me about

being tenacious, about not giving up, and most important

about networking—that you can’t get anything done unless

you surround yourself with the right types of people.

You have always done that, and you taught me to do that.

Now, I teach the young people whom I mentor the Harvey

Mackay lesson. In fact, I even take your books and loan those

to young people who are coming out of college and thinking

about starting their careers. I teach them the Harvey Mackay

system of networking.

harvey: Well, Denny, you’ve been more than generous with those

kind words, just totally generous, and I sincerely appreciate

it, of course.

Thanks for being with our gang at the Harvey Mackay

Roundtable and for sharing your wisdom with us.

Denny: It has been a great pleasure, Harvey.


When you only play for short-term stakes, strategy goes out the window

Okay, all you golfers—ever played a skins game?

In simple terms: players during a round of golf decide to wager on the

best score for a single hole. If there’s a tie, the “pot” rolls over to the next

hole. One result of a skins game can be to up the ante on each hole. The

backlash is taking your eye off the long haul.

In a skins game, you play for short-term stakes. As a result, strategy goes

out the window.

Some managers run their businesses that way. They muddle along in a

never-ending skins game. This doesn’t just happen in tiny companies.

An insider at a famous blue-chip giant once quipped: “Our idea of long-

term planning here is deciding what we’ll do after lunch.”

Anyone who has participated in a skins game on a golf course knows

the painstaking attention paid to the line of every putt. It’s a lot like what

Peter Drucker describes as “the last of the deadly sins” of business. Which

is what? “Feeding problems and starving opportunities.”

In my generation, the definitive authority on business planning was

Peter Drucker. In many respects, he still is. Drucker sorted out a baffling

world. There are so many ways to slice the planning pie.

One important distinction here is the difference between goals and

objectives. Goals are considered the purely quantitative and mostly finan-

cial targets. Objectives are more qualitative and elusive.


Objectives must be capable of being converted into specific targets and assignments

Make your goals, and you stay in business. Advance your objectives and

you build a business worth having. The distinction between goals and objec-

tives is hardly pure. Often objectives have quantitative measures attached

to them as well. But they are rarely just numerical yardsticks.

Drucker’s seminal contribution, some say, was formulating the idea of

Management by Objectives (MBO) back in 1954. MBO is the corner-

stone of what has become the annual performance review process. Each

year managers and employees negotiate a set of objectives against which

people are measured.

In his hefty 1973 anthology titled Management: Tasks, Responsibilities,

Practices, Drucker lists five traits. These traits distinguish the makeup of

good objectives:

l “Objectives must be ‘derived from what our business is, what it will

be, and what it should be.’ They are not abstractions.”

l “Objectives must be operational. They must be capable of being

converted into specific targets and assignments.” For example, being

a friendlier customer service manager without a tangible target

doesn’t cut it as an objective.

l “Objectives must enable the concentration of resources and efforts…

They must, therefore, be selective.” That means you don’t try to do

everything. You emphasize certain priorities at the expense of others.

l “There must be multiple objectives rather than a single objective.”

This ensures energy is spent on specifics and not generalities.


All of a business’ vital organs have to keep functioning in tandem for the system to work

l “Objectives are needed in all areas on which the survival of the busi-

ness depends.” A business is a dynamic organism. All its vital organs

have to keep functioning in tandem for the system to work.

MBO has been endlessly debated over the last half century. Some experts

say it’s too cumbersome and slow-moving for today’s spin-on-a-dime world.

Others say that it breaks apart a big, fluid game plan or leadership style

into too many complexities.

MBO may suffer from many a shortcoming. But it does do one very

important thing—it makes you think. It forces you to realize that the sorts

of improvements we want are different. And they are not all achievable

in the same way.

Objectives demand specifics and often different rules and disciplines if

you’re going to change behavior.

I am reminded of UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. The end

result is to win games. But you better learn to put on your socks and tie

your shoes right if you want to get there.

Every generation of managers gets a handle on planning in its own

way. Not quite two years ago, the e-zine Fast Company ran an awesome

tip sheet entitled “How to Write a To-Do List.” Can you imagine any

planning that is more basic than that? Yet many managers don’t have the

faintest idea on how to nail a to-do list.

Here are some pointers:


Your to-do list should be a fluid document, changing every single day

l “A badly-written to-do list can actually sabotage your productivity

instead of boost it.”

l Don’t assign yourself “impossible tasks that never get done because

we didn’t think them through.” The task ‘Learn French’ doesn’t

have the same status as ‘Clean out the garage.’

l “If you put in some thought up front, you can pare down your to-do

list to the tasks you’re most likely to check off the list.”

l “Your goal to ‘Save $5,000’ is going to start with a simple task, like

setting up a monthly savings transfer… Break down your to-do’s

into small, manageable bites. Don’t put ‘Write a 50-page report.’ on

your to-do list. Try something smaller, like ‘Jot down five main ideas

for the report.’”

l “Use specific action verbs. Instead of writing ‘Ask Susan about her

[seminar schedule],’ opt for ‘Email Susan’ or ‘Call Susan.’”

l “Finally, purge your list of the stuff that’s not moving. Your to-do list

should be a fluid document, changing every single day.”

All I can say is I have done this all my life, and the most popular

tool for keeping track of your to-do list is plain old pen and paper, but

some computer-based tools are fantastic, too. RememberTheMilk.com is

a Web-based to-do list you can access from work, home, or from your

smartphone. I checked out their website: RememberTheMilk now has

apps for iPhone Siri and Android.


Uncertainty has become so great as to render futile the kind of planning most companies still practice

Peter Drucker lived to be 95 and was active to the end.

So he was still coming up with fresh ideas. In 1995, he wrote a book

titled Managing in a Time of Great Change.

A key premise: “Uncertainty—in the economy, society, politics—has

become so great as to render futile, if not counterproductive, the kind of

planning most companies still practice: forecasting based on probabilities.”

More than a mouthful, isn’t it?

The point is this: Things no longer rest on a predictable base. How

would I describe this sort of uncertainty? We live in a world where:

“Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes.”

And, “Artificial intelligence usually beats real stupidity.”

Consider timing horizons. We have trained ourselves to think in terms

of economic cycles that last 1 to 2 years.

Of course, the Great Depression of the 1930s was at its bleakest for 6 or

7 years. But that wasn’t the only such event in American history.

The Panic of 1873—otherwise known as the Long Depression—went

on for 5 years and 5 months. At the end of upheavals like these, the world

is a very different world.

You have to keep tabs on a speedily shifting world.


You have to keep tabs on a speedily shifting world

How many Americans know, for example, that more cars are now being

sold in China than in the United States? I call that man bites dog.

A lot of people know there are 800 million mobile subscribers in India.

What most don’t know is that the price of basic smartphones is cratering.

So, by 2015, three out of four Indian Internet users will be mobile!

Apple is now talking about a “post PC-world.” The personal computer

is “just another device” and no longer the center of a revolution. WOW!

It’s a world of new correlations and new evidence.

The BBC recently did a piece with a seemingly wild—and I mean wild—

contention. Skyscrapers may be “linked with impending financial crashes.”

Sound far-fetched? Read further.

The Empire State Building was “built as the Great Depres-

sion was underway… The current world’s tallest, Burj

Khalifa—which I visited recently—was built just before

Dubai went bust.”

Barclays Capital did the report. Their analysts argue:

“Often the world’s tallest buildings are simply the edifice

of a broader skyscraper building boom. [They reflect] a

widespread misallocation of capital and an impending

economic correction.”


You never know when getting the little things right is going to be the biggest thing in your life

Back to the Panic of 1873: The building known as “the

world’s first skyscraper,” [Manhattan’s] Equitable Life [since

demolished], was finished just as the panic broke.

Willis Tower—once Sears Tower—in Chicago coincided

with the oil shocks of 1974.

Today, the widest rash of skyscraper building is in China

and India. “In a separate report, JPMorgan Chase said that

the Chinese property market could drop by as much as

20% in value[. That’s] in the country’s major cities within

the next 12 to 18 months.”

You’ve gotta know how to read the tea leaves to plan effectively.

You also have to be able to constantly flip between big screen and small

frame. You never know when getting the little things right is going to be the

biggest thing in your life. Here’s a goal we all take for granted: Safety and

peace of mind for our families in a crisis.

We do so little to secure that goal. Here’s a slice of planning that could

pay huge dividends in your own backyard for your kids or grandkids.

I’m sure you’re all acquainted with Jim Collins’ books on successful

companies, including the book entitled Good to Great. He has a new one

out titled Great by Choice. It’s loaded with good tips. Some of the most

memorable are about the power of down-to-earth, practical planning.


Prepare and prevent rather than repair and repent

He compares the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and the Brit Robert

Falcon Scott. The two led competing teams in a ferocious race against a

powerful goal. Each wanted to be the first person to reach the South Pole.

The year was 1911. Amundsen won. Scott and his four colleagues on the

final run not only lost. They starved and froze to death in the process.

The overwhelming difference between the two was in how they planned

and prepared for the experience:

Scott used ponies. “Ponies, unlike dogs, sweat on their hides so they

become encased in ice sheets when tethered.”

Amundsen “learned how Eskimos used dogs to pull sleds. He observed

how Eskimos never hurried, moving slowly and steadily. [They avoided]

excessive sweat that could turn to ice in sub-zero temperatures.”

“Unlike Scott, Amundsen systematically built enormous buffers for

unforeseen events… He [for example] marked his path every quarter mile

with packing-case remnants…”

“Scott… left no markings on his path, leaving him exposed to catas-

trophe if he went even a bit off course.”

“Amundsen stored three tons of supplies for five men starting out versus

Scott’s one ton for 17 men.”

The devil is in the details. Death can be, too—if you don’t respect the

power of practical details in the realm of the uncharted. Prepare and prevent

rather than repair and repent.


The last century has shown some of the worst and best examples of planning the human race has ever known

The last century has shown some of the worst and best examples of

planning the human race has ever known.

To my mind, centralized economic plans churned out by the former

Soviet Union rank as the worst. In 1921, according to historian Paul

Johnson, Lenin “coined the phrase ‘New Economic Planning.’” Famine was

the nearly instant result. It was “the first [famine] in Russian history to be

substantially created by government policy.”

Lenin died in 1924. Stalin took on the mantle. The Soviet Union’s first

five-year plan was launched in 1928.

Outside of orbiting Sputnik in 1957, Russian five-year plans achieved

little else. The 13th Soviet five-year plan was unveiled in 1991. This one

lasted just a year. That’s because the Soviet Union was dissolved.

Not many people know this, but the Soviets were big-time customers for

IBM’s tabulators in the 1930s. They had a huge commitment to centralized

numbers crunching.

If Soviet planning was the dregs of planning approaches in the past

century, what was its opposite?

What was the peak of achievement?

I’d have to say the Japanese auto industry. The factories of firms like

Toyota and others were the birthplaces of just-in-time inventory improve-

ment and continuous improvement.


This team leader is a battlefield commander– a planner and line officer rolled into one

James P. Womack and his MIT colleagues chronicle these innovations

brilliantly in their classic: The Machine that Changed the World.

There’s one facet of Japanese planning that may be especially pivotal.

That’s the leader. This person is called the shusa or “‘large-project leader’

… In the best Japanese companies, the position of shusa carries great power

and is, perhaps, the most coveted in the company… [T]he shusa is the new

supercraftsman… [N]ew products inside the Japanese auto industry are

commonly known by the shusa’s name: ‘That is Fuji-san’s car.’”

This team leader is a battlefield commander. He is planner and line

officer rolled into one. In many ways, the shusa is reminiscent of the on-the-

ground general in the Israeli army.

Womack’s team says that the top brass in Detroit would routinely “over-

ride the team leader” in key decisions about “specifications and feel of the

product.” This would be unthinkable with a Japanese shusa.

The success of the shusa should cause any manager to think hard about

how plans and goals are built in your organization.

Here’s a checklist that can help keep your planning on the ground and

out of the ivory tower:

l Are production plans driven by realities of the shop floor or the

dreams of central planners?

l Are team leaders truly empowered to solve problems, or are they just

assigned honorary titles?


Team leaders should be truly empowered to solve problems, not just assigned honorary titles

l Are top coordinators allowed to be invasive and change procedures

in other departments?

l Are your top operating managers linked directly to customers so they

are the first to receive customer input on design issues?

l Do your top production coordinators have the clout to revamp

company operating priorities and objectives?

These are powerful levels of authority. It’s also the price management

must be prepared to pay if planning is to be potent and not irrelevant.

Over the years, I’ve probably read a thousand business plans. Few

documents lead to a better nap than a classic business plan. What makes

them such a God-awful snooze?

l They are theoretical.

l They are drenched with jargon.

l They are overly qualified and totally hedged in identifying risks.

l And, the supporting evidence sounds hopelessly rigged.

An old economics professor of mine used to say: “Torture the data long

enough, and they will confess to anything.”

In my opinion, the evolution in communications is unstoppable. Serve

it up short and sweet. Keep it 88-IQ idiot proof.


A business plan is a big pile of paper that even the author doesn’t read all the way through, and certainly no-one else does

The elevator pitch… is obsoleting the résumé.

The business model… is overtaking the business plan.

In March, I spotted an article titled “Four Reasons for a Business Model.”

“A business model is not a business plan, although the two are often

confused,” the author points out. “How can you tell the difference? A busi-

ness model fits on one piece of paper (or one flip chart page or one white

board), is referred to regularly, and has all sorts of uses. A business plan is a

big pile of paper that even the author doesn’t read all the way through, and

certainly no-one else does.”

What goes into a worthwhile business model?

l It’s “complete” enough. It shows that you have no “glaring holes,”

but it doesn’t get “into the weeds” either.

l It’s “consistent”—the key assumptions all line up.

l It has “clarity.” Here’s a test worth taking: “If asked to draw the model

independently, would [your colleagues] draw the same thing?”

l It “communicates”—“You can draw and redraw the model as you tell

the story of your business to mentors, advisers, potential recruits, and

potential investors. It can focus a staff meeting, board discussion, or

investor presentation.”

Companies spend days, if not weeks, agonizing over their mission

statement and business plan. How much precious, misspent time goes


Get the business model right—then accessorize it with the details

into the process. Get the business model right. Then accessorize it with

the details. You may not need more than a few action plans focused on

very restricted areas.

In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In management, it’s prepa-

ration, preparation, preparation. But, be very, very careful. It’s not the sheer

magnitude of the preparation that matters. It’s the relevance of what you do.

Is it clear?

Will it change behavior?

Does it sizzle?

Peter ViDmar

harvey: Now let’s get to our second and final resource today.

For each of these teleseminars, I Google the subject—in this

case, goal setting—and then add the word guru. One of the

names that came up was an old friend.

Peter Vidmar is the highest scoring American gymnast in

Olympic history. He has won numerous national and inter-

national titles, and finished his successful career at the 1984

Olympic Games in Los Angeles in front of me and my family.

He captained the USA men’s gymnastics team to America’s

first ever team gold medal with their stunning upset victory


It’s not the sheer magnitude of the preparation that matters–it’s the relevance of what you do

over China. He went on to win the silver medal in the indi-

vidual all-around competition—becoming the first American

to win an Olympic All-Around medal. He also won the gold

medal on the pommel horse with a perfect score of 10.

Peter remains very involved in the Olympic movement. He

is Chairman of the Board of USA Gymnastics and has worked

as a gymnastics commentator for CBS Sports and ESPN.

Peter speaks at many corporate meetings and trade shows

and performs portions of his Olympic routine on the pommel

horse to drive home his message. Roundtable members…

here is a perfect 10—Peter Vidmar.

Hi, Peter. Top of the morning and thanks again for squeezing

me into your hectic schedule.

Peter: Hey, I’ll do anything for you Harvey. I think it’s been 26

or 27 years since we first met, so it’s always great to stay in

touch with you.

harvey: Wow, that’s a long time, and your memory is way sharper than

mine. Okay. Let’s just roll right away. Let me just open up by

saying, give me your brief assessment on setting goals.


You’ve got to be able to answer a number of questions to be really effective in accomplish-ing your goals

Peter: Well, Harvey, first of all, I think goals have to be realistic. I

really take issue with any of those people who say you can be

anything you want to be because that’s really not true.

I’m 5’ 5” and 130 pounds. There is no way I’m going to end

up in the NFL. So your goals have to be realistic, and I think

they need to be measured and clearly defined.

They also need to be time sensitive. You should give yourself

deadlines.

I think a goal should answer some questions. In other words,

be specific. It should answer “what”—what is it that you want

to accomplish? It should answer “why”—why is it important

to you? It should answer “when”—when are you going to get

this done by? It should certainly answer “how”—how are

you going to do it?

So you’ve got to be able to answer a number of questions to

be really effective in accomplishing your goals, and, first of all,

make sure that your goals are meaningful for you.

harvey: It seems to be obvious common sense to me: what, why,

when, and how.


You need to have both long-term goals and short-term goals

Peter: Yes, you’ve got to answer questions when you’re setting goals,

that’s for sure.

harvey: Those are real sharp words that, of course, demand sharp

answers. Let’s continue on.

What’s a realistic time frame for goal setting? Is it six months,

a year, five years, ten years, whatever?

Peter: Well, it really depends on the goal. I mean, my long-term

goal as a gymnast was to be an Olympian and hopefully even

an Olympic champion. But in between setting that goal and

reaching that goal, I had to have some other intermediate

goals to reach, as well. Certainly one was to be a national

champion—to be an NCAA champion. So all of those little

goals had to answer those questions we mentioned.

So I had to ask myself, When am I going to do it by? How am

I going to get it done?

It’s easy, when you’re an athlete, to be time sensitive. The

competition is going to be on that date, and if you’re not

ready, tough luck. So setting goals for sports is rather easy

because you know the deadline is already etched in stone.


If you allow your deadlines to be flexible, you will become much less effective at reaching your goals

You have to work backwards from that deadline and say, Okay,

now what am I going to do in between now and that time to

be ready at that moment of truth?

Too often, when our deadlines are somewhat flexible, we tend

to keep pushing the deadline out into the distance. We don’t

tell ourselves, I will be done by this date because we kind of

know, deep down inside, that if you don’t get it done by that

date, well, we can just do it the next week or the following

month or the following year. Then we become less effective

at trying to reach those goals.

I think it’s important to kind of treat yourself like an athlete

and say, This is my goal, and this is the deadline. It’s not

negotiable. I’ve got to be ready by that date.

If that’s the case, you’re going to be very careful about what

you choose to do between now and the deadline for that goal.

You have to set all of your goals in a way that’s sensitive to

the time. Therefore, I had goals that were six years down the

road, and I had goals that were six months down the road.

Life is full of setting a lot of different goals and different stages

of them, as well.

harvey: I’m just curious, when you’re setting those goals, do you ever

picture, dream about, and visualize yourself standing in that


Try to capture the emotions you think you would feel having accomplished something that’s meaningful to you

medal ceremony setting, playing the National Anthem? Did

that ever go through your mind?

Peter: I did that all the time. That’s what kept me going during the

drudgery of the daily work. When you set your goals, you’re

kind of in the middle of a moment of courage.

You are determined—I’m going to do this. You’ve got that

vision of what you want to do. You write the goal down, and

you set it. Then all of a sudden, you actually have to do some-

thing about it.

When you are in week number six of a 12-week process,

you’re right in the middle of it. You’re thinking, Can I really

make it to the very end? You are going to get tired or bored or

distracted at times. When that happens, the way I get myself

back on track is to ask myself, “Hey, why am I here? What am

I doing this for? What’s the goal?”

I don’t just visualize the goal. It’s one thing to visualize being

on an Olympic podium. I think it’s another thing to try to

capture the emotions you think you would feel having accom-

plished something that’s meaningful to you. So don’t ask,

How would I look? That doesn’t matter. Instead ask, How

would I feel? I think feeling is a much more powerful motiva-

tion even than visualizing something.


It’s very hard to get people to do something if they don’t want to do it, so find a way to get each team member to take ownership

Ask yourself, Is this feeling I will get from accomplishing this

worth working for right now? That’s what kept me going in

the middle of the daily routine.

harvey: I’ve never heard that before. Very, very good. Who all should

be involved in goal setting, Peter?

Peter: Well, it depends. If you’ve got a team, then you’re going to

have to work together with individuals. You know, when

you were a teenager or when you were trying to parent your

teenagers, that it’s very hard to get people to do something if

they don’t want to do it.

I think we’ve all been in stages of life where we’ve had goals

inflicted on us, and that’s an entirely different phenomenon

than owning the goals yourself.

So when you work with a team, for example, and when this

goal is going to take a team effort, you’ve got to figure out a

way to get each member of that team to take ownership of the

goal themselves—to say, you know what, I know it matters to

you, but it also matters to me.

When that happens, that team is much, much more effective.


You have to possess a burning desire inside to accomplish something

You kind of have to take each case as it comes. When you’re a

leader, you work with individuals who have different person-

alities, different buttons to push. When you can figure out

what it is that can help each individual to take ownership of

the same goal that you have, then you’ve got a very powerful

team to accomplish some really great things.

harvey: Different strokes for different folks. I’m not sure if you touched

on this, but what’s the single most important part of setting

goals then?

Peter: Well, I think you have to possess a burning desire inside to

accomplish something. So really you ask yourself, Is this

really important to me? Is this just kind of something I’d like

to do? Or is this something that I feel is really vital to me,

really meaningful to me?

When you have that burning desire, only then are you

willing to pay the price and willing to do the things that

you have to do. So I think that you’ve got to tap into that

true inner soul that says, This is something that’s part of my

DNA; I’ve got to do this.


If you need to reassess your goals, be sure to be really honest with yourself about it

harvey: Next question. How do you deal with revisions to goals? I

like to call them “mid-course corrections.”

Peter: Well, sometimes those are absolutely necessary. I think it’s

important to ask yourself why you’re making the correction?

Are you doing it because you found out this is harder than you

thought it was going to be? Are you doing it because you’re

tired or because you’re lazy?

I mean, you have to be really honest with yourself when you

reassess the process.

Let me give you an example. Years ago, I read an article by

some business professors who had studied very successful

professional sports franchises. These are the teams that you

tend to always see in the playoffs. Sometimes they’ll win the

Super Bowl or win the World Series; other times they don’t.

But in the end they tend to be the teams that are always up

there in the hunt for the top prize.

The professors compared those teams with teams that kind

of come and go—maybe they’d win it one year, but they’d go

down to the bottom within a few years. They never really find

that level of dominance that the other teams have.

They found that what distinguished the most peak-performing

teams was that they all had a philosophy, a plan, a system that


Once you meet a deadline, you can sit down and evaluate what worked and what didn’t work so that you can adjust as needed

they worked under and that they stuck with. The professors

found that there wasn’t one best plan out there. These teams

had varying different types of philosophies and attitudes

towards how they train, how they prepared. But they found

that the successful teams had a plan that they stuck to.

So, for me, in my training that was helpful to understand that

because I never really had the perfect training to become an

Olympic champion. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, but no

one’s ever going to really find it. If I keep trying to tweak my

training—saying, Well, this really isn’t working, I’m going to

shift to something else; oh, this really isn’t working that well,

I’m going to try this instead—we don’t really stick with the

plan and give it a chance to work its way through.

So I think what’s important is to find a plan, make a plan, and

to the best of our abilities stick with it. Then when that dead-

line is met, we can sit down and evaluate, Was that process

the best process? Can I make this better?

For me, after a competition, I would sit down with my coach

and say, Okay, what worked in this plan? Okay. Well, this

worked, that worked, and that worked. Great. We’re going

to keep that in as we train for the next competition.

What didn’t work? Well, I think I could have done this

better; I think I could have done that better. Okay. Well, let’s

change those around and try something new in this category


If you have a process of continuous improvement, you will get to the very best plan for you

or this area of your training. Now, let’s set another plan for

the next meet and move forward, and I would do that again.

After that competition, I’d sit down with my coach and say,

Okay, now, what worked? Well, that new thing I added went

really well, but this other thing I added didn’t work that well,

so I want to change that now.

By doing that over and over, I had a process of continuous

improvement so by the time I got to my training for the

Olympic games, I felt like I had the very best plan for Peter

Vidmar. I didn’t really change it very much at all after that.

For about the last year of my training, I felt like I really dialed

into something that worked for me. That’s something that

each individual and each team has to do on an individual

basis, depending on what their big goal is or what their

processes are. In doing so, I think you can come to a system

that works for you or for your organization.

harvey: Well, I think it’s pretty easy to see why you are the champion

that you are.

Peter, ever since you agreed to come on the program here, I’ve

been waiting to ask you this question. Many people are well

organized in their business planning, but they fail miserably in

their family planning. Would you care to comment on this?


When you end your workday, you need to move your focus from your work-based goals to your family-based goals

Peter: You know, Harvey, I learned a good lesson from my coach.

My coach was a great man. His name is Makoto Sakamoto.

He was the U.S.A.’s best gymnast in the ‘60s and early ‘70s.

And after finishing his career at the Munich Olympic games

in ‘72, he wanted to start coaching gymnastics. I stayed with

him for 12 years.

What I learned from my coach is that we worked very, very

hard in the gym. We were very, very focused. But we had a

beginning to our end, and we had an end to the day in the gym.

When we finished, I would line up in front of my coach with

my teammates, and he’d say, Okay, let’s begin workout, and

we’d talk about what we were going to do, and we’d start the

day. At the end of the workout, we lined up in front of our

coach, and he’d say, Okay, how did it go?

We would talk a little, debrief. Then he’d close our workout.

And that closing of the day meant, Go home and don’t think

about gymnastics anymore until we meet again. You can’t

help but think about it, of course, but try to get your mind off

of it so you can kind of regenerate, refresh. It’s kind of like,

you know, Stephen Covey sharpening the saw.

On the weekends, for example, after my Saturday workout, he

would say, Okay, let’s not think about gymnastics until we see

each other again on Monday. Get your mind off of it.


You need to be able to have the discipline to say that you’re tuning everything else out right now

By separating it that way, I could really enjoy my weekend

with my family, with my friends, and then get back to the task

at hand during the week.

I think too often we don’t separate that. We live in a world

where it’s kind of getting harder to do that. All you have to

do is look at your BlackBerry or your iPhone and see how

many emails came in just in the last half hour when you’re

on a vacation, or you get a text or a tweet or something from

someone that deals with work when you really should be and

could be focusing more on the really important stuff, which

is your family.

You need to be able to have the discipline to say, You know

what, I’m tuning out right now. This is family time and nothing

gets in its way. When you do, you become more effective at

everything—more effective with your family, more effective

in the workplace.

But when you try to mix it all up and try to multitask and do

it all at the same time, we become less effective at everything.

I don’t think that’s a very good way to proceed.

harvey: Okay. I surrender. You nailed me on the emails—pretty fast

and pretty accurate.


You need to know how to push the envelope and extend yourself a little bit more than you think you can

Next question. Can you describe your ROV principles that

you talk about in your corporate speeches?

Peter: Yes. When I lecture I use the gymnastics judging category to

kind of illustrate my message.

In my sport, for example, if you fulfill all of your difficulty

requirements, the highest score you could get, in my day, was

a 9.4. That’s certainly not good enough, the last 6/10ths of

a point to get you to the 10 comes from a category that we

would call “ROV”—and it stands for “risk,” “originality,” and

“virtuosity.” So for me those are the keys to the perfect 10.

In my sport the judges expect you to kind of take a risk. It

doesn’t mean being reckless, but it means pushing the enve-

lope—that was attributed to you, Harvey.

harvey: Thank you.

Peter: To achieve risk, you need to really know how to push that

envelope and extend yourself a little bit more than you think

you can. That’s where the judges expect you to do something

a little bit more grand than the other guy.


The key to virtuosity is the really unglamorous stuff of life, and that’s called repetition, repetition, repetition

Originality is the self-explanatory part—that’s just you do

something new, something innovative. The key to doing

something innovative in my sport is to stop watching the

other guy. Do things on your own that you know are going to

make a difference. Stop playing catch up with the other guy.

Then the final category is virtuosity where you do things that

maybe everybody else does, but you figure out a way to do it

better. The key to virtuosity—the key to perfecting some-

thing—is the really unglamorous stuff of life, and that’s called

repetition, repetition, repetition.

How do you make those daily tasks fun or exciting?

I talked a little bit about that earlier in this conversation,

about how I would try to keep in mind what it would feel

like to be an Olympic champion, and that’s what kind of

kept me going during the daily drudgery of training. Having

that mental focus on the end result is really what made a

difference for me.

But all of these are great principles for going from good to

great. It really is a great help.

Sometimes I even perform on a pommel horse for the audi-

ence and explain what I am doing and make that my version

of PowerPoint as I perform skills that are risky or original and

show something with virtuosity on the pommel horse.


The things you are learning in this module are great principles for going from good to great

harvey: Well, you surely know your subject.

Say, did a little birdie tell me that you’re possibly training for

the Ironman?

Peter: I’ve never done one before. I’m training for an Ironman with

my son. I figure it’s a good way to celebrate being 50. I’ve

got a 26-year-old son who’s in business school right now. He

came up to me about six months ago and said, Hey, Dad, I

think I want to do an Ironman.

I said, Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how much

training that’s going to take? Because I mean, I’ve run some

marathons, done some all trail bike races, and all. And it

takes a lot of time.

And he says, I think I want to do it.

So I said, All right, then I’ll do it with you.

For the last five and a half months, my son and I have been

training together for this Ironman that’s coming up in a couple

more months. It’s going to be a hard one, but I’m going to see

if I can give it a shot. You’ve got to swim 2.4 miles, ride 112

miles, and then run a 26.2-mile marathon.


You need to have true integrity and never compromise

Hopefully, if my heart’s still beating after that month, maybe

you could give me a call, and I can tell you how I did. That

will be a lot of fun.

harvey: I’m going to mark it on my calendar. I’ve got 10 notches of 10

marathons. That’s a piece of cake compared to the Ironman,

though. Good luck.

Peter: Thank you. I have to go swimming as soon as I’m done here.

harvey: Okay. Last question: Which two individuals in your career

have influenced you the most and why?

Peter: Well, first of all, I would have to give a lot of credit, of course,

to my coach, who I mentioned earlier, Makoto Sakamoto.

He was a great gymnast. He’s just a pillar of integrity. He

taught me what it means to never compromise. So when

you’re in the gym, you do what you said you were going to do

and you get the job done.

He really helped me to focus on staying true to my training.

He made gymnastics fun; he made hard work fun. He used


To accomplish your goals, you need to have a burning desire to achieve the end result

to fill my mind with stories of the Olympics and of the great

gymnasts that have gone before. He made becoming an Olym-

pian a romantic quest for me. I just had this burning desire to

become an Olympian. Then, as I got better, that shifted from

just being an Olympian to trying to be an Olympic champion.

I just can’t give him enough credit. He’s just a great guy.

I think the other person that had a big influence on me was

my father. You know, my father actually did gymnastics in the

‘30s down at Muscle Beach, down by the Santa Monica Pier in

Southern California. That’s where Joe Gold of Gold’s Gym got

his start. That’s where Jack LaLanne used to hang out.

My dad wasn’t one of the famous athletes down there, but he

used to always hang out there and learn skills on the parallel

bars and on the rings. He just loved doing gymnastics. Even

though he never really accomplished fame, per se, in terms of

a national competition, he always loved the sport.

When he was 29 years old, well before I was born, my father

contracted polio. For a brief period he was completely para-

lyzed as the disease was running through his body. When the

disease left, it left a lot of damage.

It killed about 36 muscles in his body, and where it’s most

obvious was in his left leg. He lost the use of virtually all the

muscles in his left leg, with the exception of a tiny contrac-


Acknowledge the people you admire the most in your life

tion of his quadricept, which allowed him to kind of fling his

leg forward and lock it into place. So my father walked with

a very prominent limp his whole life.

In fact, even now, my dad is 90 years old. He’s in a wheel-

chair, and he’s got post-polio syndrome. So even his good

muscles are shutting down.

What I admire about my dad is that he’s always got a smile on

his face and he has never really complained. As a child, I saw

daily that my father never complained about what everybody

else called a handicap. In fact, even one day, he came home

from work, his glasses were broken, and his face was kind of

bloodied. My mother thought he’d been jumped or something.

He worked in downtown LA as a senior vice president of a large

pump manufacturer. My mother said, John, what happened?

And he said, Oh, you know, I was walking across the street

and my good leg hit a pothole and my left leg, you know, my

bum leg—couldn’t support myself. I knew I was going down,

and I couldn’t get my arms up fast enough. So I just kind

of slammed on the pavement face first in the middle of the

street. People got out of their cars, and they picked me up and

helped me off the street.

Then my dad chuckled and said, Oh, I’ve got to be more

careful next time.


Finish what you start—never quit

As a 10-year-old boy, that had a real impact on me because

I thought, Well, why doesn’t he complain? Why doesn’t he

curse life after all he’s been through?

Because of that attitude, he kind of taught all of his children

that Vidmars don’t quit. That’s not meant to be arrogant in

any way, but we just don’t quit.

Finish what you start. My dad was an example of that. Even

after having the polio, he was very successful in the business

world, and he worked very, very hard to support six kids. I

just love him for that. I appreciate his example to me. I think

that I would not have been an Olympic champion without

that example from my father.

harvey: Wow, that is a remarkable story.

Well, Peter, you’ve always been one of my heroes. I love

the summer Olympics. As you know, I’ve been attending

them for 40 years now, every four years. Men’s gymnastics

is, without question, my favorite event. So, of course, I’ll be

there in London, too.

Peter: Yeah. I’ll be there, too, Harvey.


Planning and goal setting are all about the future, but so is worry

harvey: Thanks to John Langbein, who is supplying me the tickets.

And, Peter, I will see you soon.

Peter: Hey, that’s great, Harvey. Thanks a lot.

Planning and goal setting are all about the future. So is worrying.

The trouble is many people let their worrying masquerade as planning.

Whenever you’re tempted to worry, think about the big picture. My

money is with Dodgers’ legend Tommy Lasorda. Tommy was asked for his

take on the game weather once. His answer: “The only way I’d worry about

the weather is if it snows on our side of the field and not theirs.”

Winston Churchill equated worry with waste.

He admonished his fellow citizens: “Let our advance worrying become

advance thinking and planning.”

That doesn’t mean you should plan to do things that are free of risk.

Worriers have a habit of choosing options that rock the boat the least.

There was once a preacher. He was a good man. When he died, he

went straight to heaven. But, hold the phone. His is not a story with the

happiest of endings.


Left to its own, worry ranks among life’s greatest time and energy wasters

After he arrived at the pearly gates, the minister had a total meltdown.

He noticed that a New York cab driver had been awarded a higher place

than he.

“I don’t understand,” he complained to God. “I devoted my entire life to

my congregation.”

“Our policy here in Heaven is to reward results,” God explained. “Now,

was your congregation riveted to and inspired by every sermon you gave?”

“W-e-l-l,” the minister admitted, “some in the congregation fell asleep

from time to time.”

“Exactly,” said God, “now take the people who rode in this man’s taxi.

They not only stayed awake… they prayed for their very survival.”

Worry shouldn’t be tolerated as a show of concern. It can certainly

trigger planning and preparation. Left to its own, worry ranks among life’s

greatest time and energy wasters.

A Harvard Business Review Management Tip offered “Three Steps to

Reducing Toxic Worry:”

l “Don’t worry alone. Talk to someone you trust—a friend, partner, or

colleague—about your concerns.” Worry is fueled by our imagina-

tion. We convince ourselves of its validity. When you have to talk

about worries rationally, they usually evaporate.


In the long run, instincts are no match for information

l “Get the facts. Often a small problem can get blown out of propor-

tion… Find out what, and how big, the real problem is.” Get hard

evidence about how likely or serious a threat may be. In the long run,

instincts are no match for information. I repeat—In the long run,

instincts are no match for information.

l “Let it go. When you can’t do anything about the problem, give it

up and forget about it.” Worry’s most crippling side effects is how it

distracts you from things you can really influence.

The late Richard Carlson wrote an uplifting #1 New York Times best-

seller Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and It’s All Small Stuff.

Carlson knew you had to arm wrestle worry to the ground. In one chapter,

he tells readers they should actively practice ignoring negative thoughts.

Remember the story of the fighter. Flat on the canvas, this boxer took

the full count in a late round of a brutal match. He finally came to in the

dressing room. As his head cleared and he realized what had happened, he

said to his manager: “Boy, did I have him worried. He thought he killed me.”

Now that’s putting the worry where it belongs.

Occasionally, your goals will take you into uncharted territory. When

they do, be fearless!

Consider the story of Henry Morton Stanley, the nineteenth-century

British explorer.


A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work

After fighting his way through an incredibly terrifying jungle, he was

asked if he had been frightened. He answered, “I didn’t think about it that

way. I did not raise my head to see the whole. I saw only this poisonous

snake in front of me that I had to kill to take the next step.

“Only after I had gotten through did I look back and see what I had been

through. Had I taken a look at the whole thing, I would have been so scared

that I would never have attempted this.”

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

You can’t saw sawdust. A day of worry is more exhausting than a day

of work. People get so busy worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, they

forget about today.

Today is what you have to work with.

One heady planning topic can’t be neglected. That’s scenario planning.

The essence boils down to this:

Most strategic plans used to be written along the contour of a most

likely set of assumptions. This constituted the “official future” for most

businesses. Almost always, the context was a “straight-line” projection of

present conditions.

As said earlier, in today’s gyrating, rough-and-tumble world, betting

the farm using a single set of assumptions is reckless. Entertain multiple

options and figure out what you need to adjust. Of course, this isn’t a very

neat way to plan, but the world is rarely neat either.


A scenario is nothing more than a consistent and credible story about what the future might be like

In the 1950s, Herman Kahn developed the science of scenario plan-

ning at RAND Corporation and the Hudson Institute. The oil giant

Royal Dutch Shell is generally credited with applying scenario planning

to business strategy. A scenario is nothing more than a consistent and

credible story about what the future might be like.

Where do you begin?

Experts recommend you list the “driving forces” in your industry or

service. Try to divide the forces into both certainties and uncertainties. The

economy may be one of the big uncertainties. The steady march of tech-

nology in changing your expense structure could well be a sure thing.

Then cast the possibilities onto a series of grids. Let’s say I’m looking at

the Internet’s effect on the envelope industry.

We know that the Internet will be used more and more aggressively

and skillfully to pre-qualify customers.

This is sure to happen whether the economy is robust… or rocky.

Internet pre-qualification does not necessarily mean that envelopes will

be less of a marketing tool. It probably means that envelopes will be used in

later stages of customer communication. The envelopes needed could well

be more sophisticated in design.

In micro-terms, what we know about direct mail might stun you.

For example, we know “Catalogs had the lowest cost per lead/order of


List the “driving forces” in your industry or service and divide those forces into both certainties and uncertainties

$47.61.” That’s “just ahead of inserts at $47.69, email at $53.85, and

postcards at $75.32.”

Among the things we don’t know is how the Internet will foster different

devices to replace the catalog.

For years, the geek world has predicted that humans will find a better

way to transmit information than printing it on “dead trees.” What exactly

that better way will be remains a mystery.

We know that the average person in the U.S. consumes about 749

pounds of paper a year. Worldwide, the consumption of paper has soared

400% in the last 40 years. However, that trend can’t be taken in isolation:

l More and more paper is recycled.

l Manufacturers have launched a concerted campaign toward “light-

weighting”—reducing the amount of paper needed to achieve a

wrapping or packaging task.

l When people print documents, the conscientious are even decreasing

the size of their margins! And, you know what? It works.

We used to quip: Fight your way out of a paper bag.

Well, we are just beginning to appreciate how strong paper can be when

its potential is maximized.

DARPA—The Defense Department’s high-tech research arm—is even

creating “origami robots.” They are “powered by nothing more than puffs of


It’s not the plans that matter—it’s the planning

air.” These “robots molded from paper and silicone rubber can bend, twist,

grip and even lift more than 100 times their weight.”

What we don’t know about paper could fill a book—whether paper or

electronic. And, what we don’t know is how much that book would weigh…

or how it will be made.

When you do scenario planning such as this, don’t expect a predicted

scenario to come to pass. Pegging a particular outcome is not the point. The

key here is flexing your brain muscles about the options.

Eisenhower had it right. It’s not the plans that matter. It’s the planning.

The goal and planning topic that I’ve saved for last is the one dearest to

my heart. Perhaps it’s the only one that really matters: How do you plan to

achieve in your life what really matters to you?

I call this the “Bucket List” challenge.

In Rob Reiner’s 2007 dark comedy The Bucket List, Morgan Freeman

plays a talented historian who earns his way as a mechanic. Jack Nicholson

is a billionaire persecuting his valet. Both are on the exit list with terminal

lung cancer. They meet in treatment and resolve to do a series of things—

some oddball, some serious—before they kick the bucket.

Many years ago, the bucket list concept was first introduced to me by

Coach Lou Holtz. He originally had a list of 107 items that he methodi-

cally crossed off—like dining at the White House or appearing on the


You always need to have fresh goals to give you energy

Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was host. Or winning the national

college football championship.

By 1998, Lou and his wife, Beth, had achieved 99 of the original goals!

But that hasn’t stopped the Coach from ramping up the list. When I checked

with him in 2011, he had added three new goals: becoming a member of the

College Football Hall of Fame; owning his own plane; and celebrating his

50th wedding anniversary.

You always need to have fresh goals to give you energy.

Another friend of mine is a guy named Gordy Zacks. Gordy was the very

successful CEO of R. G. Barry. That’s the firm that makes Deerfoam slippers.

Gordy went on to become a major fundraiser for the Republican Party and

met a host of interesting people.

Gordy wrote a book titled Defining Moments. In it, he describes his

admiration for the famed cancer researcher Dr. Judah Folkman. Judah’s

father was a rabbi. His mother Bessie was special for a long list of reasons.

Here’s what Gordy wrote:

There was something magical about the Folkman family.

Judah’s mother Bessie was plagued by a painful curvature of

the spine that made many of her days agonizing. Never did

[Gordy] see her any way except meticulously but modestly

groomed with a serene smile on her face. Bessie had the

simplest and perhaps the best definition of happiness [Gordy]

ever heard. It is three-pronged:


To develop a bucket list worth having, you learn to plan for what’s important in life as soon as you can

l “Someone to love.”

l “Something to do.”

l “Something to look forward to.”

The Folkman family had a remarkable custom. Every year, during their

family vacation, Judah and his younger siblings… would sit in a circle

around their parents Jerome and Bessie. Each of the children would then

make a brief presentation:

l What had they accomplished in the last year?

l What were their goals for the coming year?

l What would be the chief obstacles they would need to surmount?

l How would they tackle them?

l And, how would they measure their success?

I ask you: How do you get yourself to develop a bucket list worth having?

That’s how. You learn to plan for what’s important in life as soon as you can.

Since I saw the Freeman/Nicholson film, I’ve thought that every manager

ought to have a list like this. It epitomizes the idea of s-t-r-e-t-c-h so central

to what people expect of leaders.

Don’t wait to create your bucket list until your doctor hands down a

death sentence. Do it today.


Just because you might fail, don’t let that deter you from stating your goal and getting down to business

Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, was being interviewed on televi-

sion just after he had made still another business coup. The reporter asked

him, “Mr. Buffett, now that you’ve become the richest man in the United

States, what else is there?”

Buffett didn’t miss a beat.

“How about becoming the oldest?” he said with a wry smile.

Warren Buffett will probably fail to become the oldest person in the

United States, and he knows it. But the fact he will fail doesn’t deter him

from stating the goal, and then getting down to business again.

And on that note, I leave you to make, pursue and achieve your plans.

Good luck.

Documents

is just a › themackayroundtable › ... · A dream is just a dream—a goal is a dream with a deadline My good friend, the Reverend Dr. Robert Schuller, offered up some wisdom about