The Most Dangerous Goal Is One You Can Actually Finish

Dream Bigger Than You Can Achieve

I've been thinking about Ted Turner. Specifically, something his father told him that I can't get out of my head.

Ted's dad was a successful man. He'd hit every financial goal he set for himself. And when he got there, he was miserable. He told Ted: dream as big as you possibly can, because if you actually achieve your dream, you'll be empty. What else are you going to do?

His father took his own life in his early 50s. Ted carried that warning with him.

I see this happen all the time. People set goals they think are ambitious. They grind for ten years, hit the number, and then sit there wondering why they don't feel anything. Some of them spiral. Most just drift. The goal was too small, and they didn't know it until they got there.

Do Well, Then Do Good

John Malone says he learned this from Ted: do well, then do good. Build the resources, then go use them for something that matters.

That's how Ted saw entrepreneurship. It wasn't the point. It was the means. The point was ending nuclear proliferation, ending the Cold War, fighting world hunger, building bridges between countries. He started CNN partly because he believed if you had one friend in another country, you wouldn't want to go to war with it. So connect people. Make them friends. The world behaves better when it's friendlier with itself.

He pledged a billion dollars to the UN. Then his stock got crushed and he had to stretch the payments out over more years than he'd originally promised. But he paid every dollar. Big mouth, big promise, and he found a way to keep it.

What I admire about Ted is that even late in life, look at what he was working on. Nuclear weapons. World hunger. Always something larger than himself. He believed if he put his mind to it, he could move the needle. And that belief, more than anything, is what made him a great entrepreneur. He wasn't chasing money. He was chasing a mission that was too big to finish in one lifetime.

Failure Was Just Information

Ted failed plenty. His first marriage failed spectacularly. He rushed into a second one even though he'd told himself he wouldn't, because he was wired to take another shot at anything he failed at. He wrote about this honestly in his book. He was graceful in defeat and got back up every time.

That wiring is what you want. Failure happens. If you keep getting up and pushing, and you actually believe you can find a way, you usually do.

Why I Talk About Mission So Much

This is why I keep coming back to mission and vision when I write. It's not a branding exercise. It's the only thing that keeps you in the game long enough to matter.

For me, it's building the world's leading indoor air quality company. That phrase is shorthand for something a lot bigger and more personal to me, but it's the version I can hand to someone in a sentence. It's what I plan to work on for the rest of my life. It's bigger than I am, which is the point.

If your goal is comfortable, it's too small. Set one that makes you uncomfortably ambitious. Then work like hell.

You'll be surprised how far you can take it.