Long Term Planning

The late Zig Ziglar was a popular speaker in the 1970's-1990's. He conducted a great deal of sales training seminars, spoke at conventions to fire up sales teams or franchisees and did his share of inspirational speaking. Also, he published a number of books. Some people dissed him due to his down home accent ( he was from Coffee County, Alabama) but he helped and inspired hundreds of thousands of people.

One very early morning, I woke up jet lagged (3:30 am) in California after a long cross country flight. Rare for me, I could not get back to sleep and so I channel hopped in my hotel room. I came across Zig Ziglar speaking. Essentially, he was giving a TED Talk before there was such a thing. He said one thing in his presentation that I will never forget. It was--"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." His talk was about setting goals and doing long term planning.

For decades, I and many of you were or have been involved in marketing or media planning. As I matured in the industry, I would often try to talk to clients about long term goals AFTER we had sold in the next quarter or year's recommendation. I was always surprised and disappointed about how few people looked ahead despite the accelerating pace of change that they are or were experiencing.

People would often dismiss me saying such things as "I am focusing on keeping my job" or "I am focused on this year's bonus" or "I don't have time for that long term crap."

Well. That long term crap has hit many of these people like a freight train and a number of them are no longer in the business world. They clearly ignored the warning that Warren Buffett gives to every MBA class that he addresses: "Don't go sleepwalking through life."

It is human nature, I suppose, to focus on the immediate. And, sometimes you simply have no choice if you are an entrepreneur fighting for survival as many are or the brand that you are responsible for is getting clobbered by competitors. Yet, far too few people look ahead and try to  plan for the future as they should.

I have spent my entire career always trying to look forward 10 years. Some people flattered me from time to time and dubbed me a "futurist" but I realized that they were simply being kind. No one can forecast the future with great precision but all of us need to keep thinking about it and monitoring trends. Some companies have very long term goals--it has been reported that Exxon/Mobil has a 50 year outlook on planning. If so, they are probably planning for a post fossil fuel world and are taking small steps now to be part of it.

Recently, someone asked what stocks that I was researching. I always hesitate to answer that question as, if something goes down, you may lose a friend. So, I dodged specifics but said that I spent a fair bit of time looking for things that would be good for my grandchildren to own decades from now. He told me that I was stupid.

Stupid? Perhaps. My long term plan that is constantly being updated is to aim at something and try not to miss!

If you would like to contact Don Cole directly, you may reach him at doncolemedia@gmail.com or leave a message on the blog