Wildly Important Goals
One thing I’ve learned in graduate school is that its important to have goals. Goals about what you want to accomplish, what industries you want to work in, which people you want to meet, and which classes you want to take. That’s because with goals, you have a clear sense of what’s important and you can make sure that you get a lot more of those things done. But sometimes, even having goals isn’t enough if you have too many of them. And so often times you need one goal that’s far more important than the rest.
One way I like to think about it is with the term WIG … otherwise known as Wildly Important Goals. I use the term WIG to describe those things that I’m most interested in pursuing. The game changing ideas that you want to relentlessly work toward for as long as necessary. The ones that not only keep you up randomly until 3am when everyone else is sleeping but that also wake you up at 5am when the sun hasn’t risen yet. In business school, they’re the ones you skip the best party of the year to work on when everyone else is out.
Over the past two to three years, I’ve done my best to always have a WIG.  I had one coming into the JD-MBA program in law school my first year. I had one this year at Kellogg and pursued it even in spit of core classes and recruiting. And I have a new one now that I am working on for twelve to fifteen months.
In my view, some things in life are worth spending the extra time on. Fine-tuning every detail for. Becoming an expert at. And giving it your all.
Because as you continue to progress in your career, the competition gets harder and the people get smarter. And as a result, it become much harder to achieve all your goals. Especially the worthwhile ones that the smartest people pursue. So if you want to do well, sometimes you have to hone in. And if you want to hone in, then you have to make a point to pay special attention to it, especially in the midst of all the chaos surrounding you at school and at work. One way to do that is by identifying an important goal well ahead of time and then working relentlessly to achieve it.
That’s what I mean by WIG.
So … what’s your WIG?
What woke you up today at 5am? And will you be up at 5am tomorrow working on it again?  I’m sure your competition will be.
21 Comments to Wildly Important Goals
Hi Jeremy,
This post is very motivating. Thank you.
RonakJune 20, 2011
This post is very motivating. Thank you.
@Ronak Hi Ronak, thanks very much for your comment.
anonymousJune 26, 2011
Great post Jeremy. Couldn’t agree more!
@anonymous Thanks for commenting!
Lotta BreyerJuly 5, 2011
Great post, Jeremy! It reminds me that I should spend some time thinking/rethinking my goals. I feel like I’m in a fork in the road, and it would probably be smart to make sure my priorities are aligned with my basic values, no matter which way I go.
I read between the lines that most of you goals are medium-term (about 12 months out, or so). Is that correct? Do you also set yourself long-term goals, or do you feel that your short/medium-term goals automatically work you toward the future you want? Also, are your goals pretty concrete and is that something you find helpful?
@Lotta Breyer Lotta,
Thanks for your comment. Great to hear you’re thinking more about your goals these days. Definitely something we do a lot of here in business school. For WIGs, I think medium terms make sense. Being able to focus on a few big goals during the year gives you time and focus to really work hard to obtain them. Likewise, having medium term goals allows you to keep working toward longer term goals and to see tangible progression along the way. On the other hand, if you only had one long term goal, the stakes would be pretty high and you might risk not making as much progress if you weren’t able to achieve the outcome you wanted. At least that’s my experience. I bet everyone thinks about it pretty differently though.
Jeremy
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June 20, 2011