Start with what you have
Most people think of a goal as a destination.
For some goals, that may be true, like running a marathon, writing a book, or winning a grant proposal.
But for goals that contain elements of uncertainty, such as starting a business, career growth, or even relationships, the end goal is largely undefinable and unknowable.
Rather, it has to emerge.
I like to think of goals as a place to come from rather than a place to get to.
Then you can set a goal that transcends measurement.
Rather than thinking of your goal as over there, it is much more about who you be and how you show up everyday in pursuit of your goal.
UVA Darden Professor of Entrepreneurship, Saras Sarasvathy, calls this principle, “Bird in Hand.”
With this principle, you get to start with what you have:
Who I am—my traits, tastes, and abilities
What I know—my education, training, expertise, and experience
Who I know—my social and professional networks
This is how AirBnB founders got their start renting out a room with an air mattress in their San Francisco apartment by advertising with a single website. They didn’t start out with a goal to become a $100 billion dollar business. They had a need, and they started with what they had.
Sarasvathy developed a type of human problem solving called effectual reasoning based on her research of entrepreneurs.
“Effectual reasoning is a type of human problem solving that takes the future as fundamentally unpredictable, yet controllable through human action; the environment as constructible through choice; and goal as negotiated residuals of stakeholder commitments rather than as pre-existent preference orderings.
Effectuation is a logic of entrepreneurial expertise. What makes great entrepreneurs isn’t genetic or personality traits, risk-seeking behavior, money, or unique vision. Effectuation research has found that there is a science to entrepreneurship and that great entrepreneurs across industries, geographies, and time use a common logic, or thinking process, to solve entrepreneurial problems.”
Photo by ArtHouse Studio on Pexels
Experienced entrepreneurs ignore things outside of their control (like predictions of the future) and use things in their control to actively shape their environment.
They effectively make their own luck and co-create their future.
To borrow from effectual logic, rather than ask, “what do I want from the future?” you can ask, “what do I have to offer that might change the future?”
And this is why Christopher Robin’s quote is so brilliant.
“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
Go change the future.
Love,
Audrey
