Why you don't set goals for the long term

Accountability - You can't touch me! 

Have you noticed most organisations don't set corporate goals that exceed more than 5 years?

OK, one of my ex-company had a strategic 10 goals for 10 years plan...

Most of us "shepherds" just snigger amongst ourselves as we put on a show and dance to rally the troops forward.

Come on! We have to be in the same job description for 10 years to be accountable. For that to happen, we have to be sheep.

Most of us shepherds are either on contracts or have no intention to stay in the same job for max 5 years. And true enough, the CEO left before he got to review what's the end result of his "baby".


Look! Water ahead! (望酶止渴)

Do you know the art of selling unpalatable Wholelife insurance?

You project the benefits as far off to the future as possible! That' why snake-oils always highlight the benefits after 30 or 40 years - it plays into the basic human emotion of greed.

It's simply a mathematical trick where the effect of compounding is only sexy at the last few years of multi-decade projections using single digit % compounding. 

Of course the snake-oil will conveniently gloss over the fact that for Wholelife, you LOSE money for the first 20 years from the get go!?

Yup, if the snake-oil senses the sheep is not so good with "seeing the whole forest", can even throw in the dumbest insurance of all - Wholelife for Child. 

If 30-40 years looks good, try 50-60 years of projected benefits!!! And if we throw in what our unborn and non-existent grandchildren may benefit... Hey! We have some extra decades to play with!!! How's that for the win!?

Is that how Angel or Private equity investors do when evaluating their investments? 

OK, maybe this would be easier - how many years do analysts use for their discounted cash flow models to arrive at the "fair" value pricing for stocks? How come no one uses 30 or 40 years?


Poor goal setting - Time to move the goal posts?

If a person finally reaches his/her goal of hitting $1 million in 20 or 30 years, there's a quick way to evaluate his/her goal setting skills.

1.  Moves on to the next stage of his/her journey. Do as you say.

2.  Moves the goal posts. Say say only. 

Of course must cut some slack to those who move the goal posts!

Afterall, a lot can happen in 20 years!!!

We can have wars, regime change, natural disasters, etc.

OK, maybe too drama since Singapore has remained "untouchable" for the last 50 years. Hmm, I seem to recall someone did say Singapore was an "impregnable fortress" once...

How about something as mundane as discovering the 3% factor we've used for inflation is "only" a projection? A projection is another word for guess, and guessing does not really fit the S.M.A.R.T criterias for goal setting, does it? 

And how confident are we in projecting our lifestyles and health conditions 20 years into the future?


In the short term, the gap between those with goals and plans over those without can be wide. But over the long term, is the gap still visible?