1.1 Define Your Exit Strategy

“You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it.” — Harold S. Geneen, president of ITT Corporation

Having some clarity about where you are going is a great starting point.  When I started my business, I was quite clear about the destination, however within a few years I was overwhelmed with the workload and the destination I had set seemed little more than a pipedream.  It is important to get back in touch with that and start to become inspired and excited about where you are going.  This chapter outlines some powerful goalsetting techniques that will assist you in updating or creating some exciting business goals to aim for.  It is important to remember that this is the first step in a process of setting goals that expands and repeats over time.  This book outlines a five step process that will result in an inspiring personal and business vision over a 12 month period.  If you repeat the process each year, the goals will continue to expand and become clearer and more realisable – that is the nature and power of goal setting.

Setting clear and powerful goals is perhaps one of the most important things you can do if you want real success.  In the famous work ‘Think and Grow Rich’  Napoleon Hill studied the reasons behind the success of 500 very successful people over a period of 20 years.  In his conclusions as to the reasons for their success, one of the top ones was their desire for success and the clarity of the goals they had around achieving it.