What’s the fun in doing hard stuff all the time? Cross off the easy stuff from your To Do list by plucking the low-hanging fruit. A bunch of small tasks equal a big one, right?

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of low-hanging fruit. Or, better yet, fruit that already fell and rests by my feet! Some people go to the effort of getting the fruit from the top of the tree, but that sounds like it requires strategy and planning. Worse yet, it’s probably hard work!

Leaders need to be cautious so they don’t become swamped with heroic challenges and big picture goals and many-year growth development plans.

Speaking of which, I once heard some famous guy say that leaders need to decide on a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and plan to achieve it over the next TEN to THIRTY years. How do I respond to that? I don’t — instead, I just disregard.

[I don’t know about you, but I got real tired just typing about BHAGs! And that’s no good, because I am the one who has to carry this company all by myself.]

Fulfillment isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Satisfaction from a day of hard work is an elusive myth. Pay no attention to those who say you can enjoy overcoming big obstacles at work. Aim low, and hit your mark every time.

Imagine I came to an epic conclusion of how wise it is to accomplish easy things so you can have more crossed off of your list. Pretend I had another witty example of how silly it is to create audacious goals. Envision your freshly-changed perspective on the topic thanks to how well I drove home the point in this post.

I would have written that paragraph above — honest — but it would have been too… um, easy.

Audaciously,
W. Albert Jameson, IV