How Startups Turn a Three-Year Goal Into a 90-Day Plan

Too much long-term vision can lead to short-term failure

Photo: Jon Feingersh Photography Inc./Getty Images

Let me ask you a strategic question: Where do you want your company to be three years from now?

• What will your product or service look like? Which new features will you roll out, and how will your business evolve?
• How will your market share expand? Which new markets will you have entered?
• How many customers will you have? How much revenue will they generate? How many employees will you need to support them?

Got all that? Great. You’ve got 90 days.

The future is NOT now

One of the hardest things I have to do, either as a leader or an adviser, is to get my best people to stop thinking three years out and start thinking about today. Don’t get me wrong — these are my best people because they have vision, because they can see the future and are constantly working toward it.

But sometimes these same folks will take a good thing too far. They Luke Skywalker that shit — they can’t stop looking to the future or the horizon, their minds never on where they are and what they’re doing.