How you can make $20 million

By STEVE HART careers editor

When comedian turned actor Jim Carrey was struggling from job to job around Hollywood as a stand-up comedian he dreamed of making it big. To help him to focus he wrote himself a cheque: pay Jim Carrey US$20 million. Carrey kept it in his wallet and worked towards the day he could cash it. Years later pay day came when he was offered US$20 million to appear in The Cable Guy. He had achieved his goal.

Whangarei-based life strategist Talia Mana says clear goal-setting, such as Jim Carrey's, is essential for individual success and says people should treat their careers as if they were a business with its own set of goals. She says everyone should see themselves as a company.

"Any business is started with a vision. For example, Stephen Tindall probably opened his first Warehouse store with a vision of opening other branches. And those managing their own careers shouldn't be any different if they want to reach their goal."

Mana says people need to have a vision of where they want to be - be it the head of marketing, sitting in the MD's chair or having more free time. They need to set themselves goals and then be able to define that success so they can recognise when goals have been met.

"People should start by deciding on the ultimate goal and then break it down into smaller, manageable chunks."

Angus McNaughton, chief executive of the Kiwi Income Property Trust, agrees. "An individual setting objectives in the same way as a company is valid - we have discipline in business, so why not in our career and personal lives? For example, I know what I want to achieve by the time I am 40 and 50.

"If you are clear about your objectives you can obtain a sense of achievement when you reach them. It is hard to celebrate success if you don't know if you've achieved something or not. Without a goal you can't maintain a focus on your life or career, it can lead to people flitting from one job to another - drifting."

Wendy Rowe of Right Management Consultants says setting goals helps people to focus on the future they have chosen.

"But you have to remain positive, active and flexible. Reassessing those goals in the light of change and new information, considering alternative routes. Enjoying the journey is also good advice.

"Companies typically establish missions, values and strategic plans and seek to have people onboard who share the organisation's goals. People should do the same."

A perfect example is the 1953 survey of the graduating class of Yale University. It found that 3 per cent of the graduates practised goal setting and had a set of clearly defined written goals. Twenty years later, the researchers discovered the students who had set themselves written goals had amassed a fortune that almost equalled that of all their former classmates combined. So setting goals gets results.

Mana says studies indicate that only about 1 per cent of the total population has a written goal - as opposed to a wish that remains in the mind. The advice seems to be if you want to be a winner, write it down.

Part of the process of meeting goals, she says, is to carry out a self assessment of strengths and weaknesses. If there is a weakness between you and your goal then the gap must be closed. And strengths should be promoted to raise your profile.

She tells the story of one New Zealand executive who sent out a weekly newsletter to peers describing her achievements and those of the department she ran.

"She marketed herself in exactly the same way as a company should. It could be seen as taking the self-promotion thing to an extreme, but companies do it - so why not individuals - and you can't knock what works. But the newsletter must have been a part of her plan to achieve her goal."

Just like companies, says Mana, people have to have a point of difference to set themselves apart from others if they want to be recognised, offered special projects and promoted.

"The success of a company is linked to money, and the cash return to shareholders, so goal setting and measuring success is quite easy in a broad sense. But defining success as an individual is down to one's own values, the life one wants to lead and deciding on the work-life balance - it's far more complex.

"People can set goals such as wanting to head a Fortune 500 company, or to be considered the expert in a particular field - to be the first person people think of when a particular subject is mentioned. Also important is to be able to say, 'Right, when I achieve my goals this is what it's going to look like: I am going to feel satisfied, be recognised, or have more freedom because I have earned a lot of money'."

Mana recommends people lacking direction take stock and decide what it is that excites and energises them to discover their passion.

"I think it's a good idea for people to look at what they enjoyed doing as children, chances are their career goals should be heading in that direction. But goals have to be consistent with personal values."

She says people can often work out their values - not saying what they are - but by looking at their actions.

"If something goes wrong at home and you rush off to be with the family then you know home comes before work. But if you are at work 18 hours a day and are not looking after your health, then while you may say your priority is health - it isn't. Actions speak louder than words."

No one knows where Jim Carrey got the idea of writing himself a motivational US$20 million cheque. But he is quoted as saying: "It is better to risk starving to death than surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what's left?"