Council Post: Make 2021 Your Most Audacious Year

Karl is the founder of Great Dwellings, a tech-hospitality startup, and NetAesthetics, a web and app development company.

It’s the start of 2021, and, for many of us, that means setting new goals for the year. However, chances are, most of us won’t achieve those goals. 

Yes, our goals might be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound, but more than likely, they’re too small.

I like to replace “attainable” with “audacious.” Set a goal that makes you chuckle, it seems so crazy. 

Audacious goals can be set for any endeavor, whether individual, within a team, or company-wide. Maybe it means getting that business idea out of your head and sharing it with the world. Did you know that Elon Musk was showering at the YMCA when he started PayPal? Now he heads a company with plans to send people to Mars and another one working to connect the human brain to computers. That’s audacious.

You can set audacious goals for any course. All you need is the right mindset and an actionable plan. It will take time and serious work, but that’s normal to make great things happen.

It’s time to push the limits. Set uncomfortable boundaries. Do something audacious. Whether you want to build a product, direct a new team, or send people to Mars, 2021 is the year of no excuses.

What If Someone Already Did It?

Maybe someone is already working on a similar idea. Whether it’s an app, a product, or a marketing strategy, it’s all good news. That means you’ll have access to enough data at less cost and intel to create a disruptive solution.

How?

Consumers embrace unboxings, marketplace reviews and social media buzz. This all provides detailed feedback about what they like, hate and want next. Read the most influential reviews for the model/product. Solve for the negative reviews and integrate the feedback from the positive reviews. Use this intel to create a disruptive selling point.

Don’t limit yourself to the “star” ratings. Learn from them and build your product better.

What If People Like Me Don’t Take These Kinds Of Leaps?

Maybe you don’t like taking risks. For whatever reason, you can’t handle the challenges of pursuing an audacious goal.

You’re not alone.

Most successful founders and co-founders had this same issue, but they succeeded because they had the right team.

Your goal is to find partners who fill in the gap and push you out of your comfort zone. You might have the sales or operational skills to give pitches and close deals, and you just don’t know it yet. 

Whatever personality traits or skill set your idea needs to succeed, find someone who has them or who can pull them out of you. In my case, I can take the vision and the motivational side of things, but I need partners with strong operational and project management skills. So I found them. 

Suppose you’re 100% happy to knit as a hobby. That’s great. If you want to have the biggest store on Etsy, get a partner or coach who can help you take that leap.

Audacious goals require bold action. Permit yourself to step beyond the limits you’ve put on yourself because you don’t have to be out there alone.

What If Everything Is Unstable Right Now?

The mistake most people make about instability is that they focus on things they can’t control. So they set comfortable goals — or none at all — and give excuses.

Focus on what you can control, and set goals around that. 

You probably already have a big goal in mind. It’s time to say it out loud and tell somebody about it. Then write it down and create a plan. Don’t limit yourself. Don’t think small. The plan doesn’t need to be perfect; just get started today.

When You Do Jump In, Do It The Right Way

Some of you with unique product ideas may already have jumped in. But you should never design your app or idea without putting it through the fire test of public scrutiny. Otherwise, you will have burned out your funding without having tested your product for functionality and market viability.

Find out what your minimum viable product (MVP) must include, then limit it to those features. Your MVP generally doesn’t require a sophisticated infrastructure to launch. DoorDash started as a Craigslist ad and a spreadsheet. The point of the MVP is to get a usable version of your idea into the hands of real people and to do it on a minimal budget.

Once people are using your MVP, ask for feedback and respond to it. That’s how you build a tribe. A tribe will market it for you via word-of-mouth. This type of marketing is free and probably the most effective form of marketing to represent your brand.

Lastly, be open to the possibility that the market feedback will take your original idea in a completely new direction.

What Are You Waiting For?

Do you have an audacious goal?

Do you still underestimate yourself?

Have you set low goals because your dreams seem impossible?

It’s time to act right.

My first goal for this year is to increase my hospitality business’s customer satisfaction score, now in the lower nineties, to the upper 90% range. It may be audacious, but that’s the point.

So, make an audacious plan and act on it today. Who knows where you’ll be a year from now.

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