“Before you can begin ANY negotiation, you have to have a crystal-clear vision of your personal end-game. Without that, you won’t be able to evaluate and decide appropriately where your edges are” Jason Kavanaugh, CEO Concorde Holdings
Sitting in the audience with a group of entrepreneurs, we absorbed as much as humanly possible from the jaw-droppingly successful Jason, scribbling furiously in our notebooks, staring at the ceiling in contemplation of the meaning of that statement. As I contemplated my personal stake in my own end-game, I came to a startling realization.
I intend to stop working in less than 3,000 days. January 1, 2030, is, for now, the announced and intended end to my day-to-day professional career. That realization gave me pause. I personally, and we as a family have given a lot of thought and effort toward creating a blueprint for life after work that should be all that retirement is supposed to be, but I hadn’t ever taken the time to put a stake in the ground and give myself a finish line to shoot for.
In doing so, I came to the startling realization that I have a TON of things to accomplish in those 2,948 days. Incredible, audacious, life-changing things remain at the top of my to-do list, and now that the playing field has taken a specific dimension, it’s crystallized for me how I need to approach the game.
To realize the vision that came to me about the role our business can play in society and the marketplace, there are specific objectives that have been identified and quantified, both in the near and distant future. We know what we want it to look like, now we must make it happen, and it’s a daunting task.
To make it happen, it’s time to move our community and capacity-building efforts to bigger stages with progressively larger and more engaged audiences. It’s time we shouted the stories of how Companies can make a memorable experience for those encountering their brand when harnessing the positive energy embedded into a well-executed promotional marketing campaign. It’s time we started working together on collaborative efforts to bring even better ideas to the marketplace and calling attention to the ways merch has caught the attention of the American consumer in jaw-dropping ways. It’s time everyone knows everything about the way EVERY product is made and used that information when making choices with their dollars, at home AND at work.
We’ve decided against toiling in obscurity. You should too.
Let’s overcome the “after-thought marketing medium” status by championing those efforts outlined above and more.
While it’s not clear if my company’s efforts to achieve the sales target we’ve set will happen because of some winning combination of factors we ultimately use to get there, the length of time I have left to achieve a broader set of objectives is ABUNDANTLY clear. 2022’s aggressive sales goal is just a small part of the bigger plan, and we can’t get to MY endgame in the time I have left without some explosive growth. Challenge accepted.
If you’re like me and you’d prefer 2022 to be a year to remember, you too may have to be willing to take a longer look beyond the next 12 months and consider what your own endgame looks like. If toiling in obscurity makes you have feelings, you’ll benefit from the same understanding I found in the exercise and the corresponding urgency it gives me every day might be the result of the same exercise for you.
If you have the gifts, it’s your responsibility to use them. The last thing you want at the end of your career is to realize “I could have done more, I could have created something more meaningful”
However many days are left until YOUR endgame, consider how to factor that into your daily equation – you’ll be happy you did.
Roger has spent 20+ years making complex concepts more understandable for both buyers and sellers alike, and has devoted the majority of his recent career to injecting purpose via philanthropy to his sales and marketing efforts. He’s intent on making the world a better place and his nirvana exists at the intersection of Mission, Passion, Profession and Vocation. He loves the outdoors and seeks memorable experiences whenever possible. Contact Roger at roger@socialgoodpromotions.com or 810-986-5369.