BHAGs and Other Hairy Beasts

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the work of Jim Collins but he has made a rather big impact on the business world in the last few years.  In one of his books he talks about something called a BHAG (pronounced B-Hag).  What does it stand for?  It stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
If you read my previous post you would have read about the one impossible thing.  You see I am what they call a hedgehog thinker – I look at the world from an overarching perspective when I try to form a paradigm in order to understand the world that I live in.  This means that I simplify things and bring them into perspective to one another rather than get lost in the detail.
That is what both of these interesting perspectives have in common.  Both a BHAG as well as the one impossible thing summarises all the challenges you could encounter and challenges you to put them into one great endeavour for yourself.  Is the fire in your belly and the reason to get up for.  You see, it really works for me because whenever things feel like they just don’t fit I take a step back and look at my BHAG – pretty scary sometimes.  This is something really big and when I say big I mean BIG!  It could possibly even be something you cannot do alone or even completely achieve in your own lifetime.
What I am suggesting in other words that you be a little idealistic.  Yip, dream, go wild and think of a world that could be changed by you! It is a hairy beast that few attempt to wrestle, will you?
(For any more info on Jim Collins’ work please visit www.jimcollins.com)

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All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, “Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

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