03.13.09
From the archives: Goal setting study at Harvard, 1979

From the book What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack:

In his book, Mark McCormack tells of a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In that year, the students were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" Only 3% of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13% had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84% had no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing.

The 13% of the class who had goals (but not written out) were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.

And what about the 3% who had clear, written goals?

They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97% put together.

It does not take a Harvard MBA to understand this finding!

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