How to Turn Goals Into Sustainable Growth

"No, Jesse. I'm tired of working this way."

Jon, my longtime colleague who would later become Ampush’s CEO, pushed back at our annual strategy offsite.

“I didn't understand. What way?”

"Jesse, you set these ambitious — some may say insane — goals, then we push everyone to hit them all year and everyone feels like shit."

At the time, I thought, "He doesn't get it. This is how entrepreneurs work! I set big goals, and who cares if we hit them? They drive everyone forward. Reach for the stars and land the moon, right?"

Wrong.

Today, I want to tackle one of the most critical aspects of running a business: goal setting. Not the basics — I assume you know those. If not, check out frameworks like OKRs, Rocks or, one of my favorites, GIST.

Each philosophy differs slightly, but generally aims to accomplish the same things.

At a super high level, I prefer this approach:

1. Outline a desired future state

2. Work backward, quantitatively, on what must happen to hit that goal

3. Identify what specific activities (inputs) will drive those numbers

Let’s use Aux Insights as an example:

Say we want to hit $4M in Q1-26 revenue. If the average project is $200K, we'll need 20 projects. Projects typically take 6 months to close.

We usually need to pitch 50 PE firms to get 100 portfolio company intros, resulting in 15 projects plus 5 projects from the PE firms themselves.

Now we can brainstorm tactics: Host dinners? Send targeted emails? Ask for client referrals? Then, we can allocate resources for pitching: travel, decks, company analysis and negotiating agreements.

Remember, “Plans are useless, planning is invaluable.” The real value lies in that discussion, resource allocation and understanding how to pivot when needed.

Why set goals at all? Some successful companies don’t.

Others prefer habits over goals.

In my experience, goals provide three critical benefits:

Running a business is hard. It presents unlimited options for using your time. Many people get stuck trying 6 different things simultaneously. Goals prevent this paralysis.

You can’t have 10 goals — if you do, you effectively have none. Limit yourself to three goals, ideally one.

Imagine planning a vacation without a destination — impossible.

Unless you’re a solo founder, you’re likely working with multiple people — sometimes hundreds. How do you get everyone marching to the same beat?

What about investors, clients and other stakeholders you don’t see every day?

Imagine working with a nutritionist who never asks you about your goals but starts dictating what to eat.

Once everyone agrees on the destination, execution becomes easier.

This is crucial. When presenting this concept, I often invoke the image of JFK declaring we’d put a man on the moon in this decade — when Russia led the Space Race and America hadn’t launched a thing.

His goal created a new reality. These visions, some call them BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), inspire teams and yourself.

But there's a subtler benefit around creativity. Last week, I sat with one of our Bootstrapped Giants founders who’s planning to grow from $5M to $10M.

After hearing his plan, I asked, “What if you had to reach $100M?”

First, he looked terrified. Then, he smiled, “I’d run paid ads for leads, develop software for onboarding instead of doing it manually and hire a head of HR and admin to free up my time.” The ideas kept flowing.

By the end, our group asked, “Can’t you do some of these anyway?” He agreed, and increased his goal to $15M. Thinking bigger broke his inertia and created major breakthroughs.

This back-and-forth is the KEY value of goals and planning. Think BIG, determine what it takes to get there, work through ideas and challenges, then refine. The process itself creates power.

So why do 80% of organizations get goals wrong?

This was happening between Jon and me. I was comfortable setting big targets and potentially falling short. He preferred realistic targets he could beat.

I never shared that I was ok with missing targets because I was an immature leader who thought I needed goals to motivate.

As we talked through it, we settled on having both target goals and stretch goals, satisfying both our approaches.

I tell all CEOs: There is no right answer here. The key thing is to decide what you want and ensure the whole company understands it.

Each person has their own relationship with goals, so without clarity, problems will likely emerge.

This is the most common mistake.

We set goals, document them on an internal wiki and then never reference them again. Soon you’re hearing, “What was the goal again?” in every meeting.

When teams lose sight of objectives and metrics, their daily work becomes reactive and chaotic, rather than strategic.

A related problem: not prioritizing goals or having too many. Many founders struggle to choose, so they throw everything at their team. Teams get confused and ignore the goals.

Similarly, the "goal du jour" syndrome where CEOs constantly change direction leaves teams waiting for the next wheel-spinning idea.

The solution: Choose a few priorities and reinforce them everywhere. Daily Slack updates on goal progress. Start meetings by revisiting them. Ask teams to set goals that drive company objectives and keep everyone informed.

This used to be one of my biggest issues. I made goals life-or-death propositions: “If we don’t hit this, we’re worthless. If we do, we’re kings!”

Beyond being unhealthy and using “dirty fuel” to motivate, it’s ineffective.

Consider two scenarios:

A) You're crushing the goal. If you’re significantly outperforming, the logical response would be to aim higher. But when you’ve mentally locked in that original target, you’ve created a ceiling for yourself. Your attachment prevents the natural evolution toward greater achievement.

B) More commonly, you’re missing the goal by a mile. If you're attached, you just keep pushing everyone. Throw a Hail Mary! This sometimes invites integrity to slip (e.g., overselling to clients).

Instead, see if you can meet the differences between "actual versus goal" with TONS of curiosity. We thought our Meta CPA would be $50, but it’s $100.

Why? Are our ads underperforming? Were our expectations unrealistic? Is this the wrong channel?

Yes, pushing hard for a period can work. But learning from missed goals works better long-term, and feels better, too.

My parting thought: My favorite goals actually lead to habits that build sustainable companies.

I prefer setting a goal like "reduce CPA by 3% per month" versus “hit a $50 CPA.”

The latter invites a hard charge, celebration and then trouble maintaining momentum. The former invites you to build a machine for continuous improvement.

It aligns with how real businesses grow. The goal isn’t just “$10M per year,” it’s X% growth and Y% margins sustained over the long haul.

What mistakes have you made with goals? Hit reply and let us know. We'll publish some!

jesse

P.S I'm hosting a live workshop on Zoom next week to help founders unlock their biggest business growth opportunities. Sign up here to grab your spot.