The Harvard Goal Study

Mark McCormack, the author of What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School, tells a story of  a study done in 1972 with Harvard MBA students. In the study, the students were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”

Here are the numbers:

1972 –

• 3% had written down their goals and plans
• 13% had goals
• 84% had no specifi goals at all

1982 – 10 years after study

• The 13% that had goals, earned on average twice as much as the 84% who had no goals
• The 3% who wrote down their goals, were earning 10x the amount as the other 97% put together

The power of setting goals and having a clear vision can make you extraordinary.