Most People Work Forward and Hope

Most people chase a goal by working forward and hoping it adds up. That's backwards.

Years ago I gave a talk called "How to Build a Marketing Machine." The one idea people remembered afterward wasn't complicated. I called it the Workback Waterfall.

1. Start with the goal. The specific outcome you actually want to hit.

2. Work backward. Define the steps required to get there.

3. Find the variables. Identify what determines success at each step.

4. Track them. Measure real progress, not guessed progress.

5. Adjust and optimize. Forecast what's ahead, then reduce the effort each step takes.

Nothing revolutionary. But most people skip this and work forward instead... starting things, hoping they add up to the goal, finding out too late whether they will.

What I like most is how portable it is. It works for a sales goal, landing a job, building a habit, even getting a date. Any time you have a specific outcome and a repeatable process to get there, it applies.

Once you can measure each step, you can manage each step. That's the whole idea behind Six Sigma and process improvement, just applied to whatever goal you're actually chasing.

What goal are you chasing right now without having worked backward from it?