Gosh, I hate thinking about money... was what I used to say, what I used to think. Give me a good book of history. Let me dive into some deep theology. For crying out loud, give me some math problems to think about... but don't force me to think about a budget. I think I had the idea that money is boring. That Jesus is interesting. That there are a thousand interesting things. But that money was boring. My idea was that, well, I've got an engineering degree, I'm getting a law degree... what need do I have to really worry about money. Won't all that just take care of itself because I got a good degree and I'm going to get raises over the years? The problem with this thinking, for me, was that it led me to a total lack of leadership in my family over money. I let Nicole pay the bills. (I take out the garbage and clean out dirty dishes. An even-ish swap.) And because she did this, I sort of had a general sense that she was the budget person. But we haven'
According to Wikipedia, the concept of a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG, was first proposed by James Collins and Jerry Porras in a 1994 book called Built to Last . The point is to get a unifying vision for a 10-30 year goal around which your people can unite. Something big. Something hairy. Something audacious. A worthy, exciting, stretching goal. The authors presumably put forth this idea as something a company can unite around. But an individual can have a BHAG, too. In fact, it was another individual in my church who introduced me to the idea. He has two BHAGs: the first, to become a doctor, and the second, to open a hospital in a foreign country. He is currently an undergraduate with his sights set on medical school. I believe he would agree that having this overarching vision provides motivation to his day-to-day studies. He doesn't feel aimless in the midst of the details. You can have a BOHAG - a Big Overarching HAG - and intermediate HAGs along the way. O