Most people confuse goals with direction. They're not the same thing.
In business, a goal is usually an unmovable destination fixed before you have enough information to choose it well. "Go live on this date" is the classic case. Every deviation becomes a problem instead of information.
Direction is different.
Direction is knowing which way you're headed. Being able to look back at where you came from. Measuring how much you're moving toward what you want. And recognizing a better path when it appears, because you're moving and the view changes with every step.
But direction without purpose is navigation without a reason to go anywhere. You can know exactly which way you're headed and still be moving toward something that isn't what you actually wanted.
Purpose is the answer to why the direction is worth following at all.
The plan locks in a specific destination. The first step reveals the direction. And the purpose is what tells you why taking that first step was worth it.
Success makes people reach.
A plant manager gets one process fix approved, and within a month he's asking what else could change. The first win widens what he believes is possible. Nobody has to talk him into ambition.
Reaching is a decision. So is not reaching.
As the world turns
Change reshuffles the sort. Some sort for survival. Some sort for the highest-priority steps. Some sort for other people's failure, and a few made fortunes shorting companies in 2008.
Sorting is just sorting.
Your view doesn't open up by accident. It opens when you sort for more, and direction tells you what to sort for. That's how opportunities appear.
What direction are you sorting for?
