How Joe Achieved His Goal—Or Didn't

This week I met with the co-founder of a brand new start up. His name is Joe and was a Penn State student majoring in computer engineering. He recently dropped out to completely dedicate his time for his new venture called Gullin. Gullin.io will be a place for the average person to invest in ICOs, which are initial coin offerings. ICOs are similar to IPOs, but are crypto coin based and do not require a company to go public. Usually investing in ICOs is a long and arduous process requiring many hoops to jump through and many qualifications.

To explain an ICO more simply, Bitcoin when it first launched set up an ICO, which allowed initial investors to receive Bitcoin at an extremely cheap price. This brought initial users to Bitcoin as well as revenue. This is essential the whole function of an ICO. 

As cool as this start up is, I want to specifically focus on how Joe is fulfilling his goal of creating gullin.io. The most important thing that Joe stressed when it comes to staying on track with the start up is always focus on where you are headed. The present is not always fun or rewarding, but if you can look at where you are heading and focus on it, you can reach that point.

The road for Joe and gullin.io has not been perfect. The start up has seen many failure and many lows. The way Joe is able to overcome setbacks and lows was what he stressed from the beginning, which was to look to the future. Where he is headed and where he wants to be stays constant and doesn't waiver no matter whether he is experiencing a high or a low at that moment. This is how he is able to keep a positive mindset despite setbacks. It is also how he is able to view getting rejected by 180 companies as a win because of the 20 that accepted.

However, there is one other component that Joe said helped him overcome setbacks and lows during his road to achieving his goal: friends. The other people working on the startup all helped each other keep the positive mindset and stick to looking ahead toward their end goal. Personally I think having other people sharing the same or similar goal around you definitely helps you achieve your goal. It might not be everyday that you need their extra support, but on days where all seems to be lost and you start to slip back to dawning on the present instead of staying focused on the future, a friend could lift you up and steer you straight. 

Joe has not reached his goal yet. His goal is for his start up to be successful, so Joe's road to achieving his goal is not complete. However, he has certainly stayed focused on his goal and is on a solid path toward achieving it.

(Gullin.io launches February 10th)

Why I didn't achieve my goal—or did I?

The goal of this blog is to understand how people achieve their goals or why they fail. Each week I will talk to a different individual (student or adult) about their goals. 

Created by Ryan Hudson

As with every new year comes a rapid increase in gym memberships nationwide. New year's resolutions are an incredible way to start the new year off. They are clear goals that you set out to achieve in the coming year. It sounds both practical and beneficial. However, you are more likely than not going to give up on your new year's resolution within a few weeks. This is exactly how my new year's resolution played out.

Day 0 (New Year's Eve): This year is going to be the year I go to the gym. All the other years I just didn't want it. I didn't want to get in shape, I was lazy. This year is different.

Day 1: I go to the gym and I start working. I am tearing muscles so I can rebuild them stronger than ever. I feel amazing. I don't know why I ever stopped going to the gym.

Day 2: I may have overworked myself the day before because my muscles are incredibly sore. However, I am still motivated and I will work through the sore muscles and put in the work.

Day 7: What an incredible and productive week. This week will be just like last week.

Day 10: I have too much school work; I will go to the gym tomorrow and work extra hard.

And that was where the New Year's Resolution ended. As motivated and set on my goals to go to the gym as I was beginning the new year, my goal failed within a little more than a week.

My goal to go to the gym everyday failed miserably, but where did I go wrong. I recently watched an interview with Jim Kwik discussing the power of morning routine and in it he discusses how he plans his day. He will write down three business things he wants to get done and three personal things he wants to get done that day. That for him is a win. Now I hear this and I think back to my goal and where I went wrong. When I began my goal of going to the gym, I was on winter break and did not have a lot of work I needed to complete. This left a lot of time to go to the gym everyday. However, in week two, school started and the workload quickly piled up, which left less and less time to go to the gym.

Now, even though I had less and less time to go to the gym and some days I had no time to go to the gym, I still eventually stopped going even when I had the time. I believe, based on what Jim Kwik said that since I set my goal to go to the gym every day that if I did not go to the gym, my day would not feel like a win. This would then be discouraging as I had more frequent and busier days. If I was smart and thought ahead to when I would be in school and busy, I would have set my new year's resolution to be going to the gym once or twice a week.

My error was not planning ahead and creating a realistic goal. Learn from it.