From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Charles D. King on having a North Star Goal

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

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Charles D. King on having a North Star Goal

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- So how did you think about your own career? Are you always on one of these paths? Do you have a vision (Charles laughs) for where you want to be a decade from now and have always had that? - I definitely... Somewhere in college. I'm not (laughs) exactly sure how and when this happened. I definitely went through the process of writing my goals down on paper. And there is true value in writing down your goals, your dreams, your vision, that's one step, but then you put together your plan on how you're going to achieve it. In many cases, when you know what your long term goal is you can have a plan of, this is how I think I'm going to achieve that goal. And at times, you hit a wall or you run into a roadblock and you figure out how to go around it or over it or under it or through it. And you adapt and you evolve. But as long as you never take your sight off of what the long term vision and plan is, you know what you're working towards. So I've always had a North Star and then I try to have the steps in between. So if the North Star is 20, 25 years out, I'll have that five year plan, the ten year plan, of the hurdles and the accomplishments that I'm looking to achieve within those periods of time. And it's really served me well whether it was when I was an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt or doing my studies at Howard Law, during my time in the mail room, I always had a North Star of what I was looking to achieve and accomplish. Now I would adapt and evolve through the process, but I always knew what the end goal was. And I definitely believe the big part of it is planning and writing my goals down on paper.

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