What's your Z: Thinking Backwards to Move Forward

Right now I am working on my executive MBA, and a colleague asked me recently why I wanted an MBA.  "Because it was there" didn't seem to satisfy him, and I was forced to look a little critically at myself and realize I don't have a very good long term plan.  Yes I want to lead a company someday, and an eMBA offers a lot of the skills that would be helpful.  But as I didn't have a good answer for that question at hand suggests I'm entirely too short-termed focused and need to change they way I approach decisions.
I've always liked the story of One Red Paperclip.  In 2005 blogger Kyle MacDonald bartered one red paperclip into a house over the course of a year.  This is the modern version of the Straw Millionaire of Japanese legend who barters his way from poverty to prosperity.  For me the story isn't about what you start with, but where you want to end up.  I often think too short term, trying to get from point A to point B where the view is a little better or the grass just a little greener (spoiler alert: it's just painted).  I have decided to try a new method, and that is thinking backwards from the perspective of future me.

If you imagine yourself right now, you are a collection of skills, experiences, personality, strength, intelligence, and availability.  Call this state A.  Now think about what you want.  It could be the perfect job, or that hobby you always wanted to get involved with.  That is your Z.  Figure out what your Z is, then work back.  This is also known as Backcasting, and some info (and the borrowed image) can be found here.\

One of my recent business ideas was to start a company to fundamentally change the way we hire and develop talent.  I think the way firms do it now is broken and results in people who are unhappy at their jobs, and companies who are less profitable than they could be (more on that in future posts).  But to do this, my company would need to create a lot of software that doesn't exist right now.  Given I haven't done programming in a really long time, it's very intimidating to think of that all at once.  So break it down, but from the end point backwards.

Z = Successful, profitable company
Y = Turn profit after 1 year, Customers and users happy
X = Product launch
W = Complete 1.0 build
V = Debug
U = Beta launch & testing, open community and begin formal marketing

And so on till you get back to where you are today.  Then, put dates on everything going from now till Z.  By 5/1/15 I want to have B done, by 5/30/15, C, etc.  And for most of these steps, you are going to need some help.  Someone in your network probably has the skills or lessons for you to take advantage of.  This is very off the cuff, and I've never started a software company so use at your own peril.  But the best reason for doing this process?  You will have the hard part (process steps and the timeline) of your business plan done.
If you think about it, your network is very similar to this barter system.  You connect with others, offer advice or consume the advice they offer.  You provide value in the stories you share, the lessons you have learned.  You stay connected and build up credit with them.  And when it's time, you cash in some of that credit during your job search or when you start a business.

Is your Z running your own company like me, a house like Kyle McDonald's was, or something else?  Do me a favor and comment below: what is your Z?

W.

Cross posted on LinkedIn