During the Cold War, the United States was competing with the Soviet Union. They needed a major way to get ahead and secure ultimate nuclear supremacy. What’s that have to do with your business? How does it help you design your business for success?
Keep reading…
You see –
The Navy came up with the idea of a submarine-based missile system, armed with a nuclear warhead. The aim was for this missile to have the dexterity to strike anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. Setting aside personal feelings… Imagine setting out to accomplish such a massive goal.
There was only one problem…
The technology to create it didn’t exist yet.
Did they pack up their bags and go home? Were hands thrown up in the air in despair?
NO!
However, what happened next might surprise you…
They developed a brand new method to address the problem. It was developed specifically for the Polaris Missile Project.
On January 20th, 1960, the United States launched the first Polaris missile (without a warhead) and accurately hit a target. And just like that, the US went from being ranked 7th or 8th military power in the world to #1.
The good news is… There is a process to take you from the unknown territory you might find yourself in right now to appear like an overnight success. Think about it… to the outside world, your business appears to transform and create miracles and magic overnight.
What’s this process?
I’ll tell you, after I share a quick story.
Early in the morning on December 7th, 1941, about 350 Japanese fighter bombs wrecked Pearl Harbor and destroyed the Pacific Fleet of the United States.
Two days later, the United States declared war on Japan. Two days after that, Germany declared war on the US. At that point, the US (which was a 7th or 8th ranked military power in the world) was fighting two wars, and they had to figure out how to win.
The allies did find victory.
And it all started with a process.
The process began with this thought: How do we reach a place where this never happens again?
And then another: We want to be the number one ranked military in the world.
(Sounds familiar? In business, aren’t we always trying to reach that number one rank?)
How did they pull off such a complex operation?
Similarly, in 1962, John Fitzgerald Kennedy stood on a podium at Rice University and announced that, by the end of the decade, the United States would put a man on the moon.
What gave him the confidence to do that?
Would it surprise you to know the same process used to build and launch the Polaris Missile Project was the same process used to get Neil Armstrong and his team safely to and from the moon… as well as the planning for the 1968 Winter Olympic Games!
By now you’re probably yelling at your screen, “Just tell me the process, Blair!”
I know I would be, haha.
It’s called Program, Evaluation, Review, and Technique. Most people refer to it as PERT.
The first step in this process is to create your goal. That’s the easy part. From there, most people put the steps to accomplish their goal in place. Unfortunately, that’s not how PERT works.
You work backward from the future when following PERT.
You start at your goal and move back in time.
You look at the final result and ask yourself — what happened before that? When you’ve got the answer in place, you keep moving backward and travel from the unknown into the known.
That’s what an entrepreneur does.
A true entrepreneur doesn’t strive for redundancy. They create something that was not there before — an artifact, a tool that can become an asset in business.
Fast forward — the United States went from the 8th ranked military power to number one. They put a man on the moon and brought him back safely. All thanks to the process of PERT.
PERT is a skill every entrepreneur needs. Click here for a short video about how it works >>