“You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you might find you get what you need.”
– Lyric from the Rolling Stone’s “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
In business there are three problems attached to this concept.
First, we too easily confuse wants and needs. “I want 27% growth!” says the CEO. Yet 15% growth in a down market means greater market share, leverage and value. The budget should roll up three scenarios, a reflection of what you will do, what would be pretty cool to do based on realistic effort and a break or two, and then what might happen if all the stars aligned and Miss America called and asked you to prom. (Substitute “George Clooney” for Miss America if you’re a female subscriber, please.) We all want things. My new friend David has a Lamborghini. It really is every bit as cool as you think it would be. But he doesn’t “need” the Lambo and he doesn’t pretend to need the Lambo. He wanted it. He could afford it. So he got it.
Second, we let others impose their wants and needs on us. Look, jobs are good things. We all ought to have them. But if our boss’s wants and needs don’t align with ours, it is a short road to Hell on earth. Where there is not alignment, there is opportunity for positive, meaningful change. And, while we might not get everything we want in that change, we might find we get what we need…
Third, we try for the wants at the expense of the needs. Yoda had a problem with the whole “try” concept, but the fact of the matter is, we all have to try our best to succeed. Let’s just focus that “try” on the important rather than the urgent; on the needs first, and then, if there’s any “try” left over, on the wants.
To my knowledge, Mick Jagger has not been asked to speak at Harvard Business School. In this context, he might be a good guest lecturer…
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