From "If Your Goal Is Success, Don't Consult These Gurus":
[In] The repertoire of consultants, trainers, and motivational speakers, nothing comes before the power of setting personal goals. And in the annals of personal goal-setting, no story outranks the Yale University Class of 1953.
The story, as told by consultants, goes like this: In 1953, researchers surveyed Yale's graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. The answer: 3%. Twenty years later, researchers polled the surviving members of the Class of 1953 -- and found that the 3% with goals had accumulated more personal financial wealth than the other 97% of the class combined!
It's a consultant's dream anecdote: a vivid Ivy League success story that documents the cause-and-effect relationship between goals and personal success. It's powerful! It's compelling! It's also completely untrue -- as the Fast Company Consultant Debunking Unit (CDU) found out.
In the future we will look at the validity of still another piece of information oft-used by trainers, coaches, and consultants -- the modalities of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Watch for it.
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