Even though it might take a while and maybe you would see this as a bit of an annoying request...but could I hear about some of these plans?
Examples would be:
I planned from the time I was in third or fourth grade that I was going to be High School valedictorian. I took a “rest†when I was in 5th and 6th grade because I was concerned about the people who seemed to burn out and that I might be one of them – so I got Bs and Cs after being a pretty good student beforehand. Then in 7th and 8th grade, in alignment with the plan, I upped my performance several notches – got a few Bs, but competed head on with the people who were the smartest in the class in the most difficult courses consciously trying to beat them. When I started High School, I figured out the points system with honors classes the first semester of freshman year. It was a bit of a challenge because I realized if you got all As, your GPA was highest if you took the fewest classes. This was contrary to my goal to learn stuff to get better positioned for college, which I knew would be hard. In the end, I decided it was more important for me to learn more and so I took more classes. The strategy throughout all of high school was to do the absolute minimum amount of work to get an A. I was very good at it. Unfortunately, I got a C on my first AP Calculus test the final semester, eliminating the possibility of me getting an A in that class, so I was not Valedictorian (even if I had gotten the A, another guy would have had a higher GPA because because he took the minimal classes every semester; I was prepared to lodge a complaint but it never came to fruition). I came pretty close to my goal though.
In High School, I did a lot of research on colleges during freshman year. I really wanted to go to Harvard, MIT or Stanford or one of those types of schools. However, I realized sophomore year that if I did that, I was going to have to take out massive loans. I really did not want to be in debt upon graduating and thought about the tradeoff between going to a better school and the cost. I did research on starting salaries. The salaries for people graduating from these elite schools was not high enough to justify the additional cost, so I decided that I’d go to a less expensive school. I decided on a double major senior year because it was a rare combination that would be in high demand. I looked at options for a school in my state (because it was a lot cheaper), including considering a number of factors related to these schools – how hard they were to get into, quality of the programs, the male/female ratio at the school and things like that. Two schools had a similar quality program, though one was a far better school overall. Unfortunately, the better school had a male to female ratio of 2 to 1. At the other school, which was an emerging program, 55% of the students were female. I thought there was a good chance I’d meet someone that I’d marry in college and that having a better selection of women was more important than the quality of the school, so I picked the school with the higher female to male ratio. It was an easy decision. On women - I had a list of things I was specifically looking for but won’t get into that. I worked through all of college both during the year and in the summer, I made enough to pay for about 60% of my college education. My parents paid some and I took out a couple of loans. When I graduated, I ended up owing about one years worth (20% of college cost).
When I graduated from college, I didn’t have a job. Unfortunately it was in the middle of a severe recession. I researched a number of companies. I looked at the industries that were projected to have the highest growth, evaluated who were the the best to work for, who was profitable and other things like that. In the end, I narrowed it down to 60 companies – from very small to very large - though I preferred the smaller ones because I thought they would have better growth prospects. After three months, I had a job at a large company that was starting up a new subsidiary. I was one of the first people hired and got a job on the ground floor in the technology area. Since I was a small child, I had been very ambitious. I wanted to succeed professionally and financially. I had an end goal – to reach a certain level of management and to achieve a certain level of financial resources. I thought about scenarios that could be disruptive – like a future depression, potential health issues, loss of a job, etc. My goal was to have enough money that I woudn’t have to worry about it if one of these things did happen and also I wanted a reasonable level of comfort in my life. So, I saved a fair amount of my salary from the very beginning – as much as I could afford. I have sustained that through this day. I would periodically do net worth calculations and future projections, using net present value or internal rate of return methods, looking out X years, making assumptions on certain things. At one point, I wanted to buy a used convertible which was expensive. I ran a calculation as to the money I spent and how much it would accumulate with a reasonable rate of return to if I had it in savings. It was a hard decision because I knew the long term cost was very high but I bought the car. It was a very conscious decision - thinking about short term pleasure vs. long term goals (you only live once - right?). I've done this kind of calculation on a number of other similar decisions - house, real estate, etc.
At one point, five years into my work career, I decided to shift my focus into a different area than I was working. Though I didn’t really have any facts to support it and my logic was flimsy at best, I was convinced that some day this particular area would be important. I went in it and got into this area very early. I was interested in it of course but my main motivation was the future growth opportunity and how that would translate into how well I would do. I got a masters in a related area, doing independent study and focusing research as much as I could on this area of interest. The idea was to have a differentiated knowledge set – to have things that others did not. I could see the way things were going and that a lot of the people working in this area had major gaps in skills related to how things would unfold in the future. I did ok in this career path but I had gotten into it too early. It didn’t take off nearly as quickly as I thought it would. I was working in an internal company staff position, also limiting upside potential because I was overheard and not adding to revenue. I stuck with it and ultimately shifted from the cost side to the revenue side (consulting). Ultimately, this area did take off and I was in the right place in the right time. My career shot upwards pretty quickly after that. I began traveling a lot globally because I was an expert and had some unique skills that were in high demand. I also did very well as far as progressing upwards.
I could go on but that should give you an idea.