Do you aspire to be a GOAT?

What are you striving to achieve in strategic property asset management, and how do you want to be remembered for it?

Maybe you have heard the story about New Zealand rugby player Richie Mccaw?

As a boy Richie went for a lunch with his uncle in a local café. At this point he was nothing more than a promising schoolboy rugby player.

Over lunch his uncle said to him, “do you want to play for the All Blacks one day?” – Richie said yes, it’s every boys dream in New Zealand to play for their world famous national team.

His uncle said “Great, then take this napkin and write down the journey to get there”

He takes the napkin writes down the different stages to make it to the end goal, from the age groups to the men’s super team and finally into the All Blacks.

Richie shows his uncle and his uncle replied saying he had missed one stage.

“You don’t just want to be an All Black, you want to be a Great All Black”.

Almost embarrassed by such a lofty goal Richie could not bring himself to write it in full so he simply put the initials GAB for short.

By 2001 Richie had made it into the All Black system having ticked off every stage and in the national teams case a whole 3 years before he had predicted.

As he was clearing out his bedroom now a 22-year-old man, he found the napkin again, and all that was left for him to achieve was GAB, so he dedicated the rest of his playing life becoming great, winning two world cups as captain of the All Blacks (never done before) and breaking the record for the most international appearances in the process.

Before his retirement in 2015 he was decorated with the title of the official All Black GOAT

‘Greatest Of All Time’ – GOAT!

It goes to show that sometimes we all set targets that are too small, and we need others to help us push further, to stretch beyond what is possible. It is all too easy to work within pre-set or established boundaries, to set targets that we know to be achievable rather than being stretching.

When it comes to your ambitions for strategic property asset management in your authority, you need to think about what you are striving to achieve and how you want to be remembered for it.