Some goals should be SMART. (Google it) Success should be obvious and measurable, black and white.

Long term goals are different. They should be Hard/Soft. The hard part is broad- I want to build and sell a company for over ten million dollars by January of 2027. The execution is soft. Is it a software company or a chain of pizza parlours? Doesn’t matter. The soft part shouldn’t be articulated in the goal.

Making a ten year goal that includes specifics of how it will be executed is too inflexible to fit a person’s or a company’s evolution. I might not like pizza in 6 years, or there might be a bigger opportunity in chinchillas.

Remote goals should be more akin to value statements. In 40 years, I want to be healthy. (I want to be the kind of person who values health throughout my life.) In 40 years, I want to be a respected senior technologist. (I want to be a life long learner.)

These goals aren’t SMART, but sometimes SMART is dumb.