Here’s something that sounds crazy for your 2026 planning: The entrepreneurs who set “reasonable” goals almost never achieve spectacular results.
I know what you’re thinking. That doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t realistic goals lead to realistic success? That’s what we’ve been taught our whole lives: Be reasonable, be practical, set achievable targets.
But here’s what happens when you aim for reasonable: You get reasonable effort, reasonable creativity and reasonable results. And in a crowded real estate market, reasonable is invisible.
How Starbucks grew by obsessing over the ‘impossible’
Let me tell you about a guy named Howard Schultz. In 1987, he bought a small Seattle coffee company called Starbucks, six stores total. His investors thought he was reasonably ambitious when he projected opening 125 stores in five years. Reasonable goal, reasonable timeline.
But Schultz had a different plan. He ignored his own projections and asked himself an impossible question: “What would it take to open a thousand stores?” His investors thought he’d lost his mind.
That impossible question changed everything. It forced Schultz to reimagine the business model completely. He couldn’t just hire better baristas or find slightly better locations. He had to systematize everything: training, supply chain, real estate selection, brand consistency.
By obsessing over the impossible, he built systems that could scale. Starbucks hit 1,000 stores by 1996, and within 15 years, had over 16,000 locations worldwide.
Impossible goals force you to think differently
Here’s the truth: Impossible goals with unreasonably short timelines create a forcing function that makes you think differently.
When you give yourself five years to double your business, you’ll probably work a little harder and be a little smarter. But when you give yourself two years to 5X your business, you can’t just work harder because there aren’t enough hours in the day.
You’re forced to completely rethink your approach. You must innovate. You have to ask, “What would make this possible?” instead of “Why is this impossible?”
This pressure creates something magical: relentless mental focus. Your subconscious becomes obsessed with the problem. You’re driving to an appointment, and suddenly a solution appears. You’re in the shower, and you realize a better way to structure your listing presentations. You wake up at 3 a.m. with a marketing idea you have to write down immediately.
Your brain becomes a 24/7 problem-solving machine, but only when the problem is big enough and urgent enough to warrant that level of processing power.
But here’s where most agents fail: They try to be everything to everyone.
How Domino’s Pizza leaned into ‘impossible’ to scale
Think about Domino’s Pizza in the 1960s. Tom Monaghan didn’t try to make the best pizza for everyone. He made one promise to one demographic: college students who wanted hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less. That narrow focus, that specific solution to a specific problem for a specific group, allowed Domino’s to scale to thousands of locations.
You need to pick your demographic like a sniper, not a shotgun.
Who specifically are you trying to reach?
- Empty nesters looking to downsize?
- Growing families that need more space?
- Retiring couples ready to downsize?
- Professionals relocating out of state?
Define them so clearly that you could describe their daily routine, their fears about selling and their perfect Friday night.
Then, and this is critical, your message must not only speak directly to them, but it must also address a specific problem they likely have — before you ever mention your solution.
- “Worried about buying your next home before selling your current one?”
- “Don’t want to endure countless showings while your house sits on the market, causing buyers to presume it’s a dog?”
When they hear their exact problem articulated, they lean in. They think, “Yes! That’s exactly what I don’t want to happen. What’s the solution?”
But here’s the final piece most agents miss: Your solution must be unmistakably different.
In 1980, Southwest Airlines didn’t say, “We’re a better airline.” They said something radically different: “We’re not competing with other airlines; we’re competing with the car.” They compared their Houston-to-Dallas pricing to the cost of driving, not to American Airlines. That distinct positioning cut through decades of airline advertising clutter.
At my company, 72SOLD, we don’t say we’re “better agents” or offer “superior service.” Everyone says that. We offer something distinctly different: a proven process that leverages a 72-hour event to sell homes fast. That’s not a better version of the same thing. That’s a completely different approach to solving the same problem.
Should your unique process be like our unique process? Heck no. Then yours wouldn’t be unique.
Here’s your challenge: Set a goal that seems impossible. Give yourself an unreasonably short timeline. Choose your specific demographic. Define their problem in their words. Then craft a message so different from every other agent that homeowners immediately understand why you’re not just another option — you’re the one and only logical choice.
The gap between startup and spectacular isn’t crossed by being reasonably better. It’s crossed by being impossibly different.
