My original exit strategy for my employment at Ideal had three basic phases:

• Kick ass at my job by designing superior products, and organizing my team to be efficient and productive
• Use the momentum of my success to simultaneously negotiate for options, and a larger, more visible role in the company.
• Use my role in the company to steer it toward a liquidity event in which we go public, or more likely in the current environment, we are bought by a large competitor. I exercise my options just before the event, then leave the company with at least $2 million in cash

The Goal Mapping exercise threw my grand plan into the shadow of doubt. There are too many dubious steps along this path: factors I can’t control, assumptions I can’t test, too many steps along the way to make the path very probable.

So how to recover? I need to generate more options. I need to consider alternate paths, perhaps more risky moves. I’ll try advanced goal mapping, and write about it here.