BIG Goals and Toyota

Toyota Motor North America president Jim Press, in a speech this week to the National Press Club in Washington, said Watanabe's dream "is to create cars of the future that can travel across the U.S. on one tank of fuel, clean the air while they are being driven, and prevent accidents and injuries." Chew on that one for a while. It's clearly not a goal that will be met next year, probably not even next decade. That's fine with Watanabe. He wants to make the perfect car and is willing to take risks and plan ahead to make it happen.

Oil companies can pull their weight in this quest, too, and they are indeed trying. But Toyota has been actively trying to solve these problems for years, putting plenty of yen into the process, all the while arguably producing real-world cars that are closer to what consumers actually want than any other car maker.

That's how you become great. Hang your goals out there, way ahead, and do your best to reach them. If you reach for the stars, maybe you'll get to the treetops first. The stars can wait for later.