4 historical big goal projects - and what we can learn from them

Published on September 17, 2026 6:54 PM GMTI am interested in exploring the idea of Big Goal projects (aka goal-oriented megaprojects).This is the second article in a series about Big Goal projects (last one here). This article explores 4 historical Big Goal projects that utilized 4 different kinds of levers to move the world. The examples are admittedly simplified, and this is early thinking. Skeptics, please feel free to pile on. But it is worth studying the lessons learned from history.At the...