This month, I’d like to talk a little bit about establishing a personal vision statement.
Step One in The Franchise Playbook is all about defining your personal vision. When I work with individuals who are exploring business ownership, one of the first things we do is work on our personal vision. Some people embrace this process, while others find it either frustrating or don’t see the point. My suggestion would be that opening a business without a clear personal vision is like driving your car without any destination. Despite what many people think, opening a business is not the objective for 95% of the folks out there. In most cases, the business is simply a vehicle to get you where you want to go. However, if you don’t know where you are going, it’s almost impossible to know if you have the right business.
The Franchisee Playbook’s Vision Exercise is designed to get you thinking about legacy and impact. In many ways, it’s the same as a business’s mission statement. Businesses establish mission statements so that, as they make investment and growth decisions, they have a baseline to determine if those decisions are moving the business in the right direction. Without a clearly defined vision, a business would never be able to make the kind of decisions that are required to grow, expand, and succeed.
Unfortunately, as individuals and families, we don’t often spend time thinking about what our mission statement might be. We simply let the river of life push us downstream, opportunistically accepting jobs when they come our way, and bemoaning the fact that we always feel a little bit out of control.
My suggestion would be to download Step One from The Franchisee Playbook and work through the exercise. It doesn’t matter if you intend to be a business owner, wish to start a nonprofit, or play pickleball every day, a well-developed vision statement will give you clarity and confidence to make decisions that are in line with your goals and objectives.
One last thing—something that you will not find in The Franchisee Playbook. Exercise 1.6 suggests you write a vision statement that is approximately one paragraph long. If you have the inclination, once you have developed your vision statement, work on shortening the statement. The ideal result would be a personal vision statement that only one sentence long. Just so you know, this is exceptionally difficult to do. It took me 10 years before I could confidently verbalize a personal vision statement that was only one sentence long. However, if you eventually are able to do this, you’ll find it incredibly powerful in all aspects of life.
Should you wish to take on this challenge, I wish you the very best and stand ready to assist if needed.
