Most Entrepreneurs Don’t Know Why They’re Building
A note from the research and development team at oVertone
Most entrepreneurs start out from a place of passion or purpose - there’s something wrong in the world, and the way they know how to create the solve is to build the answer in the form of a business. It’s normally not super well defined - the founder might know WHAT they want to do and what inspired them to do it, but as far as the broader impact they can have, it’s more of a feeling that they hold.
Then there’s a bump in the road - clients give unexpected feedback. The landscape of the industry isn’t quite what was anticipated. Challenges abound, and the business is scaling but most of the founder’s time is spent in the weeds, reactively pulling weeds. Decisions are made based on short-term reality, and that original inspiration feels like a naïve and distant point with no basis in real reality. Suddenly there’s risk where there wasn’t before. Making the wrong decision might lead to a paycheck disappearing, for the founder or their team. All feelings beyond frustration or panic become harder to access.
Bam. Burnout.
This is the moment when the “what’s this all even for” demotivation spiral hits. The “did i just make myself a job?” question circulates in abandon. The founder starts looking for the escape hatch - devaluing everything they’ve built up until this point. The business now exists just to keep existing, because everything else is too frightening to consider. Maybe the driving force becomes just “more,” - more followers, more topline revenue, more likes, more in the paycheck. There stops being a reason, and chasing that “more” becomes all there is. That original feeling that they used to motivate is now impossible to reach.
More is not a motivator - it’s a dream crusher.
The problem with chasing “more” is that it’s a goal with a constantly moving target. There can be no celebrations, no positive feelings. Everything is a comparison. Vision is shortened to the immediate. Goals become reactive and responsive - what will people like, who will like me, who will give me more. Having the goal of “more” puts everything on the external - but what got every founder going was that internal drive, the original vision. When we put all of our goals on what people can give us in terms of likes and cash, but don’t have any more energy to put into value or leadership for those same people, the business starts to dissolve.
When all there is is external validation, when life happens TO us and we forget to happen to life, we lose sight of why we’re building this thing at all.
There is so much to consider when in the start up phase that formalizing a vision statement can feel unimportant and pretentious. Why focus on writing something that in larger corporations just collects dust anyway? I think the better question here is not necessarily why make a dust collector, but why let your vision statement collect dust at all?
In the relationship that is Mission, Vision, and Values, Mission tells us what we do and why we do it, Values gives us a common way of acting and decision making frameworks, and Vision plays the roll of the north star. Vision is what replaces that unidentifiable longing of “more,” and gives your company purpose (that’s why some folks call it a Purpose statement). It’s meant to be lofty, it’s meant to be qualitative, and it’s there to give everyone - employees, customers, and you - a collective understanding of why it’s even worth pushing through the muck on the worst days.
Vision answers the question, “What happens when we successfully complete our mission 20,000x? 100,000x? What is impact of our actions on the world around us?”
A strong vision statement is a founder’s biggest tool in creating a following of engaged and excited brand advocates. The statement allows everyone to consider even more prudent questions: “Is this an impact worth fighting for? Does it push forward something that matters to me? Is this a legacy that I want my name on?" Being able to say yes (or no!) to these questions create something intangible but really important - strong cultural behaviors and alignment. The desire to reach the destination, or get as close as possible, by contributing one’s strengths, collaborating across departments, and letting the founder step into their position as conductor and leader.
Writing out Mission, Vision, and Values is so fundamental to building a strong foundation for execution and strategic thinking that it’s what I start all of my Foundations Coaching Clients with - even if they already have them written - to make sure that they’re crystal clear and ready to be used as the incredible toolkit that they are.
Here are the top three things that a clear Vision statement will build you:
Employee retention - well written and frequently communicated vision statements will help employees (and founders) stay connected to the larger picture and see meaning in their work. Employees stick around when they are reminded and helped to understand how their work has broader impact than just the minute to minute life they experience.
Customer pipeline/flywheel - people love to know that the things they buy and the services they use are supporting a future that they care about. Shouting out the company’s vision of the future is a fast way to let people know you’re with them, so that they can be with you, too.
Large scale decisions - while Values help you with the everyday choices, Vision statements can be used like old-school navigation - vision lives on the horizon, so that you can look out, see where they are, and make strategic choices that ensure that your business is always pointing toward it as a future. When challenges arise, we look to the vision statement to see which answer to our problems takes us the least off course, or maybe, even presents us with a gust of wind to move us closer.
