Set a Vision Which Is Truly Your Own! Do Not Fall Into a Trap!
I recently met a fine entrepreneur who had been in the field of health care for some time now. I usually try to engage with a person, than having the general chit chat of ‘what do you do, how are you’…, so I asked him ‘what was he trying to accomplish through his amazing organisation’. To this he replied: “we wish to become the best provider of healthcare services providing affordable and trustworthy care”. This appealed to me. It was a nice vision he was trying to fulfil, so I got even more interested on why did he even wish to do this?
To this he replied, “There is a great market for affordable healthcare and if we are able to become trustworthy, then we will definitely get more customers.”
This was getting interesting for me now, I was so into this conversation that I asked about what he thought of the market for ‘expensive healthcare’, especially in the super luxury segment, has it already been catered to?
Are there existing players in that category?
We started discussing the law of abundance, of how many people are willing to pay way more in healthcare than the average person. And to no surprise, there were many. Way more than what he could cater to in his lifetime, rather lifetimes. We discussed the ease of managing a smaller absolute number at a high price, will it allow him to provide better services and keep building his market?
It all sounded like an Aha! Moment, but he could not come to terms with how he could miss this angle, while he put in so much time and research.
This conversation left him questioning his own vision. He was in doubt, whether he should even continue doing what he has built up so far.
This person is a typical entrepreneur who wishes to scale up his business and through his experiences and various trainings and mentoring, has learnt from someplace that he needs to have a Vision, Mission and Purpose. He wonders what these are and goes around asking his well wishers, wise advisors and the internet. Eventually, he attends some workshop where he is taught how to set a Vision. He then comes back with a statement. But the sad part is that in most of the cases, it remains at just that…. “A statement”. Neither does he believe in it, nor do his people.
Such Vision statements get created that are then printed and published everywhere across the organisation. But every person in the organisation can see the dichotomy of culture and conduct which is being presented, and which is truly being followed. People instantly feel disconnected and can see through the lies.
This mistake is committed when we operate out of 3 principle emotional drivers of Fear, Greed or Lust.
Follow the following simple sounding but not easy to execute steps to create a Vision that is truly your own:
1. Realise your true offering to the world.
When our business and enterprise is only a means to prove ‘how good we are’ to ourselves and to the world, then it will not appeal to high talent and intelligent people. Only those filled with their personal inadequacies join such ventures with the same intent to prove their worth to their peers. This does not last long enough and scaling up becomes a troublesome challenge.
In contrast, those conscious people, who realise their “inner-adequacy”, operate through it and create their organisation as an offering to the world. This does not make them missionaries or charitable, in fact once they realise, they are able to channelise and offer their experience and competencies within their subject matter domain.
Do not offer what your competition offers or what you think will work, but offer what you have a mastery over, as that is what will make a change!
2. Overcome your Fear
Fearful people are survivors, not Visionaries. However grand a Vision may sound like, people who live out of fear of losing out, of rejection, of loss, of not being noticed or recognised, of not being approved, of validation, and other such fears, will naturally run their organisation out of fear and insecurity. A Vision requires you to ‘use/ spend’ all your resources, while fear forces you to ‘hoard’. A fine balance of survival and scale can not be created by fearful people.
3. Do not operate out of Greed
Greed is a mixture of comparison and competitiveness. You must have met those people who are conditioned to be competitive. They are compulsive to take up a challenge. For example, when some people witness someone singing really well, then instead of genuine appreciation, they start running such a person down in their own mind with thoughts like, oh.. Poor guy… I don’t know how much money he must make? Or with thoughts like I sing better than him, etc.
This is again intimately connected with a sense of ‘inadequacy’ but this is a state where inadequacy is being fought in a good way and you are a successful and resourceful person. Comparison and competitiveness can compulsively get you stuck to the context of one person or a situation. It does not allow you to think with an open mind.
For example, When you desire good health… how do you define your health as good? Is it to have a body like someone? Is it to weigh what someone does? Is it to accepted? Is it to seek more attention? Or is it to live a better life under your specific circumstances towards your own life goals?
4. Overcome your Lusts
When your life revolves around gathering more attention and getting more power, then your key driver becomes Lust. Unconsciousness has the ability to turn your business into a medium to fulfil your desires, the primary one amongst them being your personal lusts for power, fame and attention. Money is just a mode to fulfil these lusts. Vision rooted even in subtle soil of Lust, will ensure disengagement and disconnect at a micro as well at a macro level. Scaling up becomes an anxiety and stress driven exercise. Refer to my first blog on Lusts to understand this aspect better and deeper.
5. Your Vision should go beyond you
So long as your Vision is dependent on your personal abilities and strengths, it won’t lead to scaling up. A Vision makes you leap frog only when it is beyond you, when it is beyond your own horizon. It is not about growth on a YOY basis, but where you see your organisation in 5-10-50 years!
6. Your Vision can be created only after you avoid and overcome the rest of the 9/10 mistakes.
Wondering about the rest of the 9 mistakes?
SKC World has published a total of 6 mistakes till now, which you can access below.
It is only when you have successfully overcome these that your insights get triggered. Thereafter, travel your journey over the next 3 mistakes that will be shared over the next few weeks to design A Vision that is easy to execute and implement.
Scaling up is your Right. The only choice you need to make is whether you wish to do this Joyfully or miserably. While the choice may seem obvious, you need to think why is it then, that you still experience anxiety and stress even when you are successfully scaling up?
This was the 7th of 10 mistakes an entrepreneur should avoid while scaling up!
Tune in every Monday to follow this series.
Here are the links to previous mistakes:
1. Lust: https://www.skc.world/your-lust-can-destroy-your-business/
2. Worrying instead of thinking: https://www.skc.world/if-you-worry-too-much-you-are-making-a-huge-mistake/
3. Entrepreneur not aligned with his people: https://www.skc.world/5-reasons-why-your-people-dont-listen-to-you/
4. Emotional Vulnerability: https://www.skc.world/your-low-emotional-consciousness-is-making-you-vulnerable/
5. Baseless Assumptions: https://www.skc.world/why-are-we-unable-to-execute-our-business-plan/
6. Personal Inconsistency: https://www.skc.world/6-simple-hacks-to-becoming-consistent/
If you truly want to eliminate these mistakes from your life and business, the explore SKC programs! Click here to explore.
