2017: Why staying with your vision is important

Every entrepreneur has probably heard that vision is important to his/her success as an entrepreneur, as well as their personal lives. Life coaches often say that in starting a venture, this time a business, one must be able to pinpoint one’s vision in order to effectively craft one’s mission statement.

Julie Goldstein, a psychologist, in her article Vision and Mission Statements, Why Are They Important for entrepreneurs?, wrote that pinpointing a vision statement and a mission statement requires not only a deep connection to your work, but also creativity.

According to her, one may “find a profound sense of purpose” in one’s new venture, but if one lacks the ability to articulate one’s goals or the ability to put one’s passion into practice, one’s business will likely have a difficult time getting off the ground.

Billionaire John Assaraf, a serial entrepreneur, brain researcher, and CEO of PraxisNow, while writing on the power of having a vision, concluded that “without a clear and precise vision of exactly what it is you want, you’ll never reach it or have it.”

One of Nigeria’s billionaire entrepreneurs, Tony Elumelu, while highlighting his business successes in 2015 in his New Year message earlier this month, wrote that: “Heirs Holdings achieved nearly all the strategic ambitions we set for ourselves five years ago, and in that short time, our results have been remarkable.”

These highlight the power of vision.

Individual entrepreneur’s vision for their business varies and is dependent on their type of business such is setting up and/or why the business is being set up. But generally, as Goldstein suggested, determine visions for their company, entrepreneurs need to determine who their target audience are and how they anticipate them benefiting from their service. “Now imagine what that looks like. This vision should be the goal off of which you base your mission statement,” she wrote.

And this is where visualisation comes in.

“One of the most important keys to success is the ability to get clear on your goals and visualise them as if they are a reality. And do more than just ‘see’ your goals, put all of your senses into it. Ask yourself more than just, ‘What does this look like?’ Ask yourself ‘What does it feel like – physically and emotionally?’ What does it smell like, sound like, taste like? How will you move, what will be your reactions, what will happen around you?” Loder suggested.