AS I told you earlier, I’m working through the book “E-Myth Mastery”. Here’s my first installment:
Becoming an entrepreneur is about finding the real passion that is made evident through the practice of entrepreneurship.
A statement from Gerber that really hits home has to do with the entrepreneur or really the technician that goes to work in his business doing everything possible investing his life, family, resources and future to:
“get something he never clearly identifies or defines”
The entrepreneurial frustrations described definitely mirror my experience. For three months or so, I’ve dreaded wednesdays. In fact wednesdays have brought the closest things to panic attacks that I’ve ever experienced. Well to be entirely accurate it’s not every wednesday, it’s every second wednesday. The day the payroll company takes money out of our account to pay our employees. In the few years that we’ve been operational, our payroll has become larger every two weeks than quarterly sales were in our first year. A few more weeks like this and I will have memorized the phone number of our account manager at the bank. Unfortunately she already knows my voice before I identify myself. 
Having read the E-Myth several years ago, I thought that everything was about systems, but maybe I’ve gotten the proverbial cart before the horse. So that’s what I’ve worked on, but maybe the FIRST step is more about defining the LAST step clearly.
BUT… here is where my personal dilemma lies. I have never been very successful at writing a vision. Actually the more I think about this, the truth is I haven’t been very successful at creating a COMPELLING vision. O yeah, I’ve worked on a vision statement or two but nothing that really compels or encapsulates passion and with all the reading and research I’ve done, I can’t seem to grasp how to do that. No problem with getting a definition of what vision is.
I envy guys like Ben Yoskovitz who (at least from my perspective) do a great job of defining where they are going. A friend of mine who has started a successful church in San Diego talks about the simple vision that is a key to their success.
Are there some hints or suggestions that work for you? I’m sure several of you have successfully developed a vision statement or something that defines where you are going. How did you do it? Are there important steps you took? Would you share them with me and the rest of the readers? Let’s talk!
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Just wanted to add that our current vision statements goes something like this: “To be known in every market we enter as THE caffe with the best quality, best tasting and healthiest products in every line we carry!”
To me it doesn’t seem all that motivating, but…..
Posted by DaveOlson on April 16th, 2008.
it is relatively easy to imagine what your Last step will look like when you haven’t yet started walking… when you’re on the move, different things start happening around, making you off the path, making you lose time… some obstacles appear out of the thin air where you don’t expect them to be… and you suddenly find out your are not moving as YOU wish, but as different THINGS make you move… you’re just caught by the flow… and the time is passing by, and you start losing mind and hope and then something just “clicks” in your head – and everything starts looking RIGHT, and everything goes smooth right after the initial plan…
all you need to do is just keep moving:)
Posted by Polina on April 17th, 2008.
I believe “mission”comes before “vision”. “Mission” is about where I am going and “Vision” is about how I am going to reach there. I wrote mine sometime back and had never looked back because the declaration came straight from my heart and not from my brain. Our heart is our inner self, and it is our inner self that creates the external world.
I believe when our intend is in line with our action, we’ll have true integrity and congruence. Where attention goes, energy flows and results show. I’m still working towards my mission and vision.
Posted by Vivienne Quek on April 20th, 2008.
Vivienne, great to hear from you again….
Our mission statement has been much more compelling to me: “to exceed customers’ expectations on every visit”
I personally find that more compelling.
I don’t think I have really been able to sort out the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement. I usually pick up things pretty easily, but I’ve realized that this are is where I’m struggling to “get it”
Posted by DaveOlson on April 21st, 2008.