How To Use Your Vision to Achieve Business Success

The next millionaire interview will be coming at the end of this week. One of the most important things mentioned was about visioning. Visioning is key! (Stay tuned for the awesome interview with Adrian from 7Million7Years.com)

We all know that we need to have a goals for the business we want. If we don’t know where we want to go, how will we ever end up there?

Many people I interact with create goals for their business and either something comes up to change them or they just never look at them again. That’s not what a vision is. A vision isn’t just a few goals.

A vision is who you will become, the culture, and what your business is recognized for. It’s a paragraph or two of the whole point of your company. Do you want to change the world, or just make a lot of money? (Both can be included if they are both important!)

If you don’t have a vision yet, start one. It may take time to refine, but it’s one of the most important things you can do in your business and life.

You Have a Vision, Now What?

You need to be completely committed to your vision. I know this sounds crazy but you don’t even need to be committed to how your business runs today. A huge opportunity might come your way and change the core of your business. But you need to be committed to your vision because it will tell you whether or not the opportunity is for you.

When asked how IBM achieved its phenomenal success Founder Tom Watson said I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was done. I then asked myself how a company which looked like that would have to act. Then I realized that we would never be able to act that way unless we acted that way from the beginning.

Once you have your vision, you can’t put it away. It determines how you act right now. It determines what is most important to you and your business.

The Vision is the Strategic Intent of the business owner. It should be considered the ultimate goal. It captures the essence of success, is stable over time, and is deeply motivating at all levels.

Put yourself into the future. Who are you in your vision? Are you confident and conquering the world? Is that how you act now? Write a list of 10 characteristics that describe you in the future.

(If you are having a hard time with this, find someone who you respect now, and embodies the characteristics you want and write those down)

You can use these characteristics to grow. Daily work on each of these characteristics will move you forward fast. You can make amazing changes in a year to become the person that runs the company you want.

Use your vision to make decisions. You will face a lot of decisions in your business. Use the vision as a guide, and ask yourself “If I were that person in my vision now, what decision would I make?”

I like to say that I have a goal of million dollars, not for the money but for the person I’ll become. You can start becoming that person right now.

If you aren’t working from a vision you might be headed in the wrong direction, and never know it. You might be pulled to a place that sounds pretty good, but isn’t truly what you were meant to do.

Start with the end in mind, and not only will you have a better chance of achieving your dreams, but you will be more clear now.

Do you have a vision? Do you work from it often or does it sit in a word doc on your computer never to be looked at again?

Take some action on your vision today!