Are you visionary?

Now that you have identified yourself and your central objective, you should state the rationale for your business:

  • what you are trying to achieve right now (your mission);

  • where you are going (your vision);

  • how you will behave along the way (philosophy).

You have no doubt seen whole books dedicated to writing mission statements. You have probably heard that teams of senior corporate executives lock themselves away for days at a time to debate their vision and mission. You might think that this is going to be a painful experience, but actually it is not.

You should be able to state your vision and mission in one or two sentences each – four paragraphs at most. What do they say? Your mission statement describes what your business ...

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