Find Your True North: Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Personal Mission Statement
This post is part of a series of posts where I've been studying the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey from a Christian entrepreneur’s perspective, and I'm summarizing and Biblically backing up each of the seven habits. Scroll to the end of this article for links to the entire series.
In his New York Times best-seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey teaches that the second habit is to “Begin with the end in mind.” To that end, Mr. Covey suggests we all write a personal mission statement - a clear destination for our lives.
So what does the Bible say about writing personal mission statements? What would God want an entrepreneur's statement to include?
I went to a men's retreat that had me go through a mental exercise. The teacher had me imagine that it’s three years in the future, and, sadly enough, I've passed away. He asked all of us to take a moment to visualize our own funeral. I imagined my loved ones, but I also imagined my business partners, employees, industry colleagues, and my clients giving eulogies and talking about me amongst each other. I asked myself what I'd like them to say. What sort of business owner did I want to be remembered as? What would I want them to share with my mom and dad? For what did I want to be remembered as in my entrepreneurial career?
That retreat, I wrote my personal mission statement for my business life. It was short and sweet, and I still look at it frequently to continue to visualize it.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs spend their time working toward a calling that doesn't really matter to them, because they never stopped to define their purpose and mission properly. In short, they fail to understand the difference between being efficient in the world and being effective for God.
Being efficient in business means getting the maximum amount done in the shortest amount of time. But this is pointless if you don’t know what you’re striving for and why you’re doing it. It's like flying in a plane and not knowing the destination: you’re making progress, but it could be in the wrong direction.
Being effective for God, on the other hand, means the coordinates are set in the right direction – that is, knowing what God's destination for your business life is. Effective Godpreneurs don’t just thoughtlessly pursue things like money and fame; they focus on what’s important to God. Everything else is a waste.
Some of us are clear on our calling, and others aren't. So how can you start to understand God's destination for your business life? This is where writing a personal mission statement for your business starts to help.
Jesus Christ was “On Mission”
Jesus is our example, and He knew exactly what His mission was. He was sent into the world so that we could have abundant life.
The Bible says
A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance. (John 10:10 HCSB)
Everything Jesus did was framed by his personal mission statement, whether He was turning water into wine, teaching on a hillside, spending hours with people as they lined up for healing, or extending grace and forgiveness to an adulterous woman. And today, we continue to be influenced and guided by this mission.
Writing Your God-First Personal Mission Statement for your Business
I challenge you to ask yourself those aforementioned funeral questions, and then use your answers as a basis for writing a personal mission statement. Think about what people in your business would say about you - clients, partners, employees. This is a document where you define your own creed for doing business God's way, meaning what kind of entrepreneur God wants you to be, what you hope to achieve in your business life, and the basic Biblical values and principles underlying these goals.
The mission statement is a commitment to God and the marketplaces you serce. What you're writing is your personal constitution of how you lead a God-first business, an established standard by which every business decision can be measured and valued. Having such a compass gives you a sense of direction and security, and it enables you to at least try to align all your actions with God's plan for your entrepreneurial journey.
Here is my personal mission statement:
My name is Alex Miranda and I help entrepreneurs uncover the exact business they were born to do in this world, and for a select few, I help them bring that to life in the form of a brand strategy resulting in a logo and website that will make them unique, memorable, shareable, and highly profitable. I do this by guiding entrepreneurs to live out God's true business calling for their lives. The hope and truth of living that comes from knowing their calling in following Jesus Christ drives me. That's how I bring my father's kingdom to earth.
Imagine if all of us Godpreneurs started and frequently reviewed our personal mission statements. We would all have a foundational document for our business lives. We would all be doing business with others who also understand their God-first destination.
WARNING: You can’t just bang it out in one sitting. It will require Bible study, meditation, deep introspection and several rewrites before you get it right, and even then it should be reviewed occasionally.
Read the Whole Series: A Christian Entrepreneur's Perspective on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
I pray you enjoy the series as much as I enjoyed creating it!