The Mission.
Every company needs one.
Startups are notorious for a lot of things. Burning through cash quickly, growing too fast, etc, etc. But fundamentally, it all comes back down to the mission. What the founders set out to do. It’s so easy to ride the wave of success and recognition. It’s easy to buy into the hype and forget all about the mission and focus on what users and the public may be telling you.
But where does that lead after all is said and done?
Crafting a solid mission requires a simple thing to start with: a goal. This can be anything, but it has to be focused, it has to be clear, and it has to motivate you. More than anything, the mission to follow has to be created from passion and from a place where you are at peace with what can happen after you establish what you stand for.
Evolving and building the mission is the more difficult element to it. In my opinion, it’s allowed to change, but how much? How many times? How extensively? Obviously, that’s only up to the founders, but at times, it can seem that the investors or the outside world can pressure something in a different direction. Customers and potential prospects can share their opinions, and while that should be taken into consideration or thought about, it shouldn’t drive the mission. At that point, you’ve lost control of your own project, and constantly changing a true “mission statement” can result in confusion for people as you grow the team, and can almost render it obsolete, which can result in it’s own array of problems. The mission that you pitch, the goal, the idea, the team, the grand idea that culminates into one single “statement” might seem unimportant in the grand scheme of it all, but when you really focus on it, you’ll find that it’s always a way to know exactly what you’re doing and it gives something to stay true to, no matter the situation.
Till next time.
