Why You Need to Have a Meaningful Vision to Succeed

Do you feel lazy when you wake up every morning? Do you feel stressed and lack motivation to work? If this is happening to you, you lack a meaningful vision in your career, business, and life.

Let me ask you a question, do you prefer to work in a small company that has no big vision or do you prefer to work in a company with a big and meaningful vision that aims to change the world and society at large? A company like SpaceX?

People are naturally pulled towards others who have big dreams and visions. Think about Elon Musk and the companies he started, SpaceX and Tesla. There are plenty of automobile companies in the world, but most people prefer to work for Tesla, why?

And how about SpaceX? The company that was created to build rockets and set to colonize Mars. How does that make you feel? Exciting? So, do you now know why extraordinary people are passionate about what they do? Why are they able to wake up every day feeling excited and passionate about their dreams?

They have a meaningful vision to pursue. Successful people don’t look at their jobs as laying bricks, instead, in their heads, they see themselves building beautiful castles that change the world.

What about you? Regardless of whether you are working for someone or you are running a business, are you serving the world and making it a better place? Is your work helping and inspiring people?

When you look at what you do as pursuing a meaningful vision, you will never run out of motivation. Every day, you will wake up feeling inspired, thinking about helping people, and changing lives. But how do you create a meaningful vision for what you do? Here are a couple of tips:

1. Make your dreams and visions to serve others

In 2007, Adam Grant researched a group of paid employees at a public university’s call center who were asked to phone potential donors to the school. It is not an easy job because the employees don’t get paid much and suffer from many rejections from people that are unhappy about getting the cold call. The turnover rate is high and the morale of the employees is low.

Imagine if you are the boss or the leader of the team, how do you motivate your group to stay on the phone and continue to bring in the funds for scholarships?

In his best-selling book, Give and Take, Adam Grant and a group of researchers conducted a study on the call center and arranged a group of callers to meet with a scholarship beneficiary. And one month later, that group raised 171% more money and spent 142% more time on the phone.

So, what happened? Well, the group of callers had a chance to interact with the scholarship beneficiary, they got to know how the funds they raised helped someone who is truly in need. As a result, the group of employees got motivated and worked harder.

When your work or your business is helping people to live a better life, you will be inspired and motivated to work harder. Think about the time when you helped someone. How did that make you feel? Did you feel inspired and did it make you feel good?

Incorporate feelings into what you do. Make your work and your business about helping others and changing lives, and you will never run out of motivation again.

“If you don’t have a vision you’re going to be stuck in what you know. And the only thing you know is what you’ve already seen.” – Iyanla Vanzant

2. Make your dreams and visions impact the world

When Steve Jobs wanted to recruit John Sculley, the Pepsi executive at that time, Jobs asked Scully, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

And that inspired Sculley to quit his job at Pepsi and went to work for Jobs in Apple. Sculley got inspired by the dream of changing the world rather than selling sugary water.

If you look at Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, you will notice that self-actualization and self-transcendence are at the top. As human beings, we want our work to be able to impact others, to change lives, and to make the world a better place.

When your work is in alignment with the legacy you want to create in the world, your mission drives you. Consider this, SpaceX is just a vertical trucking company. It aims to move things vertically instead of horizontally as other vehicle companies did. But that’s not how Elon Musk looks at it.

Musk is obsessed with colonizing the Red Planet. His vision and mission with SpaceX are crystal clear. Musk said that there’s a one-in-forty-thousand chance that an asteroid will hit the Earth and we could be the next dinosaurs. And so, he created SpaceX so that we could back up humans on Mars, like a hard disk backup.

More importantly, Musk often thinks and talks about his company 10 years into the future. And he speaks as if the future is happening right now. That’s how Musk created a meaningful vision so powerful that you can’t help but be inspired by it.

And that’s how you can impact the world and change lives. When your work is big and meaningful enough, you can’t help but be inspired by it. As Steve Jobs said, “If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”

3. Giving back to the community and society

You may think that what you do may not impact the world. After all, you’re not Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. But don’t underestimate your ability on how you can make the world a better place.

In 2009, a dry cleaner named Carlos Vasquez had a burning desire to help the locals who had lost their jobs. So, he put up a sign on his business window that said, “If you are unemployed and you need an outfit cleaned for an interview, we will do it for free.”

Carlos did that because he wanted to give back to the community where the people there have been giving him business. But his action accidentally started a movement when the press covered his story.

Other dry cleaners across the country started cleaning clothes for free for unemployed people preparing for interviews. And one cleaner named Don Chapman was inspired by Carlos’s actions. Don cleaned over 2,000 suits for free to help society just because of one man’s action.

So, how can you be an inspiration to others? How can you help and give back to your community and society, or the world at large? If you are an influencer, you can make a stand and choose to promote healthy products rather than junk foods. Larger brands are known for always giving back.

Patagonia is an outdoor clothing company that inspires others to save the environment. Nike always promotes equality. Starbucks and McDonald’s are known for their act of supporting the refugees worldwide.

“Vision is a destination – a fixed point to which we focus all effort. Strategy is a route – an adaptable path to get us where we want to go.” – Simon Sinek

What about you? What about your company and business? What can you do to make a stand and make the world better?

We always heard that we need to have a strong and emotional purpose or vision to be successful. And it’s true because without having a meaningful mission, you’ll never be inspired and motivated to do what you’re supposed to do.

Use the 3 tips shared in this article to craft your own meaningful, impactful, and inspiring vision. Let your vision pull you to the success you want.