Mission-driven companies do not come to be by accident. They begin with a deliberate intent to create positive change that the founder(s) see as significant and vital when compared against the backdrop of their personal values.
Most often, these companies never gain any real recognition or brand awareness until many years after they were conceived. Later on in the life cycle of these companies, the key components of why they exist and how they became the success stories seem obvious. But are they?
Like life, businesses, especially mission-driven ones, make total sense when looking backward. But whether fortunately or unfortunately, they must be lived and created forwards. It is with this lens that I want to go back to the beginning.
Part of my journey revolves around such a company.
One that is driven first by mission and second by profits. While this concept may seem strange, there is an odd symbiosis that exists between mission and profits based on which is deemed as being most important. While profits can be attained without a real mission that is embedded into the fabric of a company, a for-profit mission-driven company with no care or concern for profits will cease to exist.
Founder(s) of a mission-driven company tend to care very much about their businesses’ ability to survive because this allows them to continue working to fulfill their mission. In this way, profitability matters, but not at the cost of the mission, which is where this odd balancing act comes into play. Money must be made to ensure the businesses’ survival, but not at the price of compromising the mission that is held in such high regard.
This idea leads some to question how and why certain decisions could be made that are to the detriment of the businesses’ profitability. What would compel anyone to spend money they didn’t have to? Isn’t that at odds with why they started the business in the first place?
The answer lies in the granularity of the perspective. When a business’ mission is the driving force, decisions that enable the fulfillment of this purpose will be made, even if they cost more money and effort in the short term. While this may be the more challenging path to take, leaders of mission-driven companies know that it will pay dividends down the road, and in more ways than one might think.
Interestingly, for these decisions to make sense in the short and long term, the reason behind the company’s existence needs to resonate deeply with its founder(s). This connection is no accident, and for it to be established there is one prerequisite: personal values. Without them, the founder(s) will almost always lack the stamina and fortitude needed to make hard decision after hard decision, while simultaneously converting both future employees and customers from skeptics to evangelists. The founder(s) need to have clear personal values that serve as guideposts and decision trees for their lives.
Most people understand values in the context of a business, but less so when it comes to an individual. Much like businesses, people can and should have core values that allow them to better understand who they are, what they care about, and what decisions to make. Once established, the tension in one’s personal life quickly can become apparent. This tension is the best feedback mechanism for enabling someone to align what they say and believe with what they do.
When I feel that tension in my own life it’s like a little warning light that goes off letting me know that something I am doing or saying is not aligned with who I am and what I value. It lets me know that I need to take a hard look at what I am doing, how I am showing up, and the decisions I am or should be making.
The creation of personal values is not necessarily easy when done in such a way that is connected to our identity. Anyone can make up three to five personal values in five minutes, but will they mean anything? Will they resonate at the deepest level? Getting to a place where values offer meaning and say something about who we are to others in such a way that aligns with our own views of ourselves can take time and some hard work.
In going through this myself, three values serve as a path to my life. They are stewardship, faith, and honesty. And while there are other things that I care about, everything else outside of these three is either less important or falls into one of these. For example, I care very much about my family, and for me, being a good steward means demonstrating that care in both words and action wherever and however I can.
If you don’t have personal values that are clear and reflect who you are, take some time to do this work, I can promise you that it will serve you for the rest of your life. It is only after having established these personal values that the work can begin around offering a connection to something, whether a business idea or otherwise, that overtime will provide a real measure of fulfillment.
It is from here that we can better understand the connection to a mission-driven company, its founders, and its success.