The Impact of the Mission and Vision Statements
Published January 24, 2012 | 
Don’t ever be content with waiting and seeing what will happen, but determine the mission and develop the vision to make the right things happen.
Your mission and vision statements not only set the tone for your business plan, but for lean planning purposes, your company as well. They should clearly define the road or path your business follows, and then act as the most important guiding principles by which your company functions.
Any reader should be able to clearly understand after reviewing your mission and vision statements exactly what you and your business are all about. What your company stands for, what its core beliefs are, along with, what it is by your efforts and resources you intend to achieve.
It’s quite easy to understand that “economy of words” is always critical to remember. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they should be short at the expense of maximized effectiveness, but that each carefully chosen word, be both commanding and significantly meaningful. The words should be clear, concise, compelling, and make it quite obvious, precisely what your company is attempting to do.
There are certainly Major Differences between the Mission and Vision statements
Your MISSION defines what you and your business stand for, and it should not be change or ever be achievable. That may sound silly, absurd and unreasonable, but understand the objective is for your mission to always be just a little out of your reach. It’s what you are always striving to reach, but never quite attain. The mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of your enterprise’s very purpose for existence.
Your VISION on the other hand, is exactly what you intend to become or accomplish. Think of it as your dream with a deadline, it should be challenging, yet achievable. A well-written mission statement should always demonstrate that you truly understand your business, have clearly defined your unique-focus, and therefore can put into words and clearly express your objectives in a concise way to both yourself and others.
Let’s examine some of the “don’ts” that are important to avoid when writing your Mission or Vision Statement.
Don’t restate a description of your business. It’s what the business stands for and why it exists.
Don’t be boring. It should compellingly resonate.
Don’t make it lengthy by getting lost in the sheer volume of words. It’s important to keep it concise, clear, and short and snappy.
Don’t pretend emotion. Allow your passion to be genuine and unrehearsed.
Don’t include it, if you don’t believe it. Remember, your readers aren’t naive and will know if your belief is not present.
Don’t claim to be something you aren’t. You should intend to do exactly what you say you are going to do in your vision statement.
Don’t forget your team. Be sure you get input from everyone that’s part of your team.
The following Mission and Vision Statements of both Microsoft and The Coca-Cola Company are great examples of clear, concise and highly-effective statements.
“At Microsoft, our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”
“Our vision is to create innovative technology that is accessible to everyone and that adapts to each person’s needs. Accessible technology eliminates barriers for people with disabilities and it enables individuals to take full advantage of their capabilities.”
—Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation
Our Mission
“Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.
- To refresh the world…
- To inspire moments of optimism and happiness…
- To create value and make a difference.
Our Vision
Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth.”
The Zen of Success – More Successful Thoughts on Vision
Published July 24, 2010 | One of the most important and effective ways to gain knowledge and enlightenment is to learn from Successful people in history that have gone before us and become a priceless part of our past, and who were generous with their thoughts, experience and understanding.
They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve. – Kahlil Gibran
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. – John F. Kennedy
Knowledge is love and light and vision. – Helen Keller
The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision. – Helen Keller
As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision. – Helen Keller
Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you’re riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live! – Bob Marley
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. – Ayn Rand
The eyes of the soul of the multitudes are unable to endure the vision of the divine. – Plato
All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose. – Brian Tracy
My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed…
And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is. – Saint Augustine
People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. – John C. Maxwell
It takes someone with a vision of the possibilities to attain new levels of experience, and someone with the courage to live his dreams. – Les Brown
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. – Jonathan Swift
The Zen of Success – Successful Thoughts on Vision
Published July 23, 2010 | One of the most important and effective ways to gain knowledge and enlightenment is to learn from Successful people in history that have gone before us and become a priceless part of our past, and who were generous with their thoughts, experience and understanding.
The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account. – Alice Walker
Capital isn’t scarce; vision is. – Sam Walton
Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community. – Sam Walton
The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs. - Vance Havner
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities. – James Allen
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. – James Allen
A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown. - Denis Waitley
If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence. – George Eliot
Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self. – George Eliot
The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision. – George Eliot
Vision – It reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own. – Robert Collier
Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement. – Florence Scovel Shinn
When the divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low. – Ramakrishna
Longing is like the rosy dawn. After the dawn out comes the sun. Longing is followed by the vision of God. – Ramakrishna
The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking. - Mia Hamm
True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision. – Edith Wharton
A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done. – Ralph Nader
The Zen of Success – Optimistic Vision
Published June 17, 2010 | 
People who really understand many of the keys to success, both personal and business, have a much brighter outlook or vision that is tinted with a hint of realistic cynicism, which means they understand the need to have in place life and long-term disability insurance, along with emergency funds established for tough economic periods of time.
Optimistic Vision is simply a life view where one looks upon the world as a positive place and tends to always have the vision to recognize opportunities for improvement, and how to turn the vision into successful reality, and optimists also generally believe that people are inherently good, to go along with their strong “positive” outlook on life, and believe that given enough time, things will work out in the end, they also have the innate ability to visualize how things can actually work out and more often than not turn the vision into positive action with results.
In a common example used to illustrate optimism, the question, “Given a glass that has been filled halfway, is it half filled, or half empty?” The Optimistic Visionary not only has the general disposition to expect the best in all things and answer “Half-filled,” (with opportunity) but also has the vision to explain just how the glass will be successfully filled, as part of a well thought out plan and vision of clarity.
There are many that will tell you the reason Optimists like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves and that the basic motivation of optimism is complete and utter terror of failure, an attitude that many among us quietly share.
The attitude that one should always have a positive outlook towards one’s life often leads to inspiration of others (leadership) to change his or her pessimistic nature to an optimistic one so that one’s life is drawn to bear the best results, when combined with the ability to visualize success, you can do anything you think you can and put your mind to, and this trait and knowledge has literally been called ‘the gift of the gods,’ for through ‘Optimistic Vision’ you can not only start to solve almost every human problem, it is the open door to the achievement of success and happiness, and something you should keep with you and never forget.
Understand Your Business Plan’s Mission and Vision
Published April 30, 2010 | When we look at the different components and segments of the Business Plan, we find it curious that there are terms that are seemingly interchangeable, and the terms that are most often used interchangeably are mission and vision, 
but there is a vast difference between a mission and vision, and while the two concepts play-off of one another they work in very different ways.
Mission by itself, is the purpose or reason for the very existence of your business, so think of it as a general heading or direction, and a mission is what you stand for as well, should be timeless and it should rarely, if ever, change and it should always stand the test of time in that there is no end to the mission.
A vision by itself is a specific future destination or a “dream with a deadline,” and having said that you should understand that the vision should change over time, and the vision must say “yes” to some ideas and “no” to others, since it’s about what the future might be, could be, and shouldn’t be, for example, “To put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960’s.”
You must realize that mission is all about preserving the core of which provides continuity and stability to your business, 
like a fixed stake in the ground or the horizon limiting possibilities, and always acting conservatively, while the vision is about stimulating progress, urging continual change, compelling constant movement, expanding possibilities, and revolutionary change.
Now to build your mission always remember, a mission statement should be somewhat timeless and it should apply not only today but possibly even twenty to fifty years from now, and it should put forth a general direction or heading, by stating what it is that you stand for, and in essence, a mission can never really be achieved since it should be on going, and if it can be achieved if completed, then it is a vision not your mission, and you should think of your mission as your true north heading on your compass that will always be there pointing the way. Many times the best mission statements are also the simplest, as Microsoft’s mission is as simple as “Help entrepreneurs realize their full potential”.
To build your vision, you must ask yourself “What big goal do you want to try to achieve in five years from now, what does success look like in five years, and in five years from now, how should your business be different than it is now, and using your own metrics of success what approach should you take to accomplish in five years for you to consider your business successful? Once again, the simplest statement is many times the best, and Microsoft’s vision is as simple as, “a computer in every home running Microsoft software”.