Thanks to Thomas Edison for this sage call-out. Also thanks to one of my good friends for calling it to my attention in conversation the other day. Which, sidenote – if there’s anyone in your circle who’s said something recently to make you think, give them a shoutout and a thank you. We all need those people in our lives.
Before we get into this, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about hallucination. Hallucinating is basically when you think you see something, but it may or may not really be there. By nature, a hallucination does not exist in what we might call the “real world” where things have a tangible presence. It’s difficult to generate real results off of a hallucination. Hallucinations make you say, “Hold on. What’s really going on here?”
Vision and execution need each other. One without the other means waste – and a lot of it.
Vision without execution is, as we’ve noted, hallucination. What that means in layman’s terms is a lot of dreaming, big talk, we should‘s. What happens when you get going there? Nothing really comes to fruition, unfortunately. Great ideas die on the altar of big talk (I made that one up).
Execution without vision means a lot of activity, sure – but not a lot of meaningful strides taken. This is where sometimes it feels like a lot of flailing is going on. Avoidable mistakes keep happening. No one really seems to know what’s going on. And if they do have an idea, they definitely can’t pinpoint the top priority.
The result of both of these is a lot of wasted effort. With the first, wasted effort in thinking and thinking and thinking – but nothing comes of all that intellectualism. So you may as well have been cleaning out your car or yelling at your cat to get off the counter for all the good it brought your business. With the second, the waste comes in the form of activity. Wasted time, movement, resources – things that could have been used efficiently if appropriate direction was set.
The key with these two in business is to find a place of balance. What does this look like? The vision sets the thing in motion – but it does get going! It doesn’t sit there spinning its wheels for eight months talking about the decisions we can make once we get the COGS – it makes sure we get the COGS so we can start making those decisions and move forward in the direction we’ve chosen.
Vision is not intended to get stuck. It wants to move things forward. Your business wouldn’t exist without it. But your business also wouldn’t exist without the tangible actions you took to make your dream a reality.
Activity: Where is your business today? Are you in a comfortable balance where vision is known and guides execution? Or is there some hallucination or flailing going on? If there is, examine your vision or your execution. Where is the hallucination? Where is the activity unprofitable?