Here’s an uncomfortable idea: Your business exists for a unique purpose that no other business can satisfy. It exists to serve specific customers that need the service or product only you can offer.
Roll that around in your brain for a few minutes. How does that perspective feel? It might feel exciting or maybe a little scary. Chances are, it feels strange at best and terrifying at worst. Why? Because this is not the way the world operates. Nor is it the way we are taught to think. We are taught to think that there is a finite set of resources and we better get on our A game and grab them all up before someone else does and there’s nothing left. There’s nothing intentional about that – it’s all about survival.
If this idea I’m proposing to you is true, you can take a deep breath. You can make some space on your desk and you can start to think about the purpose your business exists for. You can set aside the fear that you aren’t going to make the numbers this quarter and that latent ache in your gut that this whole thing is destined to fail. You can close your eyes and start asking questions that actually have answers:
- Who is MY customer?
- How can I best serve this customer?
- How can I partner with them to solve their problem?
- What does this business exist to do?
- What does this business NOT exist to do?
- What are the Values of this business?
- How can we seek to uphold the Values in everything we do?
Now, these are the harder questions that we choose to avoid because once we seek to answer them, we are responsible for the information. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to just roll around in the fear, which is predictable, than to seek out peace and work to maintain that.
Activity: With pen and paper ready, set the timer for three minutes. Put away your critic – no judgment allowed of anything you write down. Ask yourself, why am I doing what I’m doing? Write down everything that comes to mind. Use the full three minutes. When the timer goes off, look back at what you’ve put down. Circle the items that reflect PURPOSE to you. Then, when you’re ready, ask yourself if the work you are doing on a daily basis reflects living out that purpose.