The Early Years

The Early Years

I am not sure where to start this journey, but I will begin somewhere early in my life at around age 14. I was an only child. As I recall at that age, although my parents both worked and were able to send me to a private Catholic school, I decided to work at the school doing minor janitorial services to help offset some of the tuition. I think that's where I began to understand the value of education, work and mentors and what it could provide in the way of benefits both to my family and me.

From that point on I always had some form of a job to help defray expenses like books and the in-style clothing that all we teenagers needed to have. I never complained because I enjoy it many of the jobs I had and it provided a lot of the things that I wanted to have the mom and dad could not afford.

It was during this period in high school that I experienced my first attempt at being in the sales and distribution business. I was able to arrange a job with the local news agency that allowed me to sell all the out-of-town Sunday papers at the main corners of our small community, deliver the papers on Sunday to the regular subscribers, and then sell the papers in front of our church on Sunday morning’s after I completed the delivery route.

Dad was a great help in establishing this job, as he knew the previous holder of that position. He introduced us and I was then introduced to the news agency. Dad also helped when the weather was inclement by driving me to and from the street corner and the news agencies picked up by delivery route. However most of the time I used my bicycle to get back and forth and the agency provided a special bicycle for me to deliver the papers. Dad was also my first and perhaps my best mentor.

The way I made money in this job was to buy the papers from the news agency and the difference between what I paid them in what I sold the papers for was for me to keep. The leftover newspapers were taken back by the news agency to be resold in various stores and locations.

Now I was beginning to learn how to sell and how to provide good service to customers and how to make profit. I grant you this is a small business but it taught me lessons that I could take with me for the rest of my life.

Lessons learned:

1. The value of understanding customer needs and desires.

2. The importance of providing good service.

3. Asking for the order.

4. Providing services tailored to the customer’s desires.

Developing a Mission Statement

This is the second in a series of blogs I will be posting. These are to get you thinking about the direction you want to take your life or your company. Then I will begin to tell the story of my career and the importance of mentors in my journey.

Developing a Mission Statement

Your mission statement is developed only after you have developed your vision and values and looked at your external and internal appraisals through the lens of your vision. Your vision statement and values provide the intrinsic value of your institution and the reason for its existence. They also provide the parameters or framework for the mission. Your mission represents the next logical step in answering what needs to be done to achieve the vision. Together, the vision and the mission provide the purpose and direction that will ensure that you are focused.

Your mission statement is the description of how you will achieve your vision ( or move closer to achieving it ) during a specific time frame. It provides direction to you, and as you grow, to your people. It will help everyone know where the organization is going and what you are trying to achieve in a given time frame.

It has a shorter focus than your vision, usually twelve to thirty-six months and will change based on the socio-economic environment. Whether it is twelve, twenty-four, or thirty-six months is not important. What is important is having a specific time frame and target date. The mission statement serves as the basis for the development of business and peronal goals and plans, and should provide an overall sense of direction and the parameters which will guide decisions. It should address employees, customers, stakeholders, your friends and family and the qualities that make you and your organization unique.

The time frame used in the mission will be dependent upon the situation and overall socio-economic conditions. Care must be taken that the period of time is neither too short, nor too long. Considering the rate of change we are experiencing in the world today, two or three years might be used or you could use a budget cycle. Mission may change with time. As mission are accomplished and new opportunities present themselves, you may find that you need to redefine your mission.

A mission statement should meet the following criteria:

Clear

Involving

Memorable

Aligned with values

Directed at Your vision

Linked to employee, customer and your own needs

Seen as stretch – difficult, but not impossible

Measurable

Before you begin developing your mission statement, review your vision and values. What must you do within the next twelve to thirty-six months to move you closer to realizing your vision while adhering to your values?

Creating a Vision

As soon as you have begun visioning, you must crystallize your vision with a powerful vision statement. A vision statement is a description of a future. Not the future, but rather a future, a possible future, for which you are willing to take a stand, to strive, to work, and to build your institution. The foundation for your planning process, in fact, the foundation for your institution is your vision of the future and a description of what your institution will look like in the future. A vision gives meaning to an organization’s existence and to all those who share this vision. Before you spend your time on strategies, financial planning, etc., you need to focus on the vision of who and what you want to become. Your vision, when crystallized will act as a source of inspiration and as a guiding light for you and for ever\one else in your organization. It is easy to develop vision statements. You can probably come up with one for your institution very quickly. It is difficult, however, to generate a powerful vision statement.

A powerful vision statement is vivid. You can see, hear, taste, feel, and smell it. It is easy to understand, as well as exuberant and alive. It is filled with possibilities that do not currently exist. A powerful vision statement gives energy and inspires action. It describes a future worth expending energy for; worth being tired for; worth resolving conflicts for; worth devoting part of your life for. A powerful vision statement is generative. It sparks creative ideas and thoughts you did not have before. It generates ideas for new avenues of action, unexpected possibilities, new relationships, unanticipated resources. Q powerful vision statement is not random dreaming; it is an exercise in focused visualization, a technique that has helped develop winners for decades.

Once formulated, your vision statement is something that you can revisit over and over again. It will help you to return to the purpose of your work, to soothe your frustrations, to place your setbacks in context. A carefully crafted vision can add joy and purpose to all your efforts.

Your vision statement is your statement of expression of potential. It is a description of what your and your institution can become, and when effectively communicated, it provides common focus. The only wrong vision statement is one that is developed to please someone else, or one that is written for the wrong reason, or by the wrong person or persons. The right vision statement for you should excite you, give your work meaning and worth, and express much of what you see to be your purpose.

Your vision will inspire and energize you when it depicts a future that is better, brighter, and more fulfilling than the present. Vision makes a difference!