Sean Johnson - Intentionally - The Education of Sean Johnson

Had a meeting at TCU yesterday. The school’s mission is to prepare students to be leaders in the global community, and they mean it. They encourage their students to experience anything and everything life has to offer, and as a result the vast majority of their students participate in fantastic internships, join numerous student groups, study abroad, master a foreign language. Their students are articulate, cultured, intelligent, and are truly ready to take over the world.

Not enough companies and organizations have a strong enough mission. Mission is something that gets thrown around in business school almost ad naseum. But for most companies - most people - the mission is lifeless. They realize that the true mission of the company is to make the owners or shareholders as much money as possible. It rarely gets beyond that.

It’s a shame. Our companies are organized around some product or service idea - not around a big, important idea that is greater than the fattening of one’s financial statements. Even worse, employees aren’t trained to expect anything less. Just like the companies, most of us lack missions that mean much more than seeking comfort, safety, or wealth.

No wonder 90% of businesses fail in the first five years. No wonder the average person has very little conception of what their days are spent doing, or of what they’re doing these things for.

Of course, there are plenty of exceptions. There are countless examples of companies that are spectacularly successful without missions. Similarly, we all know of people who have been spectacularly successful without a principle or set of moral precepts guiding their actions.

But as an employee, would I rather work for a company that either has no mission or has one I don’t believe in? Or would I rather be a part of something larger than myself, something that makes money but does so in a way that benefits my community or state or country or world in a tangible, powerful way?

It requires more work, certainly. While it’s easy to wax poetic on our blogs about the injustice in the world, or to hold protests and hand out pamphlets, it’s much more difficult to look at what upsets us in the world and come up with a solution that will produce change. And while the corporation has proven itself to be a powerful catalyst for ingenuity and progress, it’s much more difficult to direct that energy towards something that improves mankind. It’s a lot easier to just make more Cheez-Its.

But if we were to say enough is enough…if we were to decide as entrepreneurs that our lives and the lives of our employees should be about much more, and if we were thoughtful and forward-thinking enough to do something about it…I wouldn’t be surprised to see companies start to sprout up that were simultaneously successful and live-giving.

Suddenly, you’d have companies that decided shareholder value was simply one of many priorities - not the ultimate goal to push for. Suddenly, you’d have companies that didn’t demand their employees work 80 hour weeks, because they realize that employees who are stressed out and depressed represents a massive failure on the part of the company, regardless of how ’satisfied’ the customers are. Suddenly, you’d have employees delivering amazing results and fantastic service - not because they’re expecting more money but because they are wrapped up in a cause that is worthwhile.

What is your company’s mission? Does it have one? If not, how quickly can you leave and go work for someone for whom your life and your work represent nothing less than an attempt to change the world?