Here’s an interesting question worth thinking about. What would your world look like by the time your work takes effect? You need an exact image of how your work will change your community, town, industry, city or country. Without such clarity, it becomes hard to evaluate your work, and determine how much progress has been made. A lot of change agents are unable to effect any recognisable change, because they never achieved clarity around the exact changes they wanted to drive. A real watchman understands the change they want to bring about. And why those changes matter to God and their society.
If you cannot explain your mission in a straightforward way, then your vision needs more fine tuning. Some of the biggest names in the entrepreneurial world were driven by clear statements of purpose. Bill Gates was running with a vision of “a computer on every desk, and in every home, running Microsoft software”. There is no ambiguity around this. Reflecting on this, forty years later, Bill Gates wrote in an email to Microsoft employees, “It was a bold idea and a lot of people thought we were out of our minds to imagine it was possible”. The Redeemed Christian Church of God has a very clear and bold mission. There is no ambiguity about their plan. To plant a church within five minutes walking distance in every city, and town of developing countries. And within five minutes driving distance in every city, and town of developed countries.
You must embrace the risk that comes with having a falsifiable mission statement. When you have clarity around your work in this manner, it becomes easy to see how you are failing or succeeding with your mission. So, stop saying you want to change the education sector. You should state how your work will produce a thousand first-class students every year. Don’t say you want to increase the productivity of people. You should talk about how your work will create a thousand decent jobs every year. There is a lot of confusion and waste associated with lack of clarity. When you are clear about your mission, it is easier to garner the support you need.
