It is super important to get this right: your mission statement — why are you doing what you are currently doing? The actual reason behind your every day life. Maybe you are working a super boring 9-5 day job, but you are actually saving up for your next trip or next business venture. That gives the boring day job an actual meaning and turn the whole thing as a journey, the every day step as a footprint towards the North Star.
Recently, I listened back to one of the classics written by Mr. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on my Audible. Super, super soul-shocking when I was listening to the part about rewriting your mission statement from time to time. Do I have a mission statement? For my business, yes. For my life, yes. But as days go by, the mission statements get covered up by dust. Here are my real examples.\
In 2018, I started my first legit business. Not a side gig, or side hustle, but a full-time battle of my dream against reality. Everyday, I watched the clock ticking and no sales happened. I watched the clock for as long as I was awake every single day. I tried this and that approach. I built this funnel, that social media channel, and tried tons of software that had tons of testimonials. Since I had literally zero sales after I started my business for days and weeks, I had so much time to think. I constantly think about the “why” behind the courage of starting a business from scratch and alone. Oh, so it was because my personal experience as an international student studying abroad and I wanted to provide the most personalized study abroad consulting to my students. That was such a great and shining mission statement for that moment. As time goes by, the company grew to about ten employees. People come and go. New product ideas pop up here and there. The original mission statement still feels valid, but it contains that dated sense as in a young pinot noir.
Besides the mission statement for my business, the mission statement for my life actually gets rusty as well. It becomes unclear too because it just caught such a thick layer of dust as years go by. I had a super strong moment of sense of purpose when I was on the plane flying from LAX to Taipei, as I put a pause (or maybe an end) on the 5-year journeys of me studying and working in California. It was a super, super strong moment in life because things you thought would not change just changed, without any caring of your permissions. I was not kicked out of the country, just to be clear. But, it was that moment to left the country because you had already got your degree and some experience. You know, international student visa does not guarantee you to be a Forbes 30 under 30. Some hardworking folks just got extremely lucky to be offered an extension to stay longer, work longer, or even an opportunity to become a citizen, but most hardworking folks do not get that lucky draw. International student visa, especially with a bachelor degree, can get you so far. So, on the plane, I decided that as I went back to my home country, I would not waste a second of my life. I do something meaningful everyday by providing values to others. Hence, I started my own business. This mission statement for my life to provide values to fellow students was so motivating when the company was only me and I had to generate the influence radically, but this radiation dissipates over time. As the business keeps growing and growing, rules, workflows, standardization, and other fundamentals had to be written down so that everyone new can follow and assimilate with the existing team seamlessly. Doing this kind of work like setting up the amendments for a nation gives me a great opportunity to design how the company will be, and this has very few overlap with my mission statement of providing values of others because the reality of economy, humanity, politics, cost, efficiency, and other capitalism parameters becomes to kick in. It becomes engineering a system that provides the highest return with the lowest cost. This is the purpose, and this gradually replaces the original mission statement.
This is when the words of “keep re-visiting and rewriting your mission statement” was said to me by my Audible app. Right, I am now diving and excelling the math game. I literally forgot why I am here the very first place. This lacks of big picture in mind deteriorates the quality of every day life because the sense of purpose is taken out. It becomes a work of bring anything related to cost down to as much as possible to squeeze the greater amount of milk. I feel it hugely myself. If there is not a greater picture in mind, and how your everyday 24 hours fit into the greater map, you would not feel like living. You feel like a skull with two eyeballs doing what you should do on a task list. You just want to complete the task. This is toxic and I am glad that through writing all these thoughts out, and having a quick walk in such an amazingly cold weather here in Copenhagen, I feel a strong sense of purpose, and my mission statement becomes even more specific: There were so many things I wanted to since I was 13, and not until I turned 23 did I first starting to execute my mission statement. If I could travel back, I wanted to talk to me and help me through my own struggles. My work, my writings, my videos, my podcasts, share the same group of audience, the every moments of me from I was thirteen to twenty-three. I wished he could have read what I am typing right now, watch what I am doing right now, and be courageous to take the actions that I was not dared to take.
Recently, I listened back to one of the classics written by Mr. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on my Audible. Super, super soul-shocking when I was listening to the part about rewriting your mission statement from time to time. Do I have a mission statement? For my business, yes. For my life, yes. But as days go by, the mission statements get covered up by dust. Here are my real examples.\
In 2018, I started my first legit business. Not a side gig, or side hustle, but a full-time battle of my dream against reality. Everyday, I watched the clock ticking and no sales happened. I watched the clock for as long as I was awake every single day. I tried this and that approach. I built this funnel, that social media channel, and tried tons of software that had tons of testimonials. Since I had literally zero sales after I started my business for days and weeks, I had so much time to think. I constantly think about the “why” behind the courage of starting a business from scratch and alone. Oh, so it was because my personal experience as an international student studying abroad and I wanted to provide the most personalized study abroad consulting to my students. That was such a great and shining mission statement for that moment. As time goes by, the company grew to about ten employees. People come and go. New product ideas pop up here and there. The original mission statement still feels valid, but it contains that dated sense as in a young pinot noir.
Besides the mission statement for my business, the mission statement for my life actually gets rusty as well. It becomes unclear too because it just caught such a thick layer of dust as years go by. I had a super strong moment of sense of purpose when I was on the plane flying from LAX to Taipei, as I put a pause (or maybe an end) on the 5-year journeys of me studying and working in California. It was a super, super strong moment in life because things you thought would not change just changed, without any caring of your permissions. I was not kicked out of the country, just to be clear. But, it was that moment to left the country because you had already got your degree and some experience. You know, international student visa does not guarantee you to be a Forbes 30 under 30. Some hardworking folks just got extremely lucky to be offered an extension to stay longer, work longer, or even an opportunity to become a citizen, but most hardworking folks do not get that lucky draw. International student visa, especially with a bachelor degree, can get you so far. So, on the plane, I decided that as I went back to my home country, I would not waste a second of my life. I do something meaningful everyday by providing values to others. Hence, I started my own business. This mission statement for my life to provide values to fellow students was so motivating when the company was only me and I had to generate the influence radically, but this radiation dissipates over time. As the business keeps growing and growing, rules, workflows, standardization, and other fundamentals had to be written down so that everyone new can follow and assimilate with the existing team seamlessly. Doing this kind of work like setting up the amendments for a nation gives me a great opportunity to design how the company will be, and this has very few overlap with my mission statement of providing values of others because the reality of economy, humanity, politics, cost, efficiency, and other capitalism parameters becomes to kick in. It becomes engineering a system that provides the highest return with the lowest cost. This is the purpose, and this gradually replaces the original mission statement.
This is when the words of “keep re-visiting and rewriting your mission statement” was said to me by my Audible app. Right, I am now diving and excelling the math game. I literally forgot why I am here the very first place. This lacks of big picture in mind deteriorates the quality of every day life because the sense of purpose is taken out. It becomes a work of bring anything related to cost down to as much as possible to squeeze the greater amount of milk. I feel it hugely myself. If there is not a greater picture in mind, and how your everyday 24 hours fit into the greater map, you would not feel like living. You feel like a skull with two eyeballs doing what you should do on a task list. You just want to complete the task. This is toxic and I am glad that through writing all these thoughts out, and having a quick walk in such an amazingly cold weather here in Copenhagen, I feel a strong sense of purpose, and my mission statement becomes even more specific: There were so many things I wanted to since I was 13, and not until I turned 23 did I first starting to execute my mission statement. If I could travel back, I wanted to talk to me and help me through my own struggles. My work, my writings, my videos, my podcasts, share the same group of audience, the every moments of me from I was thirteen to twenty-three. I wished he could have read what I am typing right now, watch what I am doing right now, and be courageous to take the actions that I was not dared to take.
"veni, vidi, vici"
with love from Copenhagen 🇩🇰
with love from Copenhagen 🇩🇰