VISION. THE ULTIMATE UNLOCK FOR GROWTH AND POSSIBILITIES
“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive Vision.”
- DALAI LAMA
Image credit: Pedro Lastra x Unsplash
So before we dive in, what actually is a Vision?
It’s one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around all the time, especially in the corporate world.
Unlike “Purpose” (which honestly has 20+ interpretations depending on who you ask, and is a word I use very carefully as it’s a world that is often confused, or misunderstood), Vision is a term we all actually all seem to understand, no matter our individual and personal contexts.
That said, just to make sure we’re all on the same page, I checked the dictionary. Of course. That’s what you do in an article like this.
Here’s what I found:
Vision. A lovely or charming sight
Vision. The act or power of seeing. A process where light enters your eye, gets converted into signals, and sends them to your brain.
Vision. The ability to think about the future with imagination or wisdom.
Vision. The future state you want to create.
Honestly, all four of these explanations are quite wonderful. Who doesn’t want to see something “lovely”?
And the idea of turning light rays into brain signals feels quite magical in both a literal and metaphorical sense.
But it’s the last two definitions that matter as related to to business Growth, in order to ignite, as the Dalai Lama says, “positive action” within companies (I appreciate the DL possibly wasn’t talking about Corporate America when he shared his wisdom on the subject, but the principle absolutely still applies).
Vision is the future of what’s possible and it ignites positive action
In a world that feels like it's crumbling under pressure—chaotic, unpredictable, and relentless—there’s one thing that can get you through: clarity of Vision. The ability to see where you want to go and why. That's how you and your teams take control back.
It’s easy to feel like the present is the only thing you can manage when you’re stuck in the issues of today. The future feels like a blurry, unattainable dream. And with climate crises, geo-political challenges, a mental health epidemic, and who knows what else looming on the horizon (I saw today Bill Gates reckons there is a 10% chance of another global pandemic in the next 4 years) it’s hard to even imagine what’s next. The playbook doesn’t exist for all these things hitting at the same time.
But if there's one thing I’ve learned from working with some of the sharpest business minds over the last few years, it’s this: you can regain control if you have a clear, unshakable Vision. It’s the one thing that cuts through the noise. It's what gives you direction when everything else seems like pure chaos.
Reassuringly Vision has also been the backbone of humanity since the dawn of time. Take religion. Christians are heading to Heaven, Muslims to Jannah. These aren’t just abstract one off ideas—they’re deeply ingrained Visions that people have discussed, and painted, and written poetry about.
Image credit: Heaven by artist Zac Kinkade. Published - July 2020, Collection - Worlds of Wonder
On a more earthly level, think about MLK. His Vision was simple but powerful: a world where people are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. A helpful North Star in today’s DEI conversations. Or Tim Berners-Lee—he had a vision to democratise information, and look where we are now. We’re all literally living in his Vision, thanks to the world wide web.
Image credit: AFP via Getty Images
A Vision changes everything
It allows you to focus on what matters. It aligns your team, your collective energies, your resources toward something that actually counts. But more importantly it’s magnetic. People don’t just get on board—they want to. They want to help you get there.
Vision opens up possibilities, which doesn’t mean it's easy. Vision doesn’t erase the grind. It doesn't make the tough days go away. But as my partner Philipp likes to remind me, a Vision gives clarity to your Purpose when everything else feels pointless.
Look at JFK. His famous “moonshot speech” wasn’t a sugar-coated promise. He said, “We choose to go to the moon not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.” That’s the key—when you have a big, audacious vision, it doesn’t just fuel your ambition, it organizes your energy, your team, your thinking. And sure, it’s tough but it makes overcoming the tough times possible. Humans landed on the moon. Not because it was easy, but because the Vision was so crystal clear that it didn’t give people a choice but to make it happen.
How Vision equates to Growth:
As already touched upon, there are tonnes of great reasons to get clear on the Vision for the kind of world you want, so you can define your role in it, and for business leaders they can point to one thing: Creating the conditions for business Growth.
In the context of Growth, Vision unlocks:
Focus & Clarity – Life throws a thousand distractions at us all every day. A clear Vision acts like a filter — it helps you sort through the noise, say “no” to the irrelevant stuff, and zero in on what actually matters. You stop chasing every shiny object. This allows you and your team to drive growth by focusing on high impact work that really matters to people, planet and the business
Direction & Confidence – A Vision gives you a concrete destination to head toward. Once you have this, and can articulate your strategy / goals and show how your actions align, your brain starts to believe that hitting those goals is actually possible. You stop your teams wandering aimlessly. This drives growth by creating forward momentum and getting the most out of scarce resources like time, money and your team’s attention
Meaning & Motivation – Humans are wired to thrive when they know their work is useful. A Vision gives you a benchmark to measure whether your efforts are meaningful. And per the JFK quote, when the going gets tough, a Vision is the fuel that keeps you going. This can help ignite growth by boosting your organization’s or teams resilience in the face of setbacks or rapidly changing environments
Innovation & Creativity – With a defined direction, teams feel inspired, educated, empowered to push boundaries and explore new ideas, knowing they are aligned with the company’s overarching goals. The focus on what truly matters should allow for experimentation without the fear of failure, as each creative endeavor is seen as a step toward a greater Vision
Alignment & Collaboration – A shared Vision brings people together. When everyone is pulling in the same direction, it’s a lot easier to get things done. People feel part of something bigger than themselves, which fuels collaboration and collective motivation. A Vision is the secret sauce for building high-performing teams and as a result high-performing companies
Sounds very reasonable, right? So why don’t companies and brands just set a Vision and go? If it were easy then we’d all be visionaries, pioneering our way into a new future of our choosing. So what’s stopping us all from doing this?
Check out what’s possibly stopping you and others from creating a Vision of the future world here, in the third article of the series “WHY A VISION IS HARD, AND WHAT ELON’S BUSINESS VISION TEACHES US”, where I cover
Why don’t we have more world changing Visionaries in business?
(Love him or hate him) how Elon and his companies show us what a Vision can do
If anything sparks your interest in this or the following articles, please do email helen@purposefulgrowth.co
