Scrap the Mission and Vision
Implement A Higher Purpose
Simon Sinek famously said, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”
It’s one of the most shared business quotes of the last decade, and it’s for good reason.
Why you started your business matters more than you think. It’s not just for your customers, it’s for you. In my other post, we categorised it into four main areas: freedom seeker, passion pursuer, problem solver and legacy builder. These are the filters you’ll use to make better decisions, faster. If you want to read that, click here.
I want to expand further on those concepts here. As the months pass and the to-do lists pile up. It becomes increasingly easy to forget the reason you started in the first place. I am pretty sure you didn’t start your business to spend your life on the edge of burnout.
I often find myself confused about the difference between a vision and a mission statement. To me, they are one of the same, but it’s the concept that is detailed in universities, textbooks and business self-help guides. You’ll often find them in the first few chapters. Let me give you a different perspective.
Your higher purpose isn’t a slogan or a marketing strategy. It’s the reason you get out of bed when it’s hard. Simon Sinek’s work, starting with WHY, isn’t about surface-level motivation; it’s about realising the deeper reason your business exists and making sure everything you do comes from that.
Your higher purpose can’t pivot based on what competitors are doing, and you have to be confident in it. If you are sure of it, this purpose gives you something external metrics never will – clarity. You will stop pretending to be something you’re not.
Marketing will become more human, hiring becomes intentional, and leadership becomes more grounded.
Figuring Out Your Higher Purpose
You don’t need to hire someone to find your purpose. You just need to be honest with yourself. Here are some questions to workshop:
Why did I want to start this business?
What fires me up about this industry?
Who am I really here to serve?
What do I want my business to change (for my clients, community and my industry)?
If I stripped away profit and ego, what would I still want this business to do?
Not all of these questions will be relevant to you, but once you’ve journaled or talked these out (and I would recommend both), you can create a one to two-sentence statement.
Case Study: Apple
Apple is a great example of living out its higher purpose. Their ‘why’ isn’t “we make phones”. It’s “we challenge the status quo and think differently”. This belief gives them permission to enter entirely new markets without losing their identity. As the market shifts, their business will still exist because it doesn’t tie them to a single product or way of production. The business, employees and products are meant to be ‘out of the box’. Think of how this impacts the workings of the business. The way employees are encouraged to innovate, work together and the way in which they are rewarded is so different to a business that hasn’t thought about their higher purpose and is stuck chasing people reinventing the wheel, thinking that it will get them ahead.
If you’re rolling your eyes at me and thinking, “Well, sure, they can do that because they’re Apple.” They have global reach and billion-dollar budgets. Cut me some slack. Apple didn’t start as a tech empire. They started in a garage selling computer kits, so it’s very obvious today that what set them apart wasn’t their product; it was the belief.
For a small business, the principle is golf. When you lead with your why, you can create customers that stick with you even if your offer changes. Your competitors can copy what you sell, but they can’t copy why you sell it.
Small Business Examples
A local gym could identify its why as: “We help people build the confidence to live life fully”. That ‘why’ means that they aren’t just in the fitness business. They could run outdoor adventures, nutrition programs, yoga, competitions and mindfulness workshops without losing their alignment.
A bakery might have the why: “We bring people together through the practice of fresh bread”. That opens the door to baking classes, bread starter kits and cooking books.
Instead of running the pricing race to the bottom line and being the cheapest option for customers to choose you, you’ll create customers who will follow you where you go. For small businesses, customer loyalty can be the deciding factor between steady, sustainable growth and the constant struggle to make ends meet. It’s not something extra you work on once everything else is running smoothly; it’s a core part of building a business that will still be here in years to come.
