Company Vision Matters But Only If It Aligns to Your Personal Vision

How many times have you heard in an interview from a successful entrepreneur, that “passion” was what kept them going when times were tough? I probably hear that a little too much, though I don’t disagree.

I don’t disagree because I think it is true — passion has certainly helped me grow Akagu from an idea to a little ecosystem of buyers and sellers, and without that passion I would have done something else pretty quickly.

They say founders are the visionaries that see something that others cannot. That passion is fuel that drives the founder’s vision to the masses. Think Henry Ford with the car or Steve Jobs and the smart phone.

When I started Akagu, passion was not what I lacked, for I was ready to run through walls to get it up and running. What I did lack was direction for all this overflowing passion.

Through Akagu, I had this overwhelming desire to solve an extremely wasteful pricing problem in the fashion industry. This drove me, yet I had always felt a little out-of-sync. I had this feeling for a while.

I used to think company vision and mission statements were a load of crap. PR spin that once upon a time meant something but has since become more legacy than anything an employee would even be aware of, let alone actively aim to work towards.

So the irony wasn’t lost on me when I had to articulate Akagu’s vision, which was a little harder than first thought, but became a great exercise for clarity of purpose not only for yourself but for the entire team.

What I had realised was that in order to articulate the Akagu vision, I had to be concise, simple, and extremely clear on purpose. I naturally had to drill down into the 5 whys and to my surprise, got me to articulate my own personal vision.

It’s always interesting to put pen to paper, especially when you have to calm your storm of thoughts into a sentence.

Articulating Akagu’s vision meant articulating an ideological state of Akagu and if done correctly isn’t supposed to change. That’s a lot of pressure to get right, so here’s what I wanted to cover in order to be comfortable:

1. A mutually beneficial two-sided marketplace
2. It needs to be more than the dutch auction, the auction is just a vehicle to achieving ‘true value’
3. It needed to also not be industry-specific e.g. fashion, it had to represent something greater
4. A dive into the absolute core benefit; enabling people to live their ideal lifestyles

These points were important because they were important to me, meaning they were important at a personal level. And to determine that, I had to articulate what my personal vision was.

My personal vision, my purpose in this life is to create a world where everyone can believe that anything is possible. I feel that this already happens when you’re a wide-eyed child, but is quickly weeded out of most by the time they hit their teenage years.

By articulating my personal vision, I can now easily see if what I’m doing at Akagu is in alignment. Here is how it all works in harmony:

1. I love marketplaces because it has a large potential to impact the most people
2. I would be endlessly proud of Akagu if it became a place where buyers and sellers came to mutually happy outcomes
3. This would translate to equitable transactions that enable sellers to sustain themselves whilst creating more memorable experiences for the buyer
4. Ultimately this empowers people from both sides of the marketplace to believe that anything really is possible

Fashion is currently where a lot of the pain is felt, where inequitable transactions are made everyday. Independent designer labels cannot compete on price and scale, whilst buyers live in a world where the cost of living forces a compromise between quality, price, and morals.

So that is some of my thought processing to how articulating my personal vision has helped guide my vision for Akagu. By now, you’re probably thinking what the hell is Akagu’s vision?

Akagu Vision: A world where opportunity exists for every person to live the lifestyle of their dreams.

And there we have it. Articulating this vision and ensuring that it fits with my own vision was incredibly empowering, especially knowing that every ounce of energy is directing you towards achieving both your personal and professional visions.

So does your company’s vision align with your personal vision? This question applies whether you are a founder or employee. If you can find commonality between purpose then you’re onto something incredible. I’d love to hear your story :)

This article was originally published on https://medium.com/@jimmy.zhong