Why Vision Really Matters in Business

“Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.” ~ Sam Walton

If you talk to small business owners about the problems they face in their businesses, many put capital first before any other problems. If capital is not inadequate, it is not available at all many always say. Unknown to these people, many small businesses struggle not for lack of capital, but lack of vision. Foremost American retail entrepreneur Sam Walton of Wal-Mart tells us that from his own experience, capital isn’t always scarce but vision is.  With real vision, you can always work out how and when to raise capital. So vision is superior. Vision by definition is an aspirational description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term future. It is intended to serve as a clear guide for choosing current and future courses of action. Without a vision therefore, it becomes difficult if not impossible to chart a clear future for any business. That is where the real problem usually is and not with capital inadequacy as many small businesses like to report.

If you run a business organization, no matter how small and you are unable to articulate and declare your mid-term and long-term goals, you clearly don’t have a vision for the business. Without these goals, it is impossible to measure progress correctly and to articulate how well you are doing in the business. In most cases, that kind of scenario is always a foretaste to the disaster lurking ahead. That is where vision comes to the rescue. Even the scriptures say, “Without a vision, the people perish.”  It is that serious believe me. Vision no doubt is really very important in the course of any successful business.

Take a look at these names, King Croesus, Pope Sixtus IV, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Benjamin Siegel and Ray Kroc. Do you know what they all have in common? They were all great visioners who made tremendous impacts in their chosen fields of human endeavor and the world appreciates them for it.

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”