Why? What Purpose/Cause Drives You?

As a social entrepreneur, you know better than anyone why you are going into business or started a business: you want to contribute to the planet, to society and humanity. This drive holds both strength and energy. If you can make your cause even clearer and articulate it more precisely, you can deploy it better. Moreover, according to Simon Sinek, it’s your purpose that attracts your stakeholders – which he calls the WHY. Other names for it are mission and vision. We thought it to be a good starting point for your entrepreneurial passport.

Mission & Vision

In short, the mission is the ‘raison d’être’ of an organisation. It reflects the impact a company has on its customers and environment. The vision describes the future the company wants to realise with its mission. If you combine both in one or two sentences, you have your ‘Why’.

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source: pixabay.com

Below, we added some questions which will help you define your mission and vision. But first, let’s have a look at this video of Simon Sinek, author of the book “Start with the Why”. It gives a good framework and helps you to understand why this exercise is important. You’ll notice how he also talks about the How and the What, which will be discussed in the next topics.

Sinek’s golden rule is to ‘communicate from the inside out’. This means starting with the ‘why’, the cause or purpose which drives you, and make sure this ‘why’ is aligned with ‘how’ you do something and with ‘what’ you do. You can see his model “Golden Circle” below.

reflection

Find your own Why with the help of the following questions. Questions that support you to define your mission:

  • What do you make a difference in?
  • What impact do/would you like to have on which stakeholders?
  • What are the desired effects that you want to see in your stakeholders?
Questions that support you to define your vision:
  • To what world would you like to contribute with your activities?
  • Why is your mission important to create this world?
  • What doesn’t let you sleep at night?
You can answer these questions with words, with a story, a drawing, a metaphor, a video,....

further material

Mission and vision are not as complex as one might think, but they are abstract concepts that require some getting used to. We selected some helpful videos which we thnk will contribute to a deeper understanding of the terms. There is some repetition in their content, but we advise you to go through at least some of them.

  • This video will help you understand what a mission statement and a mission statement formula is in 6 minutes.
  • Here you can see how to write a mission statement for a non-profit (in a less than 4 minute video).
If you’re looking for exercises about mission statements, you can find inspiration in the following brochures: