You Are the Company

You Are the Company

I have an idea for you.

What if you treated yourself the way you treat a company?

A company you already know deeply. A company whose strengths, constraints, and risks you understand. A company you are responsible for leading.

Every serious organization has a mission, a vision, and priorities that flow from them. Those statements aren't decorative. They exist to guide decisions when tradeoffs appear and pressure is real.

Most people never apply that same discipline to themselves.

When Mission Statements Are Too Small

Early in my career, my mission was simple: get the next promotion, land the next role, keep moving up. That kind of mission is common — and understandable — but it's also limiting.

At some point, I realized I needed a broader mission — one that could guide decisions across my career, not just the next step.

Today, I live by two simple philosophies:

The second one is harder.

Why the Harder Standard Matters

My dog gets excited when I come back from the mailbox. She gets excited when I walk through the door after a trip.

She assumes consistency. Presence. Care.

She doesn't measure outcomes or credentials. She responds to who shows up every day.

Holding myself to that standard is harder than chasing external success — but it's also more stabilizing. It forces me to think about character, not just achievement. About how I lead, not just what I produce.

That's why the harder mission matters.

Start with the End in Mind

Stephen Covey captured this clearly in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People when he wrote about "starting with the end in mind."

If you know where you're going, decisions don't become easy — but they do become clearer.

That's the real purpose of a mission or vision statement. It isn't motivation. It's alignment.

A mission statement gives you a fixed reference point you can return to when opportunities show up, when tradeoffs appear, or when pressure clouds judgment.

Mission Statements as Decision Filters

This is where mission statements become practical.

When you're evaluating a career move, a leadership role, or a project that sounds interesting, you can ask:

When I accepted my current role, I asked two specific questions:

The answer was yes.

That didn't mean the work would be easy. It meant the work was aligned.

Why This Matters for Leaders

Leaders make decisions under pressure, with incomplete information, and real consequences. Without a clear mission, decisions get driven by urgency, politics, or momentum.

A mission statement reduces noise. It creates consistency. It gives you a way to test decisions before committing to them.

A mission statement doesn't remove doubt. It gives you a way to move through doubt with intention.

The next step is learning how to turn those personal drivers — mission, vision, and philosophy — into everyday decision tools. That's where leadership becomes steady instead of reactive.