In my last post, I covered what I think a good mission statement is. Short, serves humanity and when you fulfill it, you are fulfilled.

If a great mission is a tweet, a great vision is a blog post. A short compelling story about what you are specifically going to do to over the next 3-10 years to deliver on the mission.

Unlike the mission, you get to include your product or service here. A mission is timeless but a vision is a picture of a point in the future. It is a moving window about where you are heading to provide guidance for the rest of your strategic thinking, planning and execution.

Think of this as your elevator speech. You have 20-30 seconds (max one minute) to give a compelling story about why you are in business and where your business is going.

Lots of facts and figures don’t make a compelling story. Leave all the nitty gritty details about revenue and profit to your goal setting. You need a compelling story that your shareholders, employees, customers, partners and vendors can get into.

Humans are historically story tellers. We relate much better to good stories as part of our wiring. In the past all of the wisdom of the elders was passed down through stories for a reason. We relate to and remember them. Religious teachings are often shared in stories. Today, just look at the book, television and movie industry for current examples.

So if you want to create your own version of the world called a business, then tell a compelling story. It doesn’t have to resonate with everyone and won’t. The world is a big place and you just need to reach those who really matter to your mission and vision.

What if you have more than one story to tell? Well you wouldn’t mash Harry Potter with When Harry Met Sally; so create two or more visions. Keep the stories compelling and interesting without confusing the reader. (Just remember, too many visions and you are a McFly, buzzing around and get nothing done but crap.)

I’m intentionally not going to give an example here. You know what a compelling story is.

Go ahead and write yours.