Jim Johnson reflects on how starting a business begins with a personal, often fuzzy, dream — whether wealth, growth opportunities for others, or personal fulfillment. He argues that clarifying that personal dream is essential because it shapes the owner(s)’ reasons for acting and informs the business vision: knowing the personal aim lets you design the business to facilitate it.
When we start a business, I think a lot of us have some kind of foggy notion, at least of what we dream that it's going to be someday, that it's going to deliver. This thing for me that I have in mind, whether that's wealth or a vehicle that has growth for people, whatever the thing may be, also look at it as this thing that's going to provide something to me. We usually describe it as the dream. What's the dream with this whole thing? Why am I doing all this in the first place? Because if I can start to identify that dream of why I'm going after the thing that I'm going after, that becomes very much about me and the owner or the ownership group, like, why are we doing all this in the first place? That helps you develop a vision about the business itself. I know what my dream is. So the vision of the business to facilitate that dream is this. So that's kind of your second component. But you can't do that really well unless you know what you're aiming for personally.
