Why You Feel Lost in Your Own Business
Hint: you're not missing a strategy
My mentor looked at me and asked, “Why would someone fly you across the world to do business with you?”
I had nothing.
I had skills. I had experience. I had a marketing agency that was running along. But a real answer to that question? A reason someone should choose me beyond deliverables and rates?
I didn’t know.
He kept pressing.
“What’s the impact you’re here to make? What’s the change only you can bring?”
At the time, I was running an agency that looked fine from the outside. We had clients. We were shipping work. The business was functioning. But internally, I was losing the thread. I wasn’t excited. I wasn’t proud. I was waking up asking myself, “Why am I still doing this?”
That conversation broke something open.
The Problem With Drifting
Here’s what nobody tells you about running a business without a mission:
You’ll still make money. You’ll still land clients. You’ll still look successful.
But you’ll drift.
You’ll hire people who don’t fit. You’ll take on projects that drain you. You’ll confuse movement with progress. And one day, you’ll wake up with a business you don’t even recognize as yours.
I know because I lived it.
The mission statement wasn’t something I sat down to write because it seemed like a good idea. I wrote it because I was desperate for clarity. Because I needed something to grab onto when every decision felt foggy.
The Book That Changed How I Think About Vision
My mentor pointed me to Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold, a Canadian entrepreneur whose writing is direct, tactical, and surprisingly soulful.
Cameron’s premise is simple:
Define a vivid picture of your business 3 to 5 years into the future. Not just the numbers. Not just the goals. The feeling of it. The culture. The impact. The way people talk about working with you.
That concept clicked instantly.
So I took time away. Got quiet. Got still. And I started to write.
What poured out was messy, but it was me.
Somewhere in that process, I found a thread I hadn’t seen before:
I wanted to help creative entrepreneurs live the life of freedom they started their business to achieve.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was writing about myself.
I was the creative entrepreneur. I was the one trying to reclaim freedom. I was the one chasing a business that would finally let me exhale.
That early mission didn’t make it to the final version. But it’s still alive in everything I do. And it became the foundation for Cirface.
What a Real Mission Looks Like
Today, Cirface’s mission is clear:
To eliminate workplace burnout by enabling leaders and their teams to optimize the way they work together.
Our vision?
A world where teams are aligned around where, how, and why their work is happening.
These weren’t easy to write. They weren’t pulled from a template. AI didn’t write them. They were wrestled into being.
I went through draft after draft. I agonized over single words. I kept asking myself:
Will my team remember this?
Can we actually live this out?
Does this feel true, or just aspirational?
And most importantly:
Will this give us something to come back to when things get hard?
Because business will get hard. And your mission, vision, and values, if they’re just sitting on a Notion page collecting dust, won’t do a thing for you.
But if they’re alive in your business? If they’re baked into your hiring, your messaging, your team culture, your client filter?
Then they become the anchor. The North Star. The thing that keeps you moving with purpose.
The Values That Spell IMPROVE
Our core values spell out IMPROVE:
I.M. — Iterative Mindset Always leave things better than you found them.
P.R. — Personal Resilience Push through until you find the solution.
O. — Ownership Own the task, the process, and the outcome.
V.E. — Vulnerable Empathy See others clearly, even when emotions run high.
I liked the acronym. I was able to make the letters work to tell a story. The definitions are that story. Nothing overly complicated, but they’re important to me, and they guide how we operate.
How to Make Your Mission Actually Stick
Here’s where most founders go wrong:
They write the mission statement, pat themselves on the back, and never look at it again.
That’s not how this works.
At Cirface, we recite our mission, vision, and values every month during our all-hands meeting. I ask the team to reflect on what the mission means to them, not just to me.
We use a framework called GWC from EOS: Do you Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity for it?
I tell the team straight up:
You don’t have to be as passionate about this mission as I am. But you do have to respect it. Because it drives every decision we make.
That’s the difference between a mission and a catchy slogan. One is rooted in passion. One is just fluffy marketing.
What Happens Without Them
If a founder asked me, “Do I really need a mission, vision, and values?”
I’d say this:
Yes. Because without them, you’ll drift. You’ll hire the wrong people. You’ll work with clients who drain you. You’ll confuse movement with progress. And one day, you’ll wake up “successful” and wonder why you’re miserable.
Your mission, vision, and values are how you know whether you’re on track. Not just financially, but in every way that matters.
You’ll know whether the business is working, not just functioning.
Who I Think About When I Write This
I think about the person dreading going into work tomorrow.
I think about the founder trying to stay afloat.
I think about the operations lead who’s Googling “how to fix my team’s workflow” at midnight, hoping to find something that helps.
That’s who this is for.
Because on the other end of every mission statement is a person. And if you do this work right, you don’t just optimize a business.
You give yourself your life back.
That’s worth writing down. That’s worth coming back to.
And that’s why I’ll never run another business without a mission, vision, and values again.
If you’re a founder running without a mission, start here:
Answer the question: Why would someone fly across the world to work with you?
Read Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold
Get quiet. Write messy. Find the thread.
Make it real by using it, not just posting it.
Your team is watching. Your clients can feel it. And your future self will thank you.
