Why Understanding Your Brand’s Future Vision Is Crucial to Creating a Successful Business

You Have a Goal—You Just Might Not Like It

You Have a Goal—You Just Might Not Like It

Ever signed up for a race for fun and suddenly found yourself meal prepping, stretching, and waking up to run before work? That’s your brain doing what it does best: creating motivating behavior to help in aligning your actions with your goals. Your business works the same way.

However, the problem is—many business owners don’t actually set real, future-driven goals. Instead, they chase vague ideas like “make more money” or “grow the business.” But without a clear, meaningful destination, your brain can’t map the path to get there. And when your brain doesn’t know where to go, it stalls. You start spinning your wheels, trying different tactics, hiring random consultants, running ads that don’t even make sense for your business, bouncing from strategy to plan to the next trending idea—because you never set the right goals in the first place. And your brain will only try to help you get to your goals, even if they’re the wrong ones.

Purpose Is Your Business’s Built-In GPS

Let’s be clear: making money is not a business purpose. It’s a byproduct of doing something valuable. The strongest businesses have a purpose that extends beyond revenue which-although paradoxically, helps them generate more revenue:

• Nike: Empowering athletes at every level, body size and ambition.
• Tesla: Accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
• Patagonia: Saving the planet through responsible business practices.

These are clearly not financial targets—they built their entire business around a reason for existing. The result? Every decision they make aligns with that mission and purpose.

If your business feels scattered, it’s probably because your purpose and your future vision aren’t in sync. If you’re running a marketing agency but secretly wish you were building an educational platform to teach others how to have better skills, your business will always feel like it’s pulling in the wrong direction.

Your Future Defines Your Present

Your brain needs a destination. In psychology, this is called goal gradient theory—when people see a clear endpoint, they work harder to get there, and their brain naturally lines up coherent actions to make it possible. That’s why a runner speeds up when they see the finish line. It’s why businesses with clear 5- or 10-year plans tend to grow faster.

Richard Rumelt, in Good Strategy Bad Strategy, makes a key distinction: bad strategy is setting vague aspirations. Good strategy is defining the exact steps to get there.

Bad strategy: “I want to scale my business.”
Good strategy: “I want to open three new locations in five years by specializing in X, securing funding from Y, and leveraging Z partnerships.”

One of the most dangerous mistakes a business can make is setting goals that sound good but don’t match their actual vision. If your purpose is to create long-term wealth through real estate, but your goal is to “get 10,000 Instagram followers,” you’ve created a disconnect. Social media growth might help, but it’s not your real target. Or worse, you create a goal to do the least amount of work possible to get there.

How to Align Your Goals with Your Future

1. Define Your Purpose (For Real, Not Just in a Mission Statement)
   Ask yourself:
   • If my business was wildly successful, what would it look like, and what impact would it have?
   • Who would I serve?
   • What would I want to be known for in 10 years?
2. Your purpose isn’t a cute tagline—it’s the North Star that determines every action you take.
3. Set a “Tomorrow” That Makes Sense for You
   Don’t set goals based on what’s trendy. Choose a future that fits your strengths, values, and long-term desires. Want to stay small and profitable? That’s valid. Want to scale globally? Build the roadmap now.
4. Reverse-Engineer the Steps to Get There
   Every massive success story started with small, daily actions. Break down your long-term vision into:
   • Yearly benchmarks (Where do you need to be 12 months from now?)
   • Monthly priorities (What habits and strategies will get you there?)
   • Weekly execution (What are you doing right now that moves the needle?)
5. Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
   Business owners get distracted—shiny new opportunities, competitors’ success, fear of missing out. Before you chase something, ask if it fits your long-term vision. If it doesn’t, drop it, enough said.

Stop Running in Circles—Start Moving Forward

It’s hard to be motivated to do something that doesn’t align with your purpose, and that’s not a laziness problem- its a heart one. Your business isn’t failing because you’re unlucky, it’s because your goals don’t realistically align with your purpose. Fix that, and you’ll know exactly what to do today, tomorrow, and five years from now.

Your future self is waiting. Go build it.