Get purpose right, plan and execute to change the world

In 1988, fitness gear giant Nike launched a successful advertising campaign titled “Just Do It” that helped to catapult its market share in North America from 18 per cent to 43 per cent in just one decade.

Physical fitness became cool — and wearing the right shoes turned into a fashion statement. Top-tier successful athletes wore Nike, and so did anybody else — or, at least, 43 per cent of the market.

That’s where “Just Do It” came in. Nike’s genius single-mindedness completely transformed the fitness shoe market.

Today, I will write about a man who single-handedly transformed my understanding of purpose. His name is Myles Munroe.

Dropping out of university to be an instructor with Outward Bound was not easy. Deep in my heart of hearts, I knew what I wanted. But I desperately needed some insight as to what my purpose really was. And I definitely needed help with focus and clarity on my path.

That’s when I came across Myles Munroe’s videos. He talked about what a life purpose was and what it wasn’t.

That is when I understood that my life purpose was not to be an outdoors instructor. No. That was a medium with which I could express my life purpose. My life purpose was more about who I was at my core. What a revolutionary change in paradigm for a 23 year old!

Looking back, I definitely count myself lucky to have found my purpose then. Purpose is the one thing all great leaders have in common.

Great leaders have a clearly defined purpose, while average leaders just show up to work. Purpose fuels passion and work ethic. It is these characteristics that afford great leaders a competitive advantage over those who don’t understand the dynamics of this linkage.

The best leaders recognise a common purpose, shared values, and aligned vision are the hallmarks of any great organisation. These three elements set the foundation for a sustainable culture.

Leaders who fail to bring people together around these sentence their companies to the chaos of mediocrity, and ultimately to the pain of irrelevance. Great leaders create culture by design, while average leaders allow culture to evolve by default.

There are an infinite number of things to do to live your purpose. One of the hardest challenges is figuring out what’s most important and focusing your scarce resources on that. It can be a difficult struggle to transform your grand vision into steps that you can act on.

Living out your purpose means focusing on your key priorities. You need to build consensus on these priorities, set goals, evaluate performance against those goals, and change course when necessary.

People who live out their purpose, build credibility by making a plan, executing it effectively, and demonstrating that it was the right plan.

And then there is the team question. Entrepreneurs love their businesses and are defined by them. This makes letting go more difficult.

Entrepreneurs risk everything, or so it seems, to give birth to an organisation that matters. I don’t know if I was the best person to lead Outdoors Africa at the start. But when you’re bootstrapping an organisation, you’re all you’ve got.

Dr Munroe used to say that the greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without a purpose. He touched my life when I was still learning and empowering myself as a young man through his books which line my bookshelf: Understanding the Purpose and Power of Men and The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage have given me in-depth and priceless relational knowledge.

A great tree has fallen but its roots reach depths far deeper into generations of upcoming future leaders. Out of this tree shall more trees grow.

His life and work was truly inspirational and I believe his light shone to the world as a man who was not afraid to show his position on issues plaguing today’s world.

Mr Waswa is management and HR specialist and managing director of Outdoors Africa. Email : [email protected]