“Cherish your dreams and your visions as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” -Napoleon Hill
“Life without a dream is like breath without oxygen.” -Paul Hutchings
“A dream is what makes life tolerable.” – Rudy, The Movie
A dream is the major animating and organizing force that pulls one out of bed in the morning, lifts the gaze to the horizon beyond, and gives you power to walk forward with purpose and passion.
It gives you something to fight for and strong reasons to fight.
My big dream was born when I realized it was possible to build an income that didn’t stop, when I stopped working.
After many years of dedication, persistence and trial & error, that dream was realized.
Now what?
Vision: The Collective Dream
A dream is how you lead yourself, a vision is how you lead yourself and others.
A vision is a dream multiplied and scaled for the many, versus the one.
“All effective leaders have a vision of what they must accomplish. That vision becomes the energy behind every effort and the force that pushes through all the problems. With vision, the leader is on a mission and a contagious spirit is felt among the crowd until others begin to rise alongside the leader. Unity is essential for the dream to be realized. Long hours of labor are given gladly to accomplish the goal. Individual rights are set aside because the whole is much more important than the part. Time flies, morale soars upward, heroic stories are told, and commitment is the watchword. Why? Because the leader has a vision!”
John Maxwell
The most famous line on vision comes from the Bible and it says…
Where there is no vision the people perish.
When it comes to having a vision in your home business, I think the bottom line to know is that people follow you for their reasons and not yours.
If you run around telling everyone how much money you’re going to make, this has everything to do with you and nothing to do with them.
Your vision has to include them.
When you share your vision, people have to be able to see themselves, their futures and what they want inside of it.
Something More
Yes it’s true that most people join a home business to make money.
But it’s also true that people don’t want to feel or be perceived as “Greedy” or “Money Hungry” by the people around them.
Finally, it’s also true that people want to matter and feel like their lives are adding up to something and making a positive difference in the world.
Napoleon Hill said it best..
If money is all you have in your paycheck at the end of the week, you have been grossly underpaid.
When it comes to building a vision for your home business, it’s very important that you have a vision that moves people in ways that are not just “money” related.
If you want higher level commitment, from higher character people, your vision must move them on a higher level and rise above the earthly struggle for money.
Your vision, as Wallace Wattles said, should help people see and believe that they can become “Citizens of another kingdom.”
It’s Not Just A Cute Tagline On A Business Card
A strong and effective vision does not live on paper.
It lives in the heart and calls from the future.
It’s not a cute phrase you say that sounds clever.
Men must have phrases if they are to give their lives.
-Will Durant
A vision inspires those who hear it to give their lives.
To work before the money when it’s hard and all they have is faith to go on.
To work after the money when there’s plenty and financial needs have been met.
To work when times are good and when times are hard.
It’s a collective reason that drives the one and the many at the same time.
It’s a magic piece of motivation that lives in words but gives in spirit.
The Leader’s Real Job Is Vision
A vision lives, breathes and experiences continual resurrection in the life and mouth of the leader.
John Maxwell says there are four vision-levels of people.
- Those who never see it (wanderers)
- Those who see it but don’t pursue it (followers)
- Those who see it and pursue it (achievers)
- Those who see it, pursue it and help others see it (Leaders)
Leaders are the ones who live the vision and speak the vision.
Leaders are the true believers.
Leaders are the ones that practice what they preach and preach what they practice.
Leaders are the ones you can see the vision in, even when they’re not talking, because they know that their greatest teaching and communication comes from example.
A powerful vision should be simple, inspiring, empowering, expandable and infinitely repeatable.
I used to work for a billion dollar network marketing company and they had a vision / mission that stuck with me because it’s simple, inspiring and empowering.
Enhancing the lives of those we touch by helping people reach their goals.
Do you feel how that sentence is so easy to get behind when you read it?
Can you imagine the picture it paints of you, making a positive difference for someone else, by touching them in a positive way?
And as you picture yourself doing this, can you feel the motivation rising inside that draws you forward into the picture of actually doing something to make it a reality today?
- Simple
- Inspiring
- Empowering
It’s easy to see how that little line is such a winner isn’t it?
Expandable means that the vision is the tip of the iceberg on the tongue of the leader.
The leader who’s decided to give their life to the “Phrase” of the vision, has a never ending fountain of stories, emotions and elaborations they can marshal in support of the vision at will.
Because they are living it, they know why they’re living and they have constant, daily and never ending stories they can tell about it.
Expandable.
Infinitely repeatable.
A strong vision is the hit song on the radio that NEVER gets old.
It’s the song that was awesome in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and even in 2025.
It’s the song your kids discover, love & then are surprised about when they learn that mom and dad know and love too.
John Maxwell said,
You have to act like a third-grade teacher. You have to repeat the vision over and over and over again until the people get it.
And guess what, since there are always new people, all the people will never get it, but the leader is committed to doing all he or she can for as long as possible.
Infinitely repeatable.
Where Vision REALLY Lives
We’ve spent these words exploring vision—its power, its purpose, its infinite repeatability.
We’ve talked about dreams that pull you forward and visions that pull others alongside you.
We’ve discussed phrases that give meaning, purpose and power to life.
But here’s the truth that matters most:
Vision isn’t hiding in these paragraphs waiting to be discovered. It’s not buried in someone else’s mission statement or tucked away in a business plan gathering dust on your shelf.
Vision lives where it has always lived—in you.
In your mind, where imagination transforms “what is” into “what could be.”
In your heart, where conviction turns possibilities into commitments.
In your soul, where purpose burns bright enough to light the path forward, even when the way ahead is dark.
The words on this page can only point you toward something already stirring inside.
They can remind you, inspire you, challenge you—but they cannot give you what you already possess.
Your vision is waiting. Not out there in another book, another seminar, another guru’s teaching.
It’s waiting in the quiet moments when you ask yourself:
What am I really here to do? Who am I meant to become? What difference will my life make?
The soul of leadership isn’t found in what you read.
It’s found in you and in how you decide to dedicate your life as an answer to those questions.
Thanks for reading and whatever you do, always go for your dreams!
PS: My vision is Freedom through principle centered leadership. I want to help as many people as possible build lives of freedom, where time is disconnected from money so they can be who they want and are meant to be, without money acting a string pulling puppet master.
Principle centered, in part, means doing this in a way where you build the income, it lasts, and, you’re actually proud of the work you’re doing because you’re making a positive difference in the lives of others as you do it.
One way we’re doing this is to help feed hungry kids throughout the world. We donate a portion of all revenue to a great organization called Feed My Starving Children and so far we’ve helped to provide 398,423 days of meals.
The more freedom and success we create, the more good is done in the world.
If this resonates with you, I’d love to invite you to check some of what we do, here or here to see if our vision can help breathe more life into some of the minutes and hours of your days.