Vision leads to profit

Owners that pursue vision beyond profit may find themselves profitable anyways.

There’s a quote on our refrigerator about happiness. “Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you seek it, the more it flies away. But if you are still, if you seek something else, happiness may just rest upon your shoulder.” There’s a principle there that applies to business. The “Profit Paradox” (Williams, pg. 109) is an example. When companies pursue goals beyond profitablility, they often outperform other companies that placed all their vision in making money for their shareholders.

The data to back up a quadruple bottom line makes a solid case for it as a foundation. When speaking with shareholders, the pressure they will place on a business to make them a profit could easily discourage an entrepreneur from maintaining multiple bottom lines. But having a good case, even a profitablility case, for multiple bottom lines helps the entrepreneur keep his vision when questioned.

The “Green Giants” have all discovered their employees outperform other companies because they are behind the vision of a sustainable business. They are inspired by their mission, and the work they do is not only for a distant shareholder’s pocketbook - they are helping to change the world. How much more should we who partner with the Spirit and the Kingdom get excited?!

I feel a level of comraderie with the author of “Green Giants.” While we ultimately have different visions for the world and business' impact, we both rankle at the thought that profit is all business is about. There’s an underlying desire to impact the earth upon which we live that we share. I believe a business ought to prosper as it pursues righteous multi-pronged causes, and I’m thankful there’s literature that backs up that belief.

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