Living day-to-day carries with it the danger of not
amounting to much in the end. The rat race won’t do any of us much
good when the cheese runs out. And at that point it’s too late to
question if it was ever about the cheese to begin with. To
complicate things, the race is also a maze, with more decisions
facing us each day, demanding urgency and attention. With the
tension of today pulling at the anticipation of tomorrow, how do we
ensure we’re building something that matters in the long run?

Missable Start with missable targets.
William Tell didn’t learn archery by shooting apples off people’s
heads. He started with missable targets, likely sparing the lives
of fellow villagers. Are you starting people you manage with
missable targets? When they begin new roles or responsibilities, do
they know failure is an option? Can your organization afford for
them to fail? Maybe they aren’t following through because the
stakes seem too high. Consider how you can change that perception.
A side note to this point is whether we are missable. John Moore of
Brand Autopsy wrote several posts asking whether or not we
would miss Dairy Queen, Ace Hardware or Eddie Bauer. His questions
about various brands beg us to ask of ourselves what value we
bring. Would our absence create a noticeable vacuum? This isn’t
just a question for brands, but also for individuals. Do you
consider yourself a linchpin?

Missional Is there meaning and purpose
pulsating from the core of you, your team, your organization?
Organizational structure and processes can design a great engine,
but mission is the fuel. The jet won’t leave the tarmac, let alone
fly, without fuel. As Simon Sinek stated in his famous TED video, we need to start
with the Why. To have meaning, you have to mean something. Most
mission statements have a purpose, but don’t mean anything to your
people and customers. Ask the”why” that matters or you won’t make a
dent in styrofoam, let alone the universe.

Amassable Can you build on top of what
you’re building? Smart consultants bring all their former projects
into their current ones. Lessons learned about what does and
doesn’t work make the next project more successful. Do today’s
decisions amass value? Does this web design project add to your
portfolio in a way that leads to the projects you want to do in the
future, or is it just a means to sustain business for now? Are you
building sandcastles at the edge of the water or are you using the
laboratory of life to test theories that can build into your life’s
work? This is by no means an exhaustive list for creating something
meaningful.

Let me hear your thoughts on how to
create something that matters. Let’s experiment in
the lab for a bit.