Vision That Moves Mountains: Build Your Legacy as a Leaderpreneur

Welcome to LegalBiz Cafe! Digitally remastered with AI, in this podcast series, Attorney Shaune B. Arnold gives to frustrated professionals like YOU the tools and resources you need to make the LEAP to entrepreneurship so you can start, build or fix a business you will absolutely LOVE. 

What’s your vision—and is it bold enough to outlive you? This week, Attorney Shaune B. Arnold guides you through the mindset of a true leaderpreneur. Learn how to anchor your business in a mission that matters, expand your vision beyond the horizon, and ignite passion that propels generational impact.

Transcript

Hello, everyone! …Welcome …once again …to legal biz cafe. I am your host. Attorney Shaune B Arnold. Let me tell you what we’re doing here on legal biz café. We look at various issues that are of value to entrepreneurs to get you into business. We also consider what to do if you find yourself feeling frustrated because being an entrepreneur wasn't quite what you thought it was going to be. You find yourself feeling like a hamster on a wheel just sort of chasing around and not really functioning well and getting the things that you want out of being in business.

I'm here to be a resource to you. You should understand, however, that I practice business law Los Angeles, California. So, to the extent that we talk about any legal issues, I have to talk about California. If you are in another state, another country, …or just another state of mind, …I invite you to take whatever I say and put it before an attorney in your local jurisdiction, just to make sure that there are no differences between your state, your country and what's going on here in California.

So, the last time that we got together, we started talking about how to get the mindset of a leader-preneur. We talked about the elements of a leader's mindset, like taking accountability and gaining perspective no matter what's going on, and sharpening your skills. And then we discussed how we as leaders view ourselves in the world. We discussed challenging the status quo, creating and inviting diversity of thought within our enterprises, monitoring the progress of our companies and all of these new ideas that we're setting into our companies to make sure that they're effective, and always, of course, seeking to empower others.

Within the framework of these elements of leaderpreneurship, I want to talk to you tonight about your vision as the leaderpreneur. Being a leaderpreneur requires us to have vision that is so big and so broad that it encompasses more than we're likely to be able to bite off and chew in our lifetime. It can be so big and broad that it invites others to catch fire with us and to follow what we're doing, and to go down that road with us.

Passion is the key to accomplishing this goal. Dennis Ditero once said, “Only passions, great passions, can move a man to do great things.” I believe that being passionate about creating my vision and fulfilling my mission is what is going to build my legacy and make it a legacy that you are interested in taking part in, so that I'm not just screaming and wailing at a wall. I am talking to people who are going to get value out of what I'm doing.

My vision relates to why I'm here. Let's look at another person who had a great vision. Bill Gates back in the 70s, when he first started working in his garage, he had a vision of putting a personal computer in every home on the planet. Wow, at the time there were 7 billion homes. What a vision that is, huh?

Is it too much for him to chew? Maybe. Is it more than he can accomplish in his lifetime? As of today, there are more than 2 billion computers. And so if we look at his goal, and his vision of having a computer in every home, some people would call him a failure, because he didn't make it. All he got was two billion out of seven.

Let's stop and think about that. He got a billion computers out there in the marketplace. Yes, he has a lot of work to do, but I'd say 2 billion is a good down payment on 7 billion. I think that that he did well by setting his vision wide and broad; wider and broader than even he can probably accomplish in his lifetime. And that is what makes an extraordinary leader. It is that vision, that expansive vision. So how do you have that expansive vision, like a Bill Gates? Well, I invite you to make your vision large, to make it larger than you can seemingly achieve, and then just keep striving to bring that vision to full fruition.

See, when I have a goal, every decision I make needs to be in line with that goal. And if I'm doing things to sabotage myself, if I'm doing things that are not serving that goal, then it's time to do some soul searching, to find out what it is that's going on beneath the surface. 

Because most of what goes on in our heads, most of what goes on in our world, most of our activities, are based on thought patterns and belief systems that we're not even consciously aware of. Let me ask you, what's your phone number? Now, let me ask you another question. Were you thinking about your phone number right before I asked you where's your phone number? No, you weren't. So where was that information?

That information was in your unconscious mind. It's important for us to really clue in on the fact that everything we've ever done, every conversation we've ever had, every newspaper we've ever read, every license plate we ever passed on the street and consciously looked at, it’s all still in there. It's all still in our minds, and we are making decisions on a daily basis that bring us closer to our vision or take us farther away from our vision. 

We're not even aware of what those thought processes are. A true leaderpreneur digs deep. A true leaderpreneur goes big or goes home. A true leader will look inside and find out what that conversation is happening at a core level and that is keeping that leaderpreneur from bringing that vision to full fruition for the benefit of themselves, their families, and their business enterprise.

So, when you are considering your vision, I encourage you to decide on what your path is going to be. For example, are you going to be that high end quality product, or are you going to be a knockoff brand? Either is fine. You just need to know which one you're going to be, because you cannot be high end and a knockoff brand at the same time.

Clarifying your vision as the leader-preneur will help you surmount the obstacles that will stop you from being able to really fulfill your mission in business. And that, of course, is the next step. …What is the impact that you want to create in the world? This is your mission.

Mission and vision are so closely aligned that it’s often hard to tell them apart. The vision is the ultimate goal for the future, like creating a day spa. The vision may be delivering sumptuous surroundings, in an Egyptian motif. You may provide various saunas, steam rooms, and dipping pools, in addition to body massages and various herbal treatments, manicures and pedicures, etc. All of these are your vision.

Your mission will identify the spa’s patrons and your reason for marketing to them. For example, the day spa (your vision) may provide a haven for overworked new mothers (your mission). You may offer daycare for her little one on site so mom can get a post-natal massage and yoni steam while being near her baby.

What if you’re a business coach with a vision to help people make the leap to entrepreneurship. Your mission may be to create training programs and digital products that support their successful journey to entrepreneurship. 

Your client may not be easy to reach As highly paid professionals, half of them are working in a in a fantastic work environment. They've got a really spectacular view, and they haven't looked out the window in two years. If these are the people that you want to help, you need to really connect yourself to them as your “why.” If that “why” is big enough, you can overcome any “how” of building a successful business.

So, that's the discussion that I have with for you tonight, folks. As a leaderpreneur, as the leader of your company, your social network, and your family, I encourage you to visit your vision. Make sure your why makes you cry. If it doesn't, then you're not living in your passion, and you're going to burn out.

I invite you to get a really big why to make your vision larger than you can achieve in your lifetime. Then get busy on it. Bring it to full fruition. Look at your mission for your business. Figure out how you are going to serve your market as that leader-preneur,

We are going to visit this concept of the mindset of a leaderpreneur more as we go forward. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining me on this week’s episode of LegalBiz Café. I am you host, attorney Shaune B. Arnold. I invite you to hit me up on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter X. In all of those places, you’ll find me as Sean dot Arnold. In the meantime, I’m attorney Shaune Arnold, reminding you, as always, to MAXIMIZE your COMPETENCE, to get the CONFIDENCE YOU NEED to succeed.

I look forward to seeing you right back here next week, on LegalBiz Café. Bye-bye, friends!