As business owners we spend a lot of time talking about Vision. Leadership gurus talk about "casting the vision" and CEO's are reminded that vision is essential to long term success. But there might be a problem with vision. Vision does not create legacy, something I experienced first hand this past weekend.
Yesterday I attended a memorial service for Lela Steele. Grandma Steele as we all called her was probably the closest personification of Jesus Christ's love that I have ever encountered. I grew up in a church where she was a founding member and she became my spiritual grandmother, someone who loved me more deeply than I would have ever imagined. In her 70's Lela became a missionary to the Ukraine where she rescued scores of orphans from a miserable, corrupt, state run system that literally turned kids out on the street on their sixteenth birthday. She single handedly raised $250,000 to build a home for these kids. She was successful in getting scores of them adopted. And it was there in the Ukraine that she came to be known as "Babushka Lela", a term of endearment used by orphans, community leaders and city officials. It was only after she broke her hip that she was forced to return to the states. Last Friday morning sixteen years of missionary service drew to a close as Lela went home. And yesterday I witnessed something far more compelling than vision. In a church packed to the gills with hundreds of fellow "grandchildren" I experienced Legacy. Lela's legacy was a love for Jesus Christ that infected everyone around her. One of her "real" granddaughters shared how Lela had prayed early on that God would make her heart "big enough to love as Jesus loved." That love lead to legacy.
What does this have to do with business? A better question might be "what does business have to do with life?" When we as business owners find something to serve besides our bottom line we begin to create legacy. When we follow a path regardless of what others might think prudent or timely we create legacy. When business becomes ministry we create legacy. Vision is a powerful tool, but I'm afraid that if Grandma Steele had simply had great vision, she might have been too busy to notice a 14 year-old kid, to tell him he was handsome, to tell him that she loved him, and to tell him that Jesus loved him too. Vision can build an orphanage. Vision can build a successful business. Vision can build churches. But vision alone can't change the lives of those who encounter it. The life changing part...that's legacy.