Thomas Chang | Prioritizing Core Motives in Entrepreneurship

Thomas A. Chang | Venture Priorities

A few days ago, I was exposed to an interesting paradigm shift from the traditional business approach. The concept is painfully simple but in applying this to entrepreneurship, I think it is essential. It exposes the difference between an average business with the most powerful of companies. The traditional sense is that business brings home money. But for the most powerful companies, their priority seems to be the complete opposite. Here are the elements of a company: a company's mission, meaning or purpose in achieving a need. The second element: the business model or way it generates revenue. The problem is, the average model would use a meaning or purpose to generate business. In other words, they find an opportunity to get something back in return. After all, the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of all inventions.” However, for the companies that change the world, generating profit or revenue seems not to be the end point; they seem to treat it more as a means to the end. It is used as a tool or means to an end when necessary. All the difference lies in the end point. The goal.

For all the employees to constantly worry about their paycheck it threatens the focus and psychological direction of a company; away from the purpose and meaning in which why they are there to work. (However, that is not to completely ignore the financial development of a business. Rather, take heed to the priorities within a company. While the overarching mission is established, it is then the financial operations department to make sure their revenue supports/sustains the company in order to achieve ‘that’ mission). In an article I read recently, Jason Fried, founder of BaseCamp.com puts it well, “I don’t think doing good and making money are mutually exclusive,” Fried responds. “If Twitter wants to survive on their own, if they want to be a force for global change, they’re going to have to make money. People aren’t just going to loan them money forever. If they really want to make long-term social change, they have to be sustainable.” With the purpose as the goal, business can be used as a tool to accomplish the mission. The concept truly took form when in an interview, Mark Zuckerberg stated, “I deliberately did not want my website to become a company. I just wanted to make something cool for college students.” However, he then went on to explain how he realized that the structure of a company and business will help him better pursue what he has set out to do – “to make something cool for college students.” Mark Zuckerberg's goal is to make the world a more open place. And in order to do so, he uses ‘business’ to support his company – a company that pursues the sole purpose of ‘making the world a more open place…’ This differentiates the traditional family business with the most powerful and influential companies. There’s no saying one is better or worse – it’s just important to recognize the difference.

To have a powerful and meaningful company that makes good revenue is a plus. To have an extremely wealthy business with a meaningless pursuit is detrimental to society. If people find that a product is truly valuable, the business’ expansion will take care of itself. In the words of Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, he advises in a Fast Company interview, “make products that don’t suck…”