Mission focus, latest addition

From the latest Business Week, a story about an ad exec who decided to pull a Jerry Maguire.

Alex Bogusky probably doesn't believe in all the things I believe in, but he is surely a bright guy, and he obviously believes in hard work and professionalism. He must be very brave, too.

I applaud him, and hope that the youth of today would find him to be a role model.

From all appearances, he finally figured out that some things are more important than others.

He was just "selling pizzas," and finally realized it. He was helping other people sell things to kids that they didn't need.

He took the plunge and decided to get out at the top. That's happening a lot these days. Ayn Rand wrote a whole book about it. This may not BE that type of drop out, but who knows?

Some of us refuse to just "sell pizzas." Our lives mean more than that. In Mr. Bogusky's case, it was evident that his professional life was inconsistent with his evolving personal values.

That, or he got out because he felt he could afford to.

Rock bands do that all the time. But even then, they don't stop playing music all day, they just stop doing it for cash. The creative thing doesn't go away, the drive to achieve doesn't go away, but the need to support this huge glowworm of followers gets old in a hurry and they get out. Some can handle it, and some can't.

Let's hope Mr. Bogusky can find his Raison d'etre elsewhere. Good for him.

UPDATE

I've linked here to an adweek story/blog about the "midlife crisis" aspect of this, with some more "in" stuff.

What is your mission?

Boy, I'm so glad that other folks share their brains with us sometimes.

As many of you know, I've been spending a lot of time pitching and helping with mission statements for a few of my students. I think it's a worthy bit of introspection, especially when changing careers or starting a family, etc. It really helps to be grounded BEFORE things happen that demand your attention.

This guy explains why Apple gets us to buy almost anything they decide to sell. It's all about tribal values. It's about mission orientation.

Apple operates on by starting with "Why?" WHY do we bother to make a product? WHY would anyone want this product?

Other folks start with the "What" and "HOW." WHAT do we do? [We make widgets.] HOW do we do it? [What is the actual transformation process, capital, etc.]

People are only sold from the WHY perspective. In other words, we don't buy Apple to get a computer, we buy Apple because we know their focus is on what the computer is for. It's a shared vision of ease of use and fault-tolerance and ... mission focus. We want to USE a computer, not just buy one with all of the bells and whistles.

The analogues are obvious:

WHY do we have an undergrad curriculum?

WHY do we have a grad curriculum?

WHY would anyone want to put themselves through the paces to get a degree?

Some of us can answer these questions. I hear "WHY do I bother?" from other faculty and administrators nearly every day -- all of these people KNOW why they bother, it's a rhetorical question for most of us.

Whatever you do everyday, individually, I challenge you to 1) watch the video, and 2) ask yourself WHY you do what you do. The answer is really really important to know in advance of life's unexpected challenges.

Write down something about all of the different roles you play in your life, and WHY you do them. That's a start.

And if you've never read Cameron Crowe's mission statement piece from Jerry Maguire, you should. It's not the first time I've posted it, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

To do the mission, you have to know the mission.

Apple knows their mission.

EDIT: Charlie sends in a reference to this TED video from Bobby McFerrin. Don't worry, be happy.

EDIT: Walter Williams posts this about poverty of the spirit. I believe mission and spirit are pretty closely related.