Start comparing yourself to other people.  If you are searching for a way to build walls around your vision and stifle your unique capabilities and talents, then start comparing yourself to everyone else.  Actually, it really only takes one other person.  Pick someone, compare yourself to them, see what they do better then you do, and start getting really upset/anxious/distracted because they do.  This is a sure fire way to make sure you lose site of what makes you uniquely qualified to do things that no one else can.  It guarantees that you will miss what you were designed to do because you were too busy looking at what everyone else was doing.  You can’t miss with this one!

So there you have it, two great ways to destroy your visionary outlook on life.  I wouldn’t recommend choosing either one.  However, if we aren’t going to choose to destroy vision, we need to choose to build it.  One way to build, is to live a life of ambitious contentment.  Some view contentment as weakness.  I believe you can be both content (satisfied) and ambitious (passionate).  You can decide for yourself.

Be content whether you live with little or with much.  Chances are you’ll probably live through both.

What if we saw everyone (everyone!) as equal?  What if there were no longer two groups categorized as those that are in need and those that are able to fill the need?  Instead, there would be just one single group:  those that are in need.  

As visionaries we see ourselves as those who can create in order to fulfill a specific need.  We can quickly pick out those that are in desperate need of something that we can offer or build.   We are quick to visualize what it is that certain niches need right now, and what it is that they will need in the future.  There is great opportunity for the man or woman or group or company that can think in this manner and act accordingly.  But, let us never forget that in all truthfulness we are all in need.  There is not a single person alive who is not in need of something or someone.  That is why being a visionary is so important and so practical.  You can meet the needs of any number and type of people.  No group is secluded.  Everyone has needs.  Everyone including you.  So many times we approach a person who is obviously in need as just that, a needy person.  Don’t do it.  Remember, you have needs to.  They may not be as obvious to others, but you have them, and deep down you are well aware of them.  Approach people with authenticity, openness and a willingness to share your needs with others as you likewise take on theirs.  This will build a foundation of trust and communication that will serve you, your company, your marriage and friendships quite well for the rest of your life.

•  We all have needs.  Don’t approach someone or some group because you only see them as needy.  Approach them because you want to share in their needs and because you recognize needs in your own life.
• Be willing to openly share your needs.  If people know that you are in it together, trust and communication can form.  You want to sell?  First, you must sell who you are, authentically.
•  Remember (remember Parke!), see everyone as equal.  No man or woman is better than the next.  Show appreciation for every client no matter what their position.  If you approach everyone equally, willingly sharing your needs, they may in all actuality be able to help you meet your needs at the same time you are helping them meet theirs.  
• There is opportunity everywhere.

Here is the challenge: Many visionaries, no matter how self-motivated (or whatever), never get their start-up…well…started up!  Blame it on, if your must, a lack of focus.

The new visionary, leader and entrepreneur all know that they can impact their community, city, state, country and world in a drastically positive and unique way.  They know (and believe!) that they can do something great.  They have the initiative, the proper attitude, the enhanced heart, the high flying mind set, the proper hair cut (what?).  In short, they have what it takes to really make a difference through their actions, business and perspective.  Yet for some reason they just can’t put it into MOTION.  Ever been there?

We are all either (1) looking to premiere our first great idea (2) looking to get our next great idea rolled out or (3) looking to improve our current great idea already on the market.  So how do we accomplish one or all of these things?  How do we set into MOTION that potential entrepreneurial energy which is currently stagnantly waisting away, not making money, not changing lives, not making someone else’s life better, in our revved up minds?  You know you possess the power to change lives, now how do you harness it and put it to use behind a great idea or goal?  Here are some questions and points to ponder in your search (Think, for real!):

1.  If you could be the greatest in the world at one thing what would it be?
   
2. If you had complete freedom of time, how would you use it?  
3. If you had all the resources in the world, what would you build, design or work at?
4. Take your answers from 1-3 and solidify them…write them down!
5. Your answers from 1-3 should reveal something deeper about yourself (your passions for example).  So go ahead and work at what your passionate about, what you really desire to do.  Make real plans to take a step toward making these answers a reality.  
6. Don’t take your life for granted.  Do that which you truly believe is worth doing, don’t make excuses.

•  In business for 25 years
• Pays workers an average of $17 an hour
• Covers 90% of insurance costs for full-time and part-time employees
• Stock has doubled
• Revenues have grown by 70% over the past 5 years
• “You have to recognize — and I don’t mean this in an acrimonious sense — that the people in that business are trying to make money between now and next Thursday. We’re trying to build a company that’s going to be here 50 and 60 years from now. We owe that to the communities where we do business. We owe that to our employees, that they can count on us for security. We have 140,000 employees and their families; that’s a significant number of people who count on us. We owe it to our suppliers. Think about the people who produce products for us — you could probably multiply our family of employees by three or four times. And we owe it to our customers to continue to offer good prices. Our presence in a community makes pricing better throughout that community because when you have a tough competitor in the marketplace, prices come down.”  CEO, Jim Senegal
• They recycle 100% of the boxes that goods are shipped to their stores in
• Changed the shape of their cashew boxes in order to improve packaging thus saving the company 560 truckloads a year for shipping that single product (cashews).

The deeper aspiration of this site is to create visionaries.

Where would we be without those who took a deeper look into life as we know it and simply yet boldly said, “I think that can be done better.”  One of the most fundamental aspects of being a visionary is the desire, not necessarily the ability, to observe life and purposefully seek out areas of need within a community, a city, a state, a country and possibly, eventually, even the world.  In our path to becoming visionaries, take time every day to see the needs of the people around you.  Not only will this make you more aware of someone other than yourself, but it will also open your mind to creative solutions that could go a long way towards making a huge difference where you are.  This is applicable to all motives.  For example, the entrepreneur looking for his first baby step forward.  The pastor wondering how he can more effectively reach out to his church’s community.  The small business owner looking for a better way to give back.  The woman walking down the street asking how she can make a difference to her children.  The student asking how he can impact those in his dorm.  Here are some steps you can take to improve vision:

1. Observe life boldy today
2. Look for the needs of those around you today
3. Begin to formulate a plan as to how you can begin to meet those needs today
4. And, as always, start small yet back the idea with big thinking