by Jamar Wright – Mind Food International
[KINGSTON, Jamaica] – In the summer of 2018, the family was on a ride at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom called, “Tomorrowland.” I was struck by a thought that is now engraved in my mind. The ride came to a stop to show us the vision for Disney world, a massive expansion of the theme park. There was a quote by Mr. Walt Disney, “Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
I smiled at the thought, Disney is the company it is today because of its powerful vision and team. That quote reinforced the power of having a vision. This vision sometimes is a constant and never-ending quest for improvement and often lacking among today’s leaders.
Leaders should always have a vision to mobilize their teams, organization, country, church, and club for a better future. Solomon, King of ancient Israel said something profound, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” In other words where there is no vision from the political leaders, the country perishes. Where there is no vision from the CEO, the organization perishes. Where there is no vision from the pastor the church perishes. “Why does this happen?” You may ask. Because vision gives us hope for a better tomorrow. Vision is a mental picture of the future that a leader holds, that will move humanity whether this be his business, school, country, or any other entity forward.
When a leader lacks vision or becomes disconnected from the vision of the future he or she begins to underperform and when a leader has nothing to be excited about tomorrow he or she stops caring about the details and becomes discouraged.
In today’s society the visionless leader will lose the battle with crime & violence, with economic turmoil, social upheavals, global pandemics and spiritual lawlessness. Those who seek leadership from such a guide often feels suppressed and disenchanted and will eventually lose hope in the leader’s capabilities.
As the world-renowned author and lecturer Helen Keller who was born blind, deaf and mute once said, “The only thing worse than blindness is having sight but no vision.” It is possible for you to have sight but lack vision. We experience this frequently as we see our leaders struggle to find solutions to the world’s problems and lose their grip of influencing their people in the process.
Simply put, too many leaders are leading without a vision. As we celebrated the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr last week, we remember his famous words “I have a dream…”, his vision was to see freedom for his fellow black brothers and sisters in America. That dream to MLK was worth fighting for, protesting for, preaching and teaching for and ultimately, dying for.
Unfortunately, not many leaders can say the same about the vision they hold dear to their hearts. Too many politicians only have plans. Meanwhile, some countries only have policies, countless organizations only have strategies. Whereas, too many clubs and churches are without a solid blueprint of where they are really heading. “Where are you taking us?” are the cries of those who are led by the blind. Without vision the leader simply becomes a manager and eventually his or her entity will plateau then approach a decline.
Vision Leads To Success
Vision is critical to the function and success of anything worth building. Most importantly, vision gives us a reason to press into tomorrow because tomorrow is believed to be more positive. Vision tells us that in the future this is where we want to be. Vision inspires the depressed, vision makes the unseen visible and the unknown possible.
