“Visionary companies set audacious goals and make bold daring moves.”

I’ve just finished reading Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. This is another bestseller by the legendary Jim Collins, a prequel to his better-known volume, bestseller Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't.

Throughout both books, Collins talks about the inevitability – in fact, the necessity – of change, iteration and reinvention... a good reason why Built to Last has already been updated twice since it was published in 1994. Some of the companies he places on the throne may prove to be a little like Humpty Dumpty in the end, but I believe the lessons in the book are timeless.

Built to Last shares the qualities of visionary companies. And it all starts with BHAGs – yes, Big Hairy Audacious Goals.

Collins recognizes that visionary companies start with a founder’s BHAG, but to be truly visionary, to reach that BHAG, the vision HAS TO become greater than you, the founder.

Just about anyone can create a business and put themselves in the centre of the story – in fiction we would call them the protagonist. The question is, do you want your whole story told in a single book, or do you dream of a series that continues on from generation to generation and survives and thrives under the guidance of future CEOs?

As Collins says it,

“Having a great idea or being a charismatic visionary leader is ‘time telling’; building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader and through multiple product life cycles is ‘clock building’… wouldn’t that person be even more amazing if, instead of telling the time, he or she built a clock that could tell the time forever, even after he or she was dead and gone?”

What makes your company truly visionary isn’t YOU. (Sorry.) It’s your vision, and that has to transcend beyond you, beyond the individual, beyond the charismatic thought leader, beyond the visionary founder.

What is your BHAG? What is your vision? Who else knows about it? Who else wants to realize it?

I’ve talked about my BHAG a few times: to double the number of self-made millionaires in Canada by 2030. My vision is greater than me, the wealth advisor with a grand idea. For my vision to become reality it needs to be embraced by many. It needs to ignite a spark in others.

And who are the self-made millionaires, the wealth creators? Business owners / founders.  Where are those millions? Often locked up in the business. How do you unlock it?

I see that as one of the keys to creating more millionaires – showing visionary founders how to unlock the wealth they have inside their business. That’s why promoting their cash-rich exit makes sense.

Do you want your cash-rich exit to include the legacy of an exceptional company that continues (without you) to contribute to the world? Do you have a strong sense of purpose and a VISION that you want to live on?

Then start now. Start now to articulate your vision and reverse engineer its realization.

That’s WHY and what this is for:

Double to Sell with Cameron Herold: How to Make a Cash Rich Exit

Double to Sell is Canada's premier, invitation-ONLY workshop for business owners who want a cash-rich exit in 10 years or less. Over the course of a single high-octane day, Double to Sell will help you take your business worth millions (on paper) and help you exit for multiple times that, by building your multi-million-dollar exit strategy.

I can keep talking about cash-rich exits and self-made millionaires, but this doesn’t erase the truth and the purpose of holding a vision that’s bigger than any individual:

“The primary output of their efforts is not the tangible implementation of a great idea, the expression of a charismatic personality, the gratification of their ego, or the accumulation of wealth. Their greatest creation is the company itself and what it stands for.” – Jim Collins, Built to Last