What is our purpose? Why do we exist?
Great questions!
Sometimes you have to wonder if anyone would miss you if you were gone. At LEV, we don’t get a lot of thank you cards. That is not why we show up. In fact, we are more often being sold or invoiced and I’m doubtful anyone would cry if we vaporized today. (morbid beginning, right?)
However, we are in this for the long haul… the very long haul. We exist to help others grow. This means, we help first. Mikel, Neil and myself, each have a giant heart to help others. We came together, and attract other teammates that share this passion and purpose. Our expectation is that if we help others grow, we can often arrive at some pretty terrific destinations, along with them, some years later.
What does this look like in our world?
Well, it’s listening to a young founder pitch their business idea and then providing feedback and asking pointed questions. Questions like “Why do customers buy?” and “How much value do your customers really get?” Sometimes this makes them squirm, and sometimes they overstate their value. We listen again and then may help by suggesting next steps or directing them to other resources that may be more helpful than us. If we do “fall in love” then we often jump into due diligence by directly trying to help. We’ll call on prospective customers and ask them if they would buy. Or, we build a prototype software or spreadsheet or similar and share it with the founder. “Would this help?”
In other situations, we help more established business owners. Sometimes these individuals are going through a personal situation or perhaps have temporary liquidity challenges. We are able to step in and work through a plan to help them turn a corner. There are often tough questions here as well. “What should you stop doing?” “What is more important?” To every end is a new beginning. “How will this grow?”
If, over many years, we do our jobs well, there should be a great number of people impacted by our work. We strive to help each individual and each business grow. We expect this to compound exponentially as the “help first” mentality permeates their world as well.
What is your purpose?