Len: That idea is, what this builds into is being able to articulate your 'why.' We talked about this a little bit already, but what this gets into is understanding what your true purpose is.

Len: So, you know, if someone walks into a store and steals something from a store, that person, if caught, can go to jail or they can walk away with a ticket, or they can walk away with a warning. Right. It all depends on a lot of different factors. Right. And I have that discretion to be able to do that. But I also have to understand what the law is. So within your own organization, you have to understand what is the law right? What are the parameters that we work within? Right? It's not willy nilly. It's not like everybody gets to decide what we do. There are laws, right? We have to document that. We have to make it clear what we can do, what we can't do and where the middle ground is right, where we can play.

Len: But the second piece of that is really understanding your purpose. And this is the hardest thing, I think, for entrepreneurs, because your purpose is not making money, that is not what differentiates you. What is your purpose in this world? Why does your business exist beyond making money? And then you have to be able to focus each one of your employees to be able to make decisions within that 'why', within that purpose. Right? So my purpose when I go out into police work is to maintain the peace and provide safety and protection, right, but also to provide the best outcome for all involved.

Len: Sometimes that outcome has nothing to do with somebody going to jail. Right. That is not what they need. That is not the best for anybody, but I have to understand what that means. Right, and that's why we spend so much time going to academy and field training and all the things that we do. Because we have to understand what we can do. What is the law, right? And then where do we have that discretion? But then how do we use that discretion to further our why to further our purpose?

Len: And it's not our personal purpose, it's our organizational purpose that kind of gets you away from like "this person believes that that person believes this." You know, everybody, if they're going to work with any organization, they have to be aligned with that 'corporate why'. Why do we exist? What is success for us beyond money, right? What are we trying to do for this world? What would happen if we weren't here? And then how do we make sure that everything we do falls within that?

Len: So again, there still could be mistakes. There are always going to be mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. But if we're making mistakes with the right purpose in mind, those mistakes are not going to be too bad. Right? You know, maybe you refund somebody that shouldn't have got a refund. OK, that may cost some money, but the reason? What was the reason, why? Why did you do it, right? If the why is right, you're not going to be too far off base? So to me, those are the two most important things as it relates to a business, especially an entrepreneurial business, because they're hard things to do. You have to document what the law is. What are your procedures and your policies? And what do you do? And then you have to make sure that everybody understands why we're here. What are we here to do? What is success for us?

Len: Yeah. And I love the fact that you just said that time because of a purpose statement, right? So many organizations spend so much time on their mission and their vision that nobody ever understands what it is, and nobody even understands what the difference is between the two of them. The most important thing that a lot of organizations don't do is a purpose statement, and a purpose statement is the one that actually will guide people the right way.

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