It was true. I had uttered some very similar words long before watching the movie. Not that I expect Newchapter to be the next Facebook, or that creating successful student housing facilities for College Ministries is the next big thing on Wall Street, but like Facebook, there is something unique about what Newchapter is doing around the country. You see, what I heard Eisenberg (Zuckerberg) saying about Facebook is, ‘I don’t have a picture of how this can be used yet. I don’t know exactly how it will affect society. Let’s wait until there is some idea of what this can be before going public.’ That same uncertainty is very much how I felt about Newchapter for several years, until we were finally able to begin seeing “what it can be…what it will be”. In other words, until we had a vision.
To be clear, when I talk about about vision, I am thinking of something much more rich and meaningful than pulling sky-high financial projections out of thin air. To me, vision is something inspiring that takes your breath away and makes you feel really small in comparison. For Newchapter, it was waking up and realizing the work we are doing today could eventually pave the way for one thousand student housing facilities for College Ministries around the world. Notice I did not say, we could ‘develop’ one thousand of these facilities, I said we could “pave the way” for one thousand. There is a huge distinction between the two. One defines our success the traditional way – by whether we can grow into a large company with hundreds of properties – and the other by whether we can open up this market by attracting other developers, lenders, and investors who share our motivation and want to be a part of the vision.
That’s what vision does – it redefines success and reshapes businesses. But exactly what does it mean for Newchapter to “open up this market”, and does it even make sense? Bill Gates knew that until there was a stable operating system there would never be a market for personal computers. That’s why he saw opportunity, not in selling computers, but in licensing the operating system. He was very motivated to open up the personal computer market even though he did not make or sell PCs. Similarly, the first thing we need if we are going to open up this market is a proven “operating system”. So, we have gone back through all we have learned over the past few years, identified the key elements of a successful and sustainable facility, and formulated a start-to-finish system for creating successful student housing facilities for College Ministries. Of course, we could keep this system to ourselves, and perhaps do quite well developing a few dozen facilities over the next decade or so, but the vision inspires us to do more, to stretch ourselves, to live on the edge, and stop trying to fit inside a box.
Every day, I live with the real possibility that I could be making a substantial error in judgement. But as a business person, I have to ask, which is more important: being safe inside the box, or shaking things up in order to pursue a vision? I’d love to know how others feel about it…
