Have you lost sight of your vision?

Have you lost sight of your vision?

This week I was chatting with a new business owner, six months into her entrepreneurial journey, and it reminded me that we often start with a clear vision, but this can get lost over time.

My vision has always been captured by the image of the Maxell Tape Man*.

Stop. Look. Listen. Enjoy.

But along the way, a vision can get eroded.

Not all at once. Not dramatically. It usually happens slowly. Through good intentions. Through adding things. Through preparing for every possible future.

Recently, I’ve noticed my AI telling me to stop doing things.

Don’t waste time cataloguing my vinyl collection in two different databases (Discogs and CLZ Collector). Don’t have a version on iTunes, which I don’t use, and a version on Spotify, which I do. Don’t worry about creating every vinyl track as MP3s for a future where streaming disappears.

The AI wisely advised me not to worry about a post-apocalyptic world where there’s no internet. No online streaming probably means there’s no electricity. No computers. No access to digital archives. And I’d probably have to work out a way of powering an amp and turntable just to play any vinyl. I do have a 78rpm wind up Gramophone, so I'll just listen to everything sped up.

Instead, declutter. Create space for what matters most.

So, I’m ditching my multi-zone AV surround sound amp, which stopped working about five years ago and had a remote control that was too complex to understand. I’m selling the Rega Planar 3 turntable I bought in my thirties because it looked cool, but ultimately sounded cold.

Instead, I’ve bought a refurbished Dual 505-1 Mk2. The turntable I had when I was eighteen. I also found my Cambridge Audio Azur 340A in the loft. I just need to check it works.

Back to a simple two-box system.

There’s no grand strategy in any of this. Just letting go. Reclaiming what worked for me. Ditching what was style over substance.

Which is where I come back to business.

Most people don’t lose their purpose. They lose sight of their vision. It gets buried under tools, systems, processes, platforms, and well-meaning additions. At some point, the scaffolding becomes the building.

When that happens, the instinct is to create a new strategy.

Often, what’s really needed is removal.

Strip enough away, and the original vision becomes visible again.

That image has always been my personal vision. Not my purpose.

Soon I will be able to just stop, look, listen and enjoy. Again.

Enjoy your Quick PINT.

*The Maxell Tape Man is from the 1980s Maxell cassette tape advertisement featuring a man sitting calmly in a chair while the sound from his hi-fi blows his hair and tie back. Blown away by sound.