Mission vs Money: What do you prioritize?

Mission a hundred times over. Money is a means to an end, and it is interchangeable with many other possible means. So my approach is to start with the end — my mission — and work backwards from there to iterate through the most suitable means.

Here's a simple heuristic:

1. Can you imagine realizing your mission and yet failing to obtain a lot of money? If so, money is not necessary.
2. Can you imagine obtaining a lot of money and yet failing to realize your mission? If so, money is not sufficient.

Unless your mission is "become rich," the answer to both questions is probably yes, and money is therefore neither necessary nor sufficient.

Money. Who are you kidding? 😀 If you’re not working towards a profitable business then it’s not a business at all, it’s just an expensive hobby. Obviously you need to be passionate about the project for it to succeed.

Passion usually blossoms out of small successes. Iain other words, focus on what you’re good at and you’ll learn to enjoy it, be passionate about it, and make money from it.

I think you need both. I try to find the balance this way:

1. There's a lot of potential business ideas.
2. A subset of them will have some output/side-effect that is on-mission for you.
3. Try out all those ideas. A subset of them will work.

For example my mission is climate. Very easy to not be able to live off your climate efforts though: nonprofits, thanksless work, civic engagement, etc.

So now

1. of all business ideas I think of
2. I only consider doing the subset that could have a climate impact.
3. I try most of those in the subset. A subset of them hopefully will work :)

Hope that helps!

The reality is that there is a minimum amount of money a human needs to sustain themselves in the modern world - and it's hard to be mission focused if you wonder where your next meal is coming from.

I spent my 20's as an investment banker to buy the privilege of pursuing a mission in my 30's. I live frugally now while some of my friends stayed on and bought ferraris. I don't judge them for it, we just bought different things with our money.

For me, it's always about finding a balance.
When I can fulfill a mission, goal, and make money - that's the winner.
It's hard but doable.

Try to continue to find avenues where you can do both. I don't believe it has to be one or the other. If you are in money mode, keep building until you can start to trickle into your mission. Good luck :)

I'd say its a struggle in everyone's mind and you are not alone. I am a designer and I get caught up between handling my routine clients for the money I need to earn regularly and I also have days where I think I should think of ways to expand, or become a personal brand, or start my youtube channel. But at the end of the day, the daily work battle to put food on the table wins.

What I want to say to you is, don't be too hard on yourself. You are doing your best

I think the best one is the "liquid mission".

People usually (including me, wrote about it here - https://bit.ly/34c3j1H ) go and build the thing that they think represents their mission at full. The truth is that most "big mission" companies we look at, started with the "money" approach. Airbnb and Amazon are good examples for it.

Amazon - Sell books, gain money -> Get funded -> Expand team and marketing -> sell anything possible.

Airbnb - there's on the internet the mail Joe sent Brain, something like "I have a good idea how to make some money"

It's important to have a clear mission but IMO in order to change the game, you first need to be in the game.

I got stuck into the idea about having a life's purpose for a long time. I could never figure out what mine was, and it made it hard for me to really appreciate the work I was doing. Plus it prevented me from starting other things.

So I'm kind of over it. But I do want to contribute to society with my work.

I think @channingallen nailed it with his reply. But a couple things I do always when things are in my way towards the long term "mission" I have in my mind is ask - Am I doing what I can NOW? towards the things that I consider as my mission . If the answer is no, then I start there. Most of the time I have noticed the answer is no.

Another thing is, we can always do something towards the things we want to do. But we often bring unnecessary complications or walls in the mix. So finding what that something is important and part of the game.

It's all about alignment. If you make money working on your mission, you'll be motivated in the long term and able to afford the things that make it impactful .

My friends that refused money to keep a project "pure" burned out, and great projects died early as a result.

When I was personally out of alignment and my company was only focused on money, I was miserable and knew it was time to leave.

I also struggle with this dilemma. I recently left a "big tech" firm who's sole mission was to dominate markets and sell more stuff to consumers that they didn't need. I wanted to focus on doing something around sustainability/environment. However, I am torn between the "Small Bets" approach promoted by Daniel Vassallo in which you optimize for your personal lifestyle through making money in any way that you can to facilitate this lifestyle. I also know other mission driven founders who are making a huge impact in the environmental space yet not meeting revenue goals which seems much more inspiring, but each to their own.

I'm wondering if there a hybrid approach in which you do something part-time e.g. contracting and work on the mission driven project without revenue pressure. I'd be interested to learn from Channing whether he would still be working on IH had it not been acquired by Stripe and instead was bleeding cash, since I think that's what most folks struggle with who are mission driven, although we all have different interpretations of mission.

A little from column a, a little from column b :)

I tend to not be motivated by the pursuit of money, long term. If a project is not intrinsically motivating in some way, I tend to find other things to work on.

On the other hand, I also really appreciate the validation money provides. People paying you for something is a great way to know you've made something valuable. Making things that other people find valuable is a core motivator for me.

Mission. If shit hits the fan and your plan goes awry, be led by your vision and mission, and you'll survive through these setbacks, because of your singular goal to achieve that mission. If money is the only thing that matters, you won't survive in those cash-strapped periods.

When you go after money, all the money you'll make will never be able to buy your passion when you need it the most.

It's easy to say mission but when it comes to real-life action it becomes much more complicated. All the people have different circumstances, financial obligations, and base level conditions.

Someone has a property to leave in while they are pursuing his dream while another has to pay monthly rent. Someone is responsible only for themselves while another provides financial support to his family, parents, etc.

For this kind of question, there is no single answer that fits all. For myself, I am trying to follow my mission in my spare time but I still have a day job for money.

Balance!

You can prioritize only Money, but your incentive might hurt users, society and thus eventually you.

You can prioritize only Mission, sacrificing Money, but risk "starving".

Why not look for a balance. Build or create things customers are willing to pay for and make you feel accomplished. If nobody shows up, does it mean the mission failed? Maybe time for reflection 🙂

Mission first. Money second. Period (IMO).

We are all going to die some day (sorry to be morbid). You can't take the money with you. And how many people can say they made the world a better place? But why not both?!

To support the mission you need money. So what do you do? At junctures when you need to decide what to do next, let the mission be your North Star. To put it differently, mathematically, you are trying to solve a problem with money as your constraint and the mission as the objective function.

Or, phrased another way, if your start-up or side project cannot survive financially without compromising the mission, and your own integrity, then let it die. Otherwise, fight like hell to preserve the mission while finding a path to profitability. I am sure there is some level of money where everyone would compromise the mission. But as a holder of a BA in Economics I would like to think that I'd remember that there are diminishing returns to wealth.

TL;DR: Why not both? But mission first.

This is a really good thread.

For me, it tends to oscillate a bit. Money is incredibly important, and there are months when that is definitely my focus. Other months I focus a little more on my mission.

The thing is, I feel like my mission and the money making aspect are intertwined.

Basically: I don't think focusing on my mission negatively impacts the money aspect. If anything it may enrich it, via the sorts of relationships I develop with others who share my mission.

I find that when I'm 100% money focused it tends to be slightly more draining, whereas when I'm focused on my mission it is more engaging and energizing. So I tend to lean in that direction.

I've always been drawn more to brands that put their mission front and foremost. If their mission aligns with my own, I'm much more willing to spend money on their products. I think it's a trust thing. It just feels more authentic.

With all that said, I do dev consulting for others, along with developing and supporting my own product. So money is usually not an issue. I can totally understand others who put money first when their product is how they put food on the table.

I'd say it depends on many factors, such as where are you in life? Do you have people that depend on you?

If you have a family to feed, people who depend on you and you haven't found your mission, go for money. But keep exploring. Trying stuff out. You might eventually figure it out. But make sure to get out of your comfort zone. Create opportunities for yourself. Reach out to others. Get to learn about them. You might find your mission through their contact.

Through school and society, we are often fed the lie that once you're an adult you should know who you are. Where you're going? What are your life goals? What's your purpose?

But that's a lie. You might not find it in your 20s, your 30s or even you 40s.

And that's ok.

It took me quite a while to accept this. I don't know where I'm going yet. I try to have as much fun and joy in life as possible. But I haven't found my why or mission. I have a job. It pays the bills. Is it the best job in the world? No. But it feeds my family. Once the kids get older, and bills related to daycare lower, I might go for a more risky/less paid but more interesting job. But until then, I put my hearth in everything I do.

I find meaning in the now.

I've prioritized the money part for most of my adult life and thankfully I'm in a good place financially as a result. For me now, I want to prioritize my mission because I'm missing a real sense of meaning in the work I do when I work for others.

Even the non-profits can't make social impact without money. Even the richest man on earth working for more money. Here indiehackers striving through their missions? No, no no I'm not crying, no.

If you are broke like me, we have no other choice. Only thing to make it bearable is to work for something we do not hate to. If we are lucky enough for sure.

Hmm... I'd say both. Financial independence is alluring, but I can't sell anything to anyone without believing in what I'm doing. Plus, having a real purpose is highly valuable :).

oooff. yeah brother that's an everyday question. but whenever i feel that i can, i try to choose meaning/mission over money. i read an article in Inc. once about how meaningless work is actually really bad for people's health. (just googled it - research shows that a lack of mission can be damaging to your health. but ,when you actively pursue purpose, you get dramatic health benefits such as lower risk of heart disease and stroke. and longer life span in general).

i spent a couple of years working on app ideas for people that were just ridiculous. so meaningless. like, here's an app that tracks how many times your pet squirrel farts in an hour. i felt like i'd lost touch with a part of my humanity during that time. and my health wasn't great.

so there's my two cents. without being too precious about it, i say choose mission if you can

Mission! Mission mission mission. It's so important. If I didn't do work that felt purposeful, I'd go mad. I have to do work that fulfills me. Isn't that why we're founders — to make businesses that fulfill us?

When I was young, I was just chasing money. I did everything to earn more. And now I am 42 years old and have good money, but I do not have a favorite thing and am very bored to live. I plan to start investing money or start my own business in the future. Maybe then I will find the meaning of life, and I will have some kind of goal, but I am very bored living now. I'm afraid of investing or starting a business because of the unknown and lack of knowledge in this area. I occasionally read financial articles on this site https://www.doughroller.net/, but I am not confident enough for such a large investment.

Mission does not buy you food. You can focus on the mission once the money situation is stable.

I think both of them should be balanced.

There is no mission if you have no money to achieve it, and probably there is no money if you're not passionate about what you're doing.

I always try to focus "monetizable-mission" projects. If I have a great idea but if there is not a clear path about how to get money from them, I let it go (until I was rich or have enough time to develop haha).

Maybe the product does not save the world, but it will make the world a little better? May I ask what your product is? :)

I'm just having a realisation after 1.5 years of investing everything into my startup. It should have satisfied both needs, mission and money.

The problem: The expectation of revenue put pressure on me (also the early users). I'm 100% convinced of the mission and it was worth all the investment of time and money. But it may not be the right time (yet) for the business model to be in place.

I'll use a hybrid approach now:

• For money: Contracting (doing what I'm great at) and making sure there are synergies
• For mission: I removed the paywall from my project. This took off all the pressure and I got a much clearer view now on where to go next. Bureaucracy's gone, too.

I wrote about this (tough) decision in more detail, if someone's interested.

https://letsken.com/michael/how-to-save-my-startup