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Book Review: Vivid Vision
by Cameron Herold Published 2017, read Feb-Mar 2024, reviewed Aug 2025 |
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Funny story: I bought and read this book in February of 2024 when a client mandated that his employees attend the author's webinar. They did, and he didn't - forgot about it, I guess - they were befuddled as to why he would want them to attend, because it's addressed to business owners and executives, which they were not. He treated it as a "test" of their interest in strategy and upward mobility ("Are they 'Think Tankers', or 'Pay Checkers'? Let's find out!), which according to him, they flunked.
Meanwhile, he missed out on it entirely.
So the only person who really appreciated and benefited from it was . . . yours truly.
Ah, well: the interesting twists and turns that happen in this life.
Anyway: for what it's worth, I bought the book and read it.
Meanwhile, he missed out on it entirely.
So the only person who really appreciated and benefited from it was . . . yours truly.
Ah, well: the interesting twists and turns that happen in this life.
Anyway: for what it's worth, I bought the book and read it.
Grandiosity. In an adjacent, recently released review (Gino Wickman's book Traction), I reflect on Grandiosity, how ordinary folks can be daunted by the expectation to declare a "BHAG" (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) or define their "Core Values." Such challenges seem grandiose and, well, audacious to them. To them, it can be downright off-putting.
In my work, I have found that an awful lot of people don't want to be bothered with lofty goals. "No worries" would suit them fine. If they just managed to get to that place where they had nothing to worry about - no stress, no deadlines, paid debts, some money in the bank, Inbox Zero - INBOX ZERO! IMAGINE! - and some leisure time - as Huey Lewis once sung, "All I Want is a Couple Days Off!" - they would be golden.
Indeed! Speaking of music, I think about other musicians like Hank Williams, George Jones, George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Trace Adkins, Toby Keith . . . and not just country singers, but folk singers as well, guys like Billy Joel, Huey, Bruce Springsteen, and the earlier guys like Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan . . . you'd never catch ANY of them singing about a BHAG or defining "your" Core Values.
No sir! To any of them, relief from suffering, simplicity and contentment would be enough! Just time to sit around, play their guitars and sing, compose their music and spend time with loved ones and family . . . that would be enough! So to them, and to anyone who resonates with their music, the grandiosity in this book, and in books like it, would be off-putting.
You know, I can remember putting this in a poem eleven years ago. Here it is, "Whether to Plan." At the time, I was exasperated by how disinterested ordinary folks were in planning, when I felt that it was so important. And now, years later, I look back on my own career, my own professional experience, and I see how while I wanted it to be strategic, SO MUCH of it has, in fact, been palliative. It's not what I hoped for; it's not what I wanted; but it's what I got. It's what has really happened, a lot of the time.
Now that I'm older, more patient, more understanding, more circumspect, more accepting of people as they are, versus as I wish they would be, with more of a curious student mindset than a stern, condescending, judgmental lecturer mindset, I come to realize that this humble, Common Folk feeling that is manifest so widely in our music, really expresses what it means to be an American, and that the grandiose "BHAG" "MY Core Values" attitude is really more indicative of what I have heard described as the "Coastal Elites" than by ordinary people. To ordinary folk, they don't need to define "THEIR" Core Values. To them, THE Core Values - the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule - suffice!
This reminds me of something that happened a long time ago, say 45 years ago, when I was an obnoxious teen, grew up in church. My youth group leader was at that time the father of small children, two of whom had just been born. I was yammering at him about "ministry" and he became angry at me, pointed to his twin infants, and said,
"That is my ministry!"
Well, that shut me up quick and knocked me off my pillar, which is just what I needed.
In my work, I have found that an awful lot of people don't want to be bothered with lofty goals. "No worries" would suit them fine. If they just managed to get to that place where they had nothing to worry about - no stress, no deadlines, paid debts, some money in the bank, Inbox Zero - INBOX ZERO! IMAGINE! - and some leisure time - as Huey Lewis once sung, "All I Want is a Couple Days Off!" - they would be golden.
Indeed! Speaking of music, I think about other musicians like Hank Williams, George Jones, George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Trace Adkins, Toby Keith . . . and not just country singers, but folk singers as well, guys like Billy Joel, Huey, Bruce Springsteen, and the earlier guys like Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan . . . you'd never catch ANY of them singing about a BHAG or defining "your" Core Values.
No sir! To any of them, relief from suffering, simplicity and contentment would be enough! Just time to sit around, play their guitars and sing, compose their music and spend time with loved ones and family . . . that would be enough! So to them, and to anyone who resonates with their music, the grandiosity in this book, and in books like it, would be off-putting.
You know, I can remember putting this in a poem eleven years ago. Here it is, "Whether to Plan." At the time, I was exasperated by how disinterested ordinary folks were in planning, when I felt that it was so important. And now, years later, I look back on my own career, my own professional experience, and I see how while I wanted it to be strategic, SO MUCH of it has, in fact, been palliative. It's not what I hoped for; it's not what I wanted; but it's what I got. It's what has really happened, a lot of the time.
Now that I'm older, more patient, more understanding, more circumspect, more accepting of people as they are, versus as I wish they would be, with more of a curious student mindset than a stern, condescending, judgmental lecturer mindset, I come to realize that this humble, Common Folk feeling that is manifest so widely in our music, really expresses what it means to be an American, and that the grandiose "BHAG" "MY Core Values" attitude is really more indicative of what I have heard described as the "Coastal Elites" than by ordinary people. To ordinary folk, they don't need to define "THEIR" Core Values. To them, THE Core Values - the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule - suffice!
This reminds me of something that happened a long time ago, say 45 years ago, when I was an obnoxious teen, grew up in church. My youth group leader was at that time the father of small children, two of whom had just been born. I was yammering at him about "ministry" and he became angry at me, pointed to his twin infants, and said,
"That is my ministry!"
Well, that shut me up quick and knocked me off my pillar, which is just what I needed.
Question: Why was my client AWOL from his own event, something he had mandated for his employees? Did he really "forget"? Or did he simply decide that he was too busy for it, that he had other, more urgent things to do? I suspect it's the latter. And I can tell you, he is the kind of guy who doesn't value long term strategic planning. His life consists of day to day fire fighting. It's overwhelming and endless.
For sure, he is a salt-of-the-earth person who is cut from exactly the same cloth that resonates with all of the above named musicians. He's a humble, aw-shucks kind of a guy who has no time or patience for lofty grandiose goal-setting any more than my youth group leader had patience for lofty ministry ideas when he had children to feed, shelter, protect, and raise. He is a patriotic American.
Ten years ago, I wrote a review of The Narcissism Epidemic; and although I don't mention the word Grandiose or Grandiosity in the review, I do recall it being mentioned in the book, how it was a symptom of narcissism. Narcissists think they're special, with special values, and special goals, that they deserve special treatment, and all of that.
So this all has me wondering, could the grandiosity involved in declaring BHAGs and defining your special, unique Core Values, versus THE Core Values . . . might this just be another symptom of the narcissism that has so ravaged our culture? Is this all a futile, pointless, exercise in narcissism? Is anyone who tries it just kidding him or herself?
I suspect that question accounts for my client's no-show at the webinar. I suspect it accounts for why there is so little buy-in to strategic long term goal setting.
"Shucks, I'm not special, I'm just some ordinary Joe or Jane. I don't need big goals or my own values. Those over there will do fine, the ones I learned in church, or Scouts, or in my military training.
Me? I'd just like to have no worries. That would be a huge improvement over how my life has always been. That would be more than enough. Just end the worrying. End the suffering. Relieve the pain. Yes, that would be more than enough."
For sure, he is a salt-of-the-earth person who is cut from exactly the same cloth that resonates with all of the above named musicians. He's a humble, aw-shucks kind of a guy who has no time or patience for lofty grandiose goal-setting any more than my youth group leader had patience for lofty ministry ideas when he had children to feed, shelter, protect, and raise. He is a patriotic American.
Ten years ago, I wrote a review of The Narcissism Epidemic; and although I don't mention the word Grandiose or Grandiosity in the review, I do recall it being mentioned in the book, how it was a symptom of narcissism. Narcissists think they're special, with special values, and special goals, that they deserve special treatment, and all of that.
So this all has me wondering, could the grandiosity involved in declaring BHAGs and defining your special, unique Core Values, versus THE Core Values . . . might this just be another symptom of the narcissism that has so ravaged our culture? Is this all a futile, pointless, exercise in narcissism? Is anyone who tries it just kidding him or herself?
I suspect that question accounts for my client's no-show at the webinar. I suspect it accounts for why there is so little buy-in to strategic long term goal setting.
"Shucks, I'm not special, I'm just some ordinary Joe or Jane. I don't need big goals or my own values. Those over there will do fine, the ones I learned in church, or Scouts, or in my military training.
Me? I'd just like to have no worries. That would be a huge improvement over how my life has always been. That would be more than enough. Just end the worrying. End the suffering. Relieve the pain. Yes, that would be more than enough."
So, what? In view of this feeling, this point of view, that is so prevalent that it's a defining American trait, of what use is a book like Vivid Vision? Should we just chuck it?
Well, if you're a Bible Person, let's remember Proverbs 29:18,
"Where there is no vision, the people perish."
Perish. That is the worst kind of suffering there is. It implies dying.
So if all you're interested in is relieving suffering - if your bar is that low, of merely relieving pain - then this book is for you.
Maybe you're not interested in Vision because it seems lofty and grandiose . . . but if you care about relieving suffering and having no worries, you should be.
So what does this Herold guy have to say?
Well, if you're a Bible Person, let's remember Proverbs 29:18,
"Where there is no vision, the people perish."
Perish. That is the worst kind of suffering there is. It implies dying.
So if all you're interested in is relieving suffering - if your bar is that low, of merely relieving pain - then this book is for you.
Maybe you're not interested in Vision because it seems lofty and grandiose . . . but if you care about relieving suffering and having no worries, you should be.
So what does this Herold guy have to say?
- He says that Mission and Vision statements are hokey, futile, and inadequate. They're so brief and vague that nobody takes them seriously. In ChatGPT jargon, they're "catnip" or "theater." A Vivid Vision, by contrast, is a few pages long, say four or five - enough to be, well, vivid.
- When he was COO of 800-Got-Junk, he learned about visualization and applied it to the company's situation. He set a vision to double the company's revenue in three years. They actually doubled revenue annually for six years in a row - all because he articulated and shared a clear vision.
- Where there's no alignment, no shared vision, you have a vacuous environment that invites arguments and infighting. This is how office politics and drama get started. It isn't because of what happened; it's because of what's missing.
- You've heard the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words; from this we get "vision boards." He begs to differ. While vision boards are for one person, "the written word is much more precise and less easily misconstrued" and therefore much more suitable for aligning groups (29).
- Set the vision for three years. That's long enough to dream big, and soon enough as to be foreseeable.
- Get away. Leave the office. Do your writing in a retreat kind of environment, far removed from the day-to-day.
- Write on paper. It engages your brain better and you won't be tempted by distractions like email and notifications. Same goes with the smart phone. Stow it.
- Feel free to draw a Mind Map and doodle (36).
- Consider hiring a professional to help you refine it. (Or, now that we have AI, after you've copied it into digital format, share it with a chatbot and see what happens.) Or both.
- Put everything in the present tense, as if the vision has already been realized.
- Put it in beautiful, presentable hard copy and distribute it internally ("Internal Rollout"). Review it quarterly (which fits quite nicely into the EOS "90 Day World" way of doing things (85).
- Realize that by taking a stand, you will experience attrition . . . and that is part of the point. You want people who share your vision to stay, and the ones who don't to fire themselves. It's a screen, or filter (87).
- 90 days after the Internal Rollout, do an External Rollout to actual and prospective customers, vendors, stakeholders, prospective employees, anyone outside the company who matters. Prospective customers may get so excited about your future that they commit on the spot. "Everyone wants to peek into the future, and for good reason" (94).
- Don't worry about "How." Once the vision is articulated, everyone's minds will get to work on that.
- The External Rollout can cause a domino effect: as you scale up, your suppliers and vendors will scale up to support you, if they understand what's going on. The Vivid Vision gives them that understanding. It puts everybody literally on the same page.
- A written Vivid Vision is especially great if your team works remotely. It helps them align with one another and with you, even though they're not on site.
- Once it's written and understood, people will reverse-engineer it. Step by step, they'll figure out the How. It will stimulate and focus their creativity.
- Through better engagement and reduced conflict, companies who do this may expect 26% annual growth, or a doubling of revenue in three years (124).
- Three years elapse quickly. Psych up to write your second, third, and fourth Vivid Visions! It's a three year cycle!
- Benefits (besides growing revenue): stability, the "wow" factor, validation (Chapter 12).
- You can create a Vivid Vision for your personal life, too: Fitness, Faith, Finance, Family, & Friends (Chapter 13).
- "It's truly surprising how many moments actually go unaccounted for over the course of three consciously lived years" (unless you're doing Existential Time Keeping [ETK], heh) (159).
- One technique that should help you make better and more efficient use of your time is to ask yourself, "If I had one extra day each week, how would I spend it?" (160)
- You and your family can write a Vivid Vision for itself together, too (Chapter 14). Why be deliberate with your business, and cavalier with your family? Don't they deserve better?
So now what do you think? Does this still seem grandiose and audacious, or can you see the sense in it?
If you can, please contact me. Let's work together to put it, along with many other wonderful things that I know how to do, in place, to benefit you and yours.
AI can assist, but it cannot care. I care. Please reach out.
If you can, please contact me. Let's work together to put it, along with many other wonderful things that I know how to do, in place, to benefit you and yours.
AI can assist, but it cannot care. I care. Please reach out.
