Not to get all self-referential on you, but my interpretation of the PCF says that what I'm doing now is "establishing a strategic vision". This begs the question: what is the difference between a strategic vision and a mission? Oh, Internet, is there nothing you've failed to consider long ago? The vision is how we see the world being different because we are in it; the mission is the day-to-day things we do that are intended to bring about the vision.

Here's where I'm coming from: I see a Starr District, a Richmond, an Indiana, an America, a world where the "modern" capitalist system - the system that burns resources for momentary advantage - is recognized as short-term thinking that makes us all poorer. The real capitalist system, the one that built things instead of selling the pieces off to the highest bidder, will regain momentum. We'll take the best from history, and we'll use it to succeed in the twenty-first, without sacrificing the real gains of the twentieth.

We can have an appreciation for stability of life and the good of the community without sacrificing dynamism of ideas and action. We can have an appreciation for the solidity of bricks and mortar without sacrificing the flexibility of the virtual. We can live in our world without trashing it.

We can do all that and still make people successful - in the end, more successful than they can possibly be without this enlightened self-interest. The world of the corporate raider makes no-one successful but the raider; we have to change that. Success that is not shared is not lasting success.

I see the solid houses of the Starr District as a metaphor. These buildings are built to last; my own house has gone through decades of neglect and is still more solid, more permanent, than any structure I've ever lived in. They're built to be repaired and reused. This should be the goal when we build our businesses as well. We should strive for stability and quality, not a quick blaze to a meaningless cash-out exit strategy. In everything we do, we should be trying to build something bigger than ourselves, something that will benefit people for years or even generations to come.

In giving starting entrepreneurs the opportunity not only to have a shot at wealth, but also to contribute to a solid community right from the start, we are doing exactly that. Our philosophy from the start should be to bring new stable businesses into being, businesses that won't fold in two years and leave their employees wondering what to do, but businesses like Richmond used to build - plants that kept a prosperous town stable for a hundred years.

How's that for a strategic vision? Well, it's not a strategic vision for an organization yet. Oddly enough, the Air Force has some helpful advice on creating a vision. I might boil this vision down to the following:

The [Brick House Incubator] will preserve the beauty of past architecture by simultaneously using it as a resource for starting new businesses and making it a living metaphor of the need for stability and quality in those businesses. We will improve the world by providing the tools to help others improve the world, and by continually improving those tools.

What do you think?