John Demartini believes in mission statements – a concept he believes too many businesses don’t understand, don’t use properly, or, at very best, to which they only pay lip service.
He wrote his first one 32 years ago. A page long, he still reads it every day without fail.
Its bottom line?
To inspire wisdom, fulfilment, leadership and healing in people who want to achieve their full potential.
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| Courtesy John Demartini |
| Retired chiropractor John Demartini wrote his own mission statement at 17 and it’s still inspiring him. |
“That’s my life,” says Demartini, an international speaker and consultant who provides professional and personal services to business clients in 42 countries.
Headquartered in Houston, Demartini’s a busy man.
He lives in Australia and for a large portion of the year he and his wife live aboard their other home, a private luxury cruise liner called The World of ResidenSea.
Late in February, Demartini made landfall for a full week in Calgary where he had speaking engagements, led corporate workshops and worked as a co-host for a television pilot.
A retired chiropractor, the 49-year-old lives a full life, and according to his mission statement, he vows this is only the beginning.
His newest book, How to Make One Hell of a Profit and Still Get to Heaven, has just been released in Australia and hits bookstores later this year in North America.
Asked what holds businesses and individuals back from making one hell of a profit, Demartini says it boils down to what he calls “core values” – and to producing mission statements that reflect the individual’s most coveted principles in life and business.
When he consults with a business looking to improve its operation, he works directly with CEOs and presidents to determine their values in life.
“If the hierarchy of their values is not congruent with what the mission statement of the company is, their heart and focus is not into it,” he says.
“The key is to find what gets them up in the morning and inspires them to go and run a huge company.”
As an example, Demartini points to an international health and wellness company he consulted with in February.
The principal owner had been in the business for 22 years, taken the company worldwide, and had achieved his financial goals. But he had reached a plateau and so had the company. The owner wasn’t inspired to go to work as he once was.
Through consultation, they discovered the owner’s values had changed. He now wanted to leave a legacy – to show what’s possible for fitness across the world – but he worried that the concept was too “touchy feely,” Demartini recalls.
“Once we identified his message he had tears in his eyes, saying: ‘This is the thing I haven’t accomplished yet.’ ”
From that understanding, they rewrote a mission statement that inspired the owner. Then, 35 key company staff were consulted. From their feedback, the mission statement was tweaked so that the entire team felt they had a piece of it.
“The surge of energy that happened in the first week was amazing,” Demartini says.
From his experience, Demartini suggests that perhaps one in 10 businesses has a mission statement that fits the bill.
It’s almost like companies write a mission statement that appeases the public and sounds good, he says, but there is no real spirit reflected within.
“It’s like: ‘OK, we’ve done it, now let’s get back to business.’ But how are you going to get an enthusiastic team if there is no enthusiasm in it?”
Though he can draw from hundreds of examples to illustrate how successful businesses use mission statements, Demartini’s own tale is a case study in itself.
It began when his Grade 1 teacher told Demartini’s parents that he had a learning disability and would never be able to read, write or communicate normally.
A decade later, at 17, he nearly died from strychnine poisoning that damaged his nervous system. It was then, he says, that he had his epiphany and wrote his mission statement.
Attending a yoga class that he hoped would help heal his own body, he listened to a 93-year-old “wise man” who inspired Demartini with his clarity and confidence.
“He was mesmerizing, inspired, certain,” he recalls. The wise man, Dr. Paul Bragg, had dedicated his life to health, well-being and maximum potential.
“He told us that night that we’d determine our destiny,” says Demartini, who, proving his Grade 1 teacher wrong, went on to earn a PhD at the Texas Chiropractic College where he was class salutatorian.
“I saw clearly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be involved in teaching, healing and philosophy, travel the world and help people understand the power they have within themselves to accomplish what they want to do.”
While his mission statement is noble, it’s practical, too. Profit, he says, must be high in any hierarchy of values for an individual or large business.
“You can have a great message and still go broke,” he says. “I’m constantly telling people to take the cream off the top and invest in yourself first, because if you don’t, no one else will.”
He explains that business people must pay themselves first, their taxes second, their personal lifestyle third and the business fourth.
His philosophy has been to build up reserves of cash, then invest in bills, bonds, and blue-chip stocks, and then spread risk through diversity.
Ensuring consistency, he uses an automatic forced saving system where the withdrawals are accelerated every quarter by anywhere from two to 10 per cent. He cautions people about being speculative, trying for the big get-rich plays. He describes his method as slow and methodical, building capital gradually.
Demartini will tell you that his success comes from having a plan. In his case, it’s a mission statement that’s served him well for three decades.
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