I just answered a linkedin question. I’d like to share the question and my answer below. (The original question along with all answers can be found here.)

The question…

What goals in business are truly worth pursuing? What goals – when at the end of your career and you look back at it all – are those about which you can say, “now that was worth the fight… we changed the course of some little piece of history and left a legacy.”?

My answer…

If you want something you can look back on as a satisfying legacy, I would say improving profits is necessary but not sufficient. The business leader is actually empowered to change peoples lives.

When you’ve looked back and seen how those who were in your organization grew professionally or personally as a result of your how you mentored or how you ran the place, you will feel that satisfaction.

I like to say our organization needs to consistently strive to add value for:
-shareholders
-customers
-employees
-partners
-community

I may be writing more on this theme in the near future.    I can remember in the past that here in china,  this type of thinking was considered naive in, especially in industrial leadership circles.

When I started leading in China 10 years ago, I was too stupid to know it was a naive concept.  My experiences in the past decade have made me even stupider.  I no longer believe in this concept…. I’ve grown to love it.