in business we speak of ‘vision’ and idolize the people who seem to poses it. many people look at elon musk and his fully-electiric tesla motor company or his commercially built space-x program and think, “now that’s a visionary at work.” but what makes elon musk special aren’t the ideas that he has. ideas are a dime a dozen.

it’s less about vision and seeing the future, and more about faith—a belief in what you cannot see. belief in yourself that you have the ability to shape the future, not merely to predict its happening. belief that you and your organization can become what you wish and need to become in order to be successful. belief that the risk of failure is preferable to the risk of never even trying. many people had the idea for electric cars, but one man in particular had the belief that he could build a company on it.

what makes our business icons special isn’t their vision of the future. it’s their faith in it.