Law 7: Vision - Building a Nation

Making Monday

The seventh Law of Making, the first of the final trilogy called The Laws of Transcendence, is the law of vision: true makers see beyond the actual to the potential.

Vision is a word that once had prophetic overtones, and now, at least in corporate America, is almost as meaningless as mission statements.

But the fact that there is a corporate America to complain about is one of the things we're celebrating today in the United States.

When the founders drafted the constitution and established the union, there was good money wagered that it wouldn't last. And there have been a number of times during the ensuing several hundred years when it looked like the naysayers were going to collect on their bet. Yet in establishing a system in which competing interests were balanced under the rule of law (not the influence of a powerful few) they strove to get beyond the actual state of human affairs and realize the potential of something far grander.

Regardless of what happens in the undoubtedly tumultuous years to come, the founders had the vision to make something that transcended them and their narrow interests. That's worth celebrating. And that, in a nutshell, is the goal of all makers.


Image: Bill Longshaw / FreeDigitalPhotos.net