Visionless, Missionless, and Valueless

I wrote an email that had a mission for "making impossible strength possible." Or is that a vision? It's certainly marketing as soon as we make it public. I wrote side effects, there were four and I won't list them here. They are available for anyone interested, here. And last night around the campfire of the hostel I am at, surrounded by employees who believe their company values and missions are vapid and transparent ploys for profits, I thought back to the email. I decided I do not want flexin to display or be conversant about either the company mission/vision or the values at any time.

I made the joke, "I am in the midst of creating a visionless, missionless, and valueless company." A googler said, "sounds like a good approach in a world filled with empty corporate statements." She took me by surprise, yet the real joke is that I like the idea enough to take it seriously.

We all know the mission/vision and the values of flexin. That said, as marketing we can stand out by saying we lack them all. What do we have instead? You can expect some form of the following on the other side of a link to "about the company" in the flexin.io footer:

Visionless, Missionless, and Valueless

There is a lot going on in your lives and ours. Groceries to pick up, children to raise, schools to graduate from. We have these lives for such a short time. When we have those gifts of a few short seconds when we actually feel alive we cherish them for a lifetime.

What we regret at the end of our lives are not the houses we did not purchase, the promotions we did not receive, or the monies we did not make. We wish we had more time with our friends, our families, that we treated them better, that we gave them our fullest. Not a one of us reflects on a corporate mission being achieved nor the values that our favorite shoe brand held.

Fitness is about being efficient. Do not look to us to show you a future we see, an audacious goal we have, values that guide us. Seek us for getting to the end of your workout safely, efficiently, and consistently. Seek us for friendliness, generosity, and truthfulness.

Marketing is for marketing. You can read all about us anywhere we are writing in public, you can see what our products are and how they work, you can feel the improvements in your fitness level after days, weeks, months of working out. Are you seeing improvements? Let us know and oh boy will we promote it. Beyond that, if you are curious what our company is all about then stop your search because you are at the end.

Thinking about working with us? Talk to us, read about us, check out our work, ask us questions, and decide whether you think we are good based on that.

Thinking about buying one of our products? They work and we stand by them.

Life is too short. There's no time for you or for us to be messing about with corporate visions, missions, and values. Life is too short. We build products that do as advertised. Life is too short. Working with us is a lot like working with other teams you have worked with. Life is too short. The future is uncertain and we are doing what we can to make one piece of it clearer. Life is too short. We will be brief with you by delivering products that get out of your way so that you can get back to your family and friends and just maybe life a life of no regrets.

Peter B Smith
founder, chief executive officer