Find Your Vision in the Movies
Quentin Tarantino once said, “It’s not your job to create a vision, but it’s your job to have a vision.”
That quote confuses young filmmakers, who may not be sure about where their vision is supposed to come from, or what to do with it. Movie making can be a very difference experience than leading a business but when it comes to vision, the same type of confusion around vision is experienced by CEOs and business leaders too.
A vision statement isn’t the vision. It’s just a summary. You can transform your identity into an inspiring and actionable vision statement by applying techniques from cinematic storytelling.
For filmmakers, it’s easier to get away with being vague around a vision. Everyone just assumes that a director has a vision by default, and nobody asks them to define it. Business leaders, on the other hand, are expected to write their vision down, make it inspiring, and share it everywhere. Every young CEO knows the feeling of getting stuck in the weeds—what’s the difference between a vision and a mission? And after many hours of writing and revising, these statements end up being left behind for “more important” things like marketing and sales.
Fortunately, the intersection of filmmaking and business leadership creates an opportunity for a clearer, more defined vision. Let’s explore this overlap and harness cinematic storytelling techniques to create a vision that truly resonates.
Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” The same applies here. If you can’t explain what your vision is (or even what vision means), you probably don’t know. That’s can create problems, even if you can’t name what’s going wrong. A lack of vision will show up somewhere in the cracks.
If all the explanations of vision, mission and statements have left you more confused than clear, it’s not your fault. The people who couldn’t explain it simply to you, likely didn’t understand it either. So let’s fix that, and help you find your vision which, according to Tarantino, you already have.
Forget the Vision Statement (for now)
When consultants, mentors, and professors talk about vision, they focus on the statement: a neat line of text meant to motivate your team and stakeholders. That’s where the trouble starts. A vision statement isn’t the vision. It’s just a summary. Focusing on the wording too early sends you down a rabbit hole of looking at what others have written, and wondering why yours doesn’t feel right. Sound familiar?
So, step away from the keyboard. The path to understanding vision doesn’t go through a Google Doc. It goes through storytelling techniques, like those used in movies.
Vision in Movies
Some directors have such a distinct voice, that you know it’s their film within seconds. Tarantino is one, but he’s not alone—think Christopher Nolan, Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, Greta Gerwig. When you hear “a Wes Anderson movie,” you know exactly what that means. But can you explain it in words?
You might say: pastel colors, symmetry, quirky characters. But these are all creative decisions made to express a vision, they are not the vision itself. To access that, we must venture deeper. What do you feel watching A Wes Anderson movie (or, any other movie by your favorite director)? What emotional thread can you identify, within yourself, that runs through while watching other movies by the same director? That’s where the real vision lies. A director’s vision isn’t just about how the film looks. It’s in their worldview, their emotional fingerprint. This unique “take” carries over to more than just one movie. That’s why the same script directed by Tarantino or Spielberg, for example, would become two entirely different movies. Vision is identity. It shows up, no matter the story.
Vision in Business
Can our understanding of vision in movies carry over to the business world? In business, people are told to a picture of the future—a world in which their company thrives. Vision = future. Mission = present. That’s how the experts split it up.
But here’s the twist: when you’re told to focus on a future world, you forget to look at yourself. You imagine how the world looks, not how you uniquely shape it. Just like in a Wes Anderson movie, your vision isn’t about how the world looks—it’s about your unique way of moving towards it. Many people might share the same dream of a better future—your vision is how you see and shape it, in your own way.
A vision (not a vision statement) is: your singular identity, and the impact you aim to make on the world.
That might sound frustratingly abstract. It’s easier to write a snappy sentence than dig into your own identity—but if it were easy, everyone would nail it, and most don’t. But if you do the inner work, you’ll get to a real vision and, eventually, a great statement too.
You can transform your identity into an inspiring and actionable vision statement by applying techniques from cinematic storytelling, even without being a filmmaker at all.
Vision Is Emotional
Take one of the most famous vision statements ever: JFK’s “We will put a man on the moon in the next 10 years.”
If a random guy said that on the street, nobody would care. It wasn’t the goal that inspired people—it was the man who said it. The statement worked because JFK had a clear identity, a strong emotional compass, and the ability to rally people around a shared feeling: inspiration and hope. That’s what vision really does. JFK didn’t only apply his vision to the moon mission. He accomplished other things, like creating the Peace Corps.
In the case of the moon mission, the emotion JFK tapped into was hope. The U.S. needed a confidence boost in the Cold War era, and the moon became the symbol. The vision wasn’t the rocket, or the astronauts—it was the emotions that ultimately made it all possible.
Filmmakers understand the power of emotion, while business leaders often shy away from it. Yet, connecting with a shared emotion among your stakeholders is precisely what gives your idea momentum—and what ultimately turns it into reality.
How to Find Your Vision
Most vision statements fall flat because they skip the emotional core. It takes knowing stories and storytelling to understand why even “good” vision statements often feel stale. Take LinkedIn’s:
“Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
Or American Express:
“Provide the world’s best customer experience every day.”
These vision statements can be found in many articles as standout examples of exceptionally well-written vision statements. But, do they really move you? Do they deliver on the inspiration they are supposed to evoke? If not, they’ve missed the point.
Compare LinkedIn and Amex’s vision statements to Airbnb’s vision statement:
“To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere.”
Why does it work better? Because it hits an emotional nerve—the universal desire to belong. It also quietly uses another important storytelling technique: conflict. This future world doesn’t exist yet, which is why it needs to be created. You can apply the same techniques to your own vision statement. But to do that, you have to go deeper first—not into wordsmithing, but into clarity. You need to actually find your vision.
Here’s a better way to find your vision—emotion first, statement second. We’ll apply tried and tested cinematic storytelling techniques:
- Imagine success.
Start by walking the conventional path and picture the future where your business or idea has achieved its goal.
- Focus on people, not outcomes.
Now, take a different route. Ask: How do people feel in this future? Write down those emotions as single words, and not more than three.
- Rewind to the present.
Like any good story, a conflict prevents characters from achieving what they want. What’s stopping people from reaching that future you envision? Don’t zoom in too close. Stay high-level. You’re not solving day-to-day problems—you’re addressing deeper barriers.
LinkedIn didn’t just say “people can’t get jobs.” They saw that opportunity itself was locked away. Similarly, a company offering ready made meals isn’t just solving the need to eat—it’s about care, connection, and comfort. The key is to look past what people need right now and uncover what they aspire to. If they don’t have it, that’s where the real conflict lives.
- Define the world you operate in.
Bring it all back to Earth. All the abstract feelings operate in a concrete world—LinkedI’s is the workforce, American Express’s is customer experience. Contextualize all the feelings by clearly defining the world your idea belongs to.
- Combine it into a draft vision statement:
[Obstacle to overcome] → [Resulting emotion] in a [world]
This is your blueprint—not your final statement, but the emotional skeleton.
Make It Real
Let’s apply this to some of the vision statements from earlier:
Original: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
Reworked: “Break down barriers to opportunity, so every person can thrive in the global workforce.”
American Express
Original: “Provide the world’s best customer experience every day.”
Reworked: "Earn trust every day—because people deserve more than service.”
That’s the difference between a statement that just says something and one that feels like something.