Mission Statement

How dare you even suggest the contrary! An organization cannot exist without a mission statement. The thought is abhorrent.

It’s a good thing, then, that Freethoughtable is not an organization.

Nevertheless, after two and a half decades of nearly voluntary servitude in Corporate America, I have been conditioned to believe that no endeavor can succeed without an artfully crafted collection of aspirational words explaining in plain English why it exists in the first place.

Preferably after several meetings. And pre-meetings. And memos.

So, in the interest of strategic alignment, stakeholder engagement, and ensuring that all future content remains consistent with our core organizational values, Freethoughtable hereby adopts the following mission statement:

Think about things. Question things. Occasionally change my mind about things. Write some of those things down. Try not to be an asshole.

That’s pretty much it; there will be no corporate vision, no five-year strategic plan, no K-fucking-P-Is, and for godsake, no quarterly performance reviews.

Nobody will form a cross-functional team to identify opportunities for continuous improvement and increasingly deep market penetration. And under absolutely no circumstances will we be circling back or putting a pin in this.

Freethoughtable exists because regardless of the enormous clusterfuckery surrounding humankind, there are things that interest me, bother me, confuse me, amuse me, and quite often, piss me off enough that I want to—nay, have to—write about them. I don’t promise consistency. I don’t promise answers. I don’t even promise that the person writing something today will completely agree with the person who wrote something here a year ago.

Actually, I’m pretty certain he doesn’t. Changing your mind isn’t hypocrisy; it’s evidence that you’ve been paying attention. The latent fingerprints of free thought.

And that’s why I’ll keep thinking about things.

And questioning things.

And writing some of them down.

Oh, and I’ll keep trying not to be an asshole.

Mission accomplished.