Future-Vision Decision Making
Make today's choices against the future you intend to build.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 94%
Future-vision decision making reverses the usual strategic reference point. Instead of asking what best preserves the current business, the entrepreneur defines a desired future state and asks what someone already committed to that destination would do today. Past evidence of surviving unfamiliar challenges provides a factual counterweight to fear about being unqualified or unprepared. The founder then solves the next concrete problem, documents the journey, and watches for audiences experiencing the same difficulty. That documented solution can later become a new offer. The mechanism links identity, daily behavior, problem solving, and offer creation: a future destination guides present choices, consistent actions build capability, and shared learning reveals commercial opportunities.
Origin
Extracted from The Jasmine Star Show as Jasmine explained how each of her businesses emerged from solving an apparently impossible problem and sharing the journey.
Core principles
- 01Use past evidence to challenge present self-doubt.
- 02Define the destination before selecting today's actions.
- 03Choose for the future business rather than preserving the current one.
- 04Treat uncertainty as compatible with forward movement.
- 05Document solved problems to reveal future offers.
How to run it
- 1
Define the Destination
Describe the future business, role, or impact you intend to create. Make it specific enough to guide present trade-offs.
Pro tip Write observable characteristics such as customers served, operating model, and founder role.
Watch out An inspirational slogan is not a sufficiently precise destination.
- 2
Establish the Evidence
Review factual examples of times you succeeded despite initially lacking knowledge, funding, or connections. Use the record to separate reasonable risk from emotional self-doubt.
Pro tip Record what you learned or did that made each previous breakthrough possible.
Watch out Past success supports action, but it does not guarantee every new idea will work.
- 3
Act From the Reached Destination
Ask what decisions you would make today if you were already committed to the future state. Translate the answer into immediate behaviors and priorities.
Pro tip Focus on reversible actions that generate information first.
Watch out Do not imitate the spending or scale of a mature business before earning it.
- 4
Solve the Next Problem
Identify and solve the next obstacle between the current and future states. Avoid waiting until you feel fully qualified.
Pro tip Reduce an intimidating vision to the smallest meaningful problem you can test now.
Watch out Movement without a defined problem can become expensive activity rather than progress.
- 5
Document the Journey
Share the process, lessons, mistakes, and solution with people facing a similar obstacle. Notice repeated questions and unmet needs.
Pro tip Document while details and emotions are fresh.
Watch out Do not manufacture certainty or hide material limitations.
- 6
Turn Repeated Need Into an Offer
When an audience consistently seeks the same outcome, package the proven process into an offer. Continue iterating it against the future vision.
Pro tip Validate demand before building a complex product.
Watch out Audience interest alone is not proof that people will pay.
In the wild
Jasmine entered the technology business without technical experience and worked with engineers on an MVP. She asked basic and even supposedly stupid questions, continued showing up, and treated the unfamiliar build as the next problem to solve rather than evidence that she should stop.
→ She progressed from nontechnical founder to operating a technology company.
Without a camera or money for a website, Jasmine documented her attempt to become a photographer. People who identified with the same emotions and challenges formed an audience around the journey.
→ The documented process helped create a community and future business opportunities.
Common mistakes
Deciding Only for the Current Business
Optimizing exclusively for current revenue and operations can crowd out the capabilities and experiments required by the future vision.
Waiting to Feel Qualified
Complete readiness often arrives only after solving real problems, asking questions, and accumulating practical evidence.
Treating Vision as Proof
A compelling destination still requires experiments, customer evidence, and disciplined execution.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for entrepreneurs entering unfamiliar markets, building new capabilities, or choosing between present revenue and future opportunity.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the envisioned destination is vague, ethically unsound, or unsupported by any testable assumptions.
From the transcript
“It was simply like, how do I solve the next problem?”
“Every business I have ever created has been on the back of getting through a seemingly impossible thing and then breaking through the other thing.”
“I'm not making decisions against the business now. I'm making decisions against the business in the future”
From the episode
Why Making “Selfish Decisions” Will Make You a Stronger Entrepreneur