Today’s economy is demanding for business leaders to command uncommon abilities.

Not so much that one of reading financial statements well, or that other of spelling out their entrepreneurial dream into a dry business plan, good enough to convince bankers— but not so much to enlist, engage and make the team that will make it all possible march forward.

Like global entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson puts it, in the context of today’s high demand for the best talents possible, every single worker —the very people who can make or break organizations—  must be seen just as volunteers.

Volunteers who, as such, are free to walk away, as millennials do often today —no matter how well paid and glamorous it may be.

Or hang around a work place because they like it, not because of that initial promise of competitive compensation, but, in the long term, only if they are entirely convinced that such a place is the best spot to develop themselves into better human beings.

Highly qualified workers in the 21st century are impatient and often demanding of true purpose.

It is up to the leaders to spell it out and explain why it is important to stick together and carry on a common objective that may bring everybody together. One purpose that is way higher than our own individual aspirations for comfort, pleasure or job security.

When a business leader finally reaches that point of maturity when he or she can, at last, sit down and write the purpose of the company, and also craft the critical “core values” sustaining the organization, and, all of a sudden, that copy describing the company’s history and culture starts flowing naturally, as a thread tying everything together, it may be a good sign that, perhaps, that business leader may have an organization to run, although still on paper, eventually capable of making a contribution to the world and bring solutions to their fellow human beings.

The founders of today’s companies must set out to convince people —almost as it they were modern preachers— be investors, be their co-workers, or be their first customers.

Convince them that there is a horizon worth pursuing together, a future of years ahead where there will be solutions to problems, prosperity, and, eventually, profits to self sustain the operation and finance the cause.

I applaud those who dare, those courageous enough to overcome their fears, and, as the pioneers did, sail away, honest and light, ready to run the race, sometimes burning the candle on both ends.

Necessary on some days, just to never be defeated in the midst of the old and ongoing battle:

To keep the Profit & Loss sheet “in the black” and the dream alive.