History is composed of the rise and fall of nations. Many are made in revolution, others rise from the ashes of empires, and some through contentious votes. But only once was a nation born because every lawmaker in the room voted to expel an entire region.
In 1965 Malaysia’s parliament branded the bustling port of Singapore a burden and unanimously cast it out, thrusting the island into sudden nationhood. Its birth certificate was an eviction notice. Singapore possessed no oil, no minerals, no army, and scarcely enough water for its two million residents—conditions that ranked it among the world’s poorest states. When the United States offered humanitarian aid, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew stunned observers by declining the help and declaring an audacious mission: to make Singapore “a first-world country in a third-world region.”
To pull off that seemingly impossible mission, Lee Kuan Yew’s team knew that becoming first-world wouldn’t happen overnight—but building the foundation for one could start on day one. They laid first-world scaffolding with pragmatic discipline: wiped out corruption via well-paid, accountable officials; wooed multinationals with tax breaks, a world-class port, and iron-clad rule of law; invested in STEM-heavy bilingual schools and mass affordable housing; launched national service for unity; and kept tariffs near zero, turning the island into a value-adding entrepôt. In short, they installed every pillar—clean governance, skilled talent, hard infrastructure, social cohesion—needed for prosperity to take root.
By relentlessly upgrading those foundations and tracking progress in hard numbers, Singapore turned every liability into an asset, rising within a single generation from dockside slum to global finance and tech hub. Ironically, the country that once offered it humanitarian aid now lags behind—Singapore’s GDP per capita hovers around $85,000, surpassing the United States, nearly every Western economy, and dwarfing Malaysia’s roughly $12,000. Not bad for an island its neighbors expected to fail. That progress isn’t luck; it’s the payoff of a clear mission and metrics that mattered—an educated population, efficient infrastructure, low corruption—tuned until the numbers moved. Purpose set the direction; disciplined measurement kept the compass true, and the result stands as one of the greatest economic miracles on Earth.
And the same playbook scales down to one person: decide who you want to become, build the daily scaffolding, and measure the inputs that move you there.
Finding Your Mission
Your mission statement has one purpose: to capture the person you mean to become and the standards you’ll live by. A fast way to surface what matters is the funeral lens. Picture the eulogies at your funeral—what do you hope people say about you as a partner, friend, parent, or professional? Remember, this isn’t limited to who you are today; it’s permission to adopt future identities. Singapore certainly wasn’t first-world when it vowed to become one.
Write the results as a living constitution you can consult before big choices. Here are my mission statements:
| Role | Mission line |
|---|---|
| Athlete | Treat my body as a temple and explore the limits of its strength and grace. |
| Boyfriend | Choose patience over frustration, understanding before judgment; protect, cherish, grow, and bond. |
| Brother | Mentor, teach, advise, and assist with love and reliability while guarding my siblings’ independence and well-being. |
| Productive | Improve myself 1 % every day through habits, study, conversation, and reflection. |
| Engineer | Hone my craft, build only high-quality products, stay at the cutting edge, and model great teamwork. |
| Entrepreneur | Channel creativity, grit, and leadership into products that lift lives—while growing as a leader myself. |
This one-page compass becomes your daily playbook: every goal, project, or habit should trace back to a line in your mission. Treat it as a living constitution. Review it often—a quick scan every Sunday night or month-end. Log the week’s wins and misses, and revise any line that no longer rings true. A mission you inspect stays alive; one you ignore gathers dust. If a planned action doesn’t align, adjust the action—or rewrite the mission. Purpose first, metrics second, exactly as Singapore proved.
Measuring Success: Leading and Lagging Indicators
A mission is only as good as the numbers you track. The trap many people fall into is chasing lagging indicators—outcomes you can’t steer directly—while ignoring leading indicators, the daily inputs that actually move the needle.
| Term | In plain words | Control level |
|---|---|---|
| Leading indicator | The behavior you perform that predicts the result (workouts completed, pages read, outreach calls made). | High—totally in your hands. |
| Lagging indicator | The end result that shows up later (weight lost, revenue earned, friendships deepened). | Low—shows up after the fact. |
For example, many people set a goal to “get fit” and then obsess over the scale—a classic lagging indicator. After two weeks at the gym with no change in weight, they declare failure and quit. Instead, track a leading indicator such as workouts per week. Focus on raising that number, and the scale will follow in time.
Singapore did the same at national scale. It didn’t count high-paying jobs first; it counted how many citizens graduated with solid skills—a leading indicator that later delivered world-class salaries.
Review each role in your mission statement and ask, What behaviors prove I’m living this identity?
| Role / Identity | Leading Indicator to Track |
|---|---|
| Athlete | Workouts or active minutes per week |
| Reader / Learner | Pages (or minutes) read each day |
| Writer / Creator | Words written—or posts, videos, or designs produced—per week |
| Saver | Dollars auto-transferred to savings each payday |
| Job seeker | Targeted applications or networking outreaches per week |
| Friend | Check-in calls or thoughtful texts sent each week |
| Entrepreneur | Customer-discovery interviews completed this month |
| Mindful person | Minutes meditated or journal entries logged per day |
Track the inputs you control; let the outcomes take care of themselves.
Chasing Your North Star
This blueprint transformed a struggling port into a first-world titan; apply it to your own life and you’ll shape a future self today’s you can hardly imagine. Will your ambitions earn that rigor, or stay stuck in wishful thinking? Spend ten minutes right now—write your mission, choose one lead metric, and set a weekly review—and start engineering your personal miracle.
The journey toward your north star is treacherous—full of wrong turns, blind curves, and unexpected roadblocks. You don’t have to navigate it alone. Join a circle that speaks your language of purpose and metrics, converts vision into momentum, and refuses to let you drift. Share your mission, track your leading indicators, celebrate the wins, troubleshoot the setbacks—and watch your private miracle unfold alongside teammates just as committed as you are.
Further Reading:
Read about how to prioritize the most important activities for growth: Sharpen the Axe: How Top Performers Build an Edge
Read about how habits drive your results and how to change them: Invisible Strings: The Habits Controlling Your Health, Wealth, and Identity
Read about how your environment and culture support or sabotage your progress: From Grandmasters to Drug Lords: How Culture Shapes Destiny
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