I Wish Someone Had Told Me What a Rudder Was

I wish my Grade 1 teacher had never forced my classmates and me to memorize this sentence:

“A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.”

At that age, almost none of us understood what a rudder was.

The only word we understood was “man.”

We memorized the sentence, but nobody taught us how a ship works, what a rudder does, or how it helps a ship change direction.

Maybe the teacher was also a product of an ecosystem that never taught them how to teach these things properly. And maybe this is where we, as an ecosystem, have failed.

Companies say they want to “solve problems,” “help customers,” or “transform industries with AI.” But ask them who they are building for, what they want to be known for, or where they are going, and often, you get a collection of vague answers and buzzwords. Almost no one can define it in a single sentence.

The social media team posts, the product team builds, and the sales team sells. Everyone is moving, not in the same direction. And this is where companies often fail. Founders complain that their teams don’t understand the mission, while the mission statement itself has never been made clear enough to understand.

We tell people to find their purpose, discover their Ikigai, and figure out their mission. But we rarely teach them how to think through these things.

Maybe some things are worth being taught earlier.

not because you need to have your entire life figured out at 18 or 24, but because clarity can help you make better decisions as you move forward.

A ship can move without a rudder. A person can move without clarity.

A company can grow without a clear mission.

But movement is not the same as direction.

Maybe that’s what my Grade 1 teacher was trying to teach us.

I just wish someone had first taught us what a rudder was…