I worked with a CEO who would come to work with a new idea every day.
When I say every day, I mean every single day.
He was always excited to share his newest idea.
This phenomenon was known organizationally as the “Shiny Penny Syndrome”. Or SPS for short.
From what I have observed, self-employed entrepreneurs tend to suffer the most from SPS.
As an entrepreneur myself, I have also shiny-pennied. Guilty as charged.
The problem with SPS
Shiny Penny Syndrome isn’t actually a syndrome at all. It is a symptom. A symptom of:
- Lack of accountability or focus
- Not being committed to what you are doing
- Not having a plan worth sticking to
- Not having a goal worth fighting for
- Being uninspired or burned out
It gets worse.
When SPS shows up, team productivity goes down. Weeks of momentum get squashed. Morale degrades.
Confusion enters the mix. Uncertainty takes over the room.
When SPS becomes a cultural norm, employees leave at the end of the day with their tails between their legs, not knowing what to expect tomorrow.
SPS kills culture first. Then it comes for your revenue.
So what do you do?
You need a mission. A real mission.
Take Patagonia’s mission for example, Patagonia is in business to save our planet.
Or JetBlue’s To inspire humanity — both in the air and on the ground.
Patagonia is in the save-the-planet-business. They happen to sell hiking and climbing gear.
JetBlue is in the inspiration business. They happen to sell plane rides.
An individual can have a mission, too. Take Jane Goodall, the primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist famous for studying chimpanzees.
She was on a tour, speaking to students about the environment and youth empowerment, when she passed on Oct 1, 2025. She was 91 years old. Ninety-one!
Her mission was to inspire hope and transform it into action.
These missions have no end date and are meant to be infectious (in the best way possible).
More importantly, these missions are too big for one person or one company to carry, but their creators committed to their respective missions anyway.
They saw the value of an impossible dream. I like that.
Stop chasing pennies. It’s bad for business
Let’s set up 30 minutes to explore how strategic planning, executive coaching and leadership development can support your mission.
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