LET’S START WITH PASSION. Is it the same as purpose?
I believe that most people get this question wrong. A very common answer is that passion is the thing that wakes you up in the morning. But I think the sun does that. Your alarm clock does that. Life does that. Waking up in the morning is, in fact, an unavoidable fact of being human. Passion is not involved.
Technically, passion is an emotion that is very powerful – barely controllable. It could be a very strong feeling you have towards someone, or something. By itself, the word ‘passion’ means very little. It simply describes the intensity of a particular feeling. Passion can move in many directions. You can be passionately in love with someone or something, or you can passionately hate someone or something.
Purpose, on the other hand, is the reason something (or someone) exists. Purpose provides the aim, the goal, and the motive. If I ask you one of the oldest questions of philosophy, being: “Why are you here on earth?”, you will only be able to offer a confident answer if you understand your purpose.
So, why should you understand, and work with, the idea of passion?
Because passion gives you the energy you need to take the action required to fulfil your purpose. Passion is the fuel in your tank. Without it, you are going nowhere! If you have a sense of purpose, and there is evidence that this sense is supported by passion – daily energy, action and commitment – you are approaching the entrepreneurial sweet spot.
Purpose: will not take shape without passion.
Passion: will not result in much, unless guided by purpose.
NATURAL ENERGY IS A SUBTLY DIFFERENT CONCEPT TO TALENT. Talent refers to a natural ability to do specific things. Natural Energy refers to a tendency in a specific direction. It’s a more adaptable idea than talent, and it really matters when people are working in teams, where a good balance of abilities achieves a lot, while imbalance often hurts team performance.
Think of two professional soccer players. Both will naturally share purpose and passion with respect to soccer. However, one player may have the natural energy of a striker, while the other might have the natural energy of a goalkeeper, or a defender.
In the business world, understanding your Natural Energy will help you to determine your personal strengths and weaknesses, and therefore which areas of business you are best suited for. It will also help you to determine the type of people whom you need around you to realize your dreams, and theirs.
When You Understand your Natural Energy, You Will:
– Better understand the path you should follow in your line of business and work;
– Know your strengths and weaknesses; and
– Understand who you need in your team – and develop your ability to create a team where individuals leverage each other’s natural abilities.
MUCH OF OUR SELF-AWARENESS IS DEFINED BY OUR SENSE OF PURPOSE – that sense we all
have, to some degree, that we’re on a mission. That thing we seek to accomplish. The personal meaning of our existence.
Without purpose, life has little reason. Without purpose, there is no need to get up in the morning. Maybe to visit the bathroom, but that’s about it. Pee, and go back to sleep.
A lot of people become anxious when they’re asked to identify or think about their purpose, but it’s really not that complicated or emotional. For most people, purpose is likely to be found in the things in your life that exhilarate you, or excite you, or simply make you happy.
But, while there may be aspects of your life that are ready to be excavated and explored for a fresh perspective, you might also need to dig into your world from a more abstract, theoretical angle.
Think about the three questions below. These might help you define (or refine)
your own personal purpose:
• WHAT DID YOU ENJOY DOING THE MOST AS A YOUNGSTER? This might not answer the purpose question directly, but it may well lead you towards ideas and answers. Thinking about this question can also help you to find your passion and to identify your talents.
• YOU’RE DEAD. A STATUE IS BUILT IN YOUR NAME. WHAT DOES THE PLAQUE SAY ABOUT YOU AND HOW YOU LIVED IN THE WORLD? This is a tricky thing to think about. The more you consider it, the more it makes you think about your relationships and interactions with other people. This kind of thinking is very valuable in seeking to understand your purpose in the world.
• CAN YOU DO BUSINESS WITHOUT PURPOSE? I am not saying that you should do nothing until you find your purpose. Many of us only find our true purpose after many years of trading and living. Don’t make purpose your beginning or your end. If you haven’t found it yet, keep going. It will find you along the way. The most important thing is that purpose starts to become a part of how you think about your place in the world, including the work you choose to do.
These are “timeless” questions. Their answers evolve and grow with each of us, and so they can (and should) be considered throughout life. Take time to reflect seriously as you search for your “true north”. This is not a quick process. Rather, it is a way of living and understanding the world.
A WILDLY OBVIOUS (BUT STILL VERY IMPORTANT) STATEMENT:
IF THERE IS NOTHING IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE OTHER THAN SLEEP, work and TV/Inter-
net, you need to press pause for a bit and take stock. Yes, Game of Thrones, Empire and all the rest are credible art forms and, yes, there is much to learn from all those documentaries, but the recipe is simple. Too much time behind the screen and/or on the couch has a toxic effect. Eventually, if you do it for long enough, the toxicity rots your purpose, your reason for living, until you don’t have one anymore. Without purpose, life and business can get boring.
PERSONAL PURPOSE – FIVE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
THEATRE AND MOVIE PRODUCER ADAM LEIPZEIG GAVE A TALK ON TED which really
works, thanks to its simplicity. You can access it here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVsXO9brK7M
I love the simplicity of his thinking, precisely because personal purpose can be a very tricky subject. Let me repeat his key insight. There are five things you need to think about when it comes to personal purpose; five questions you need to ask yourself and then answer. You can do this in a quick, instinctive moment, or you can explore each one in-depth. It’s up to you. Regardless of how you approach it, thinking in these areas will get you closer to understanding your personal purpose.
The big five personal purpose questions are:
1. Who am I?
2. What do I do (or want to do)?
3. Who do I do it for (or want to do it for)?
4. What did those people want or need?
5. What did they get out of it – how did they change as a result?
Think about these for a while. Mull them over in your head. Then, take some time to write down the answers to each question.
How Does Purpose tie into Business?
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH STARTING A BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY. Adam Smith said
that an entrepreneur starts a business with the intention to make a profit. Personally, I think that’s the right word to use – profit – rather than money. It’s perfectly possible to make lots of money while trading at a loss. But there is a large, and often dangerous, gap between the two concepts.
I’ve met a few successful entrepreneurs whose chief reason for starting their businesses was to turn a profit. I worked for one of them, in fact: Ivan Epstein, a co-founder of Softline Pastel, now trading as Sage South Africa. I hear you asking why you should have a purpose (other than profit) if Ivan didn’t. The answer is simple. You are not Ivan. Every now and then, people like Ivan emerge, who are immersed in the art of business and who find and enjoy genuine purpose within this world. They are rare birds, but when they fly it’s obvious that they belong right where they are, in the world of spreadsheets and profit and loss.
For most of us, however, our purpose, while perfectly likely to operate within the broad realm of business, is unlikely to be purely profit-focused. Human beings just aren’t that simple. The vast majority of us engage with the world beyond the realm of wealth and lifestyle, even if we aren’t aware of this fact.
Take Bill Gates, for example. A man who certainly knew how to turn a profit, but whose vision and business purpose for Microsoft was to put a computer on every desk in the world. This is a fine example of a purpose that is related to business, without being profit-centric. Gates’ idea was not simply to put a computer on everyone’s desk, but to give people access to information and the ability to do things that were barely imaginable a few years ago. Apple and Steve Jobs, of course, offer another compelling example of the same dynamic.
Understanding Personal Purpose:
There are many books, particularly in the self-help section of bookshops, that tell us important things about what it means to be happy as a human being. One of the key ideas, repeated by researchers, is that once you have enough money to pay the rent and purchase the essentials for survival (food, clothes etc.), more money is fascinatingly incapable of buying more happiness. Rather, being involved in communities – and making a real and significant impact in the lives of other people – increases reported levels of happiness remarkably. The bottom line is simple: a true sense of happiness in life is best achieved by contributing to improving the lives of others.
Only purpose-driven work can achieve this.
Purpose and Passion – It’s the Mix that Counts
IF, THROUGH THESE EXERCISES, you see an obvious overlap between your points of passion and purpose, then you should explore that area of overlap as an area of potential business.
If not, don’t stress. Thinking about purpose and passion is a lifelong process for entrepreneurs. The key is in the act of thinking, rather than the results.
