How to Find Your Purpose Right Now
I want to share a simple exercise you can use to set more meaningful life and career goals. It starts by asking the question “Why?” I find myself asking this question all the time. Why work at that job? Why start a company? Why do we need more money? It’s a question so wrapped up in social norms that it’s been deemed unworthy to even think about. So most people skip it. But if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or business leader trying to change the world like me, don’t. It’s freaking important (I don’t use the word “freaking” lightly friend).
Not too long ago I asked a close friend “why do you need money?” and she replied, “to buy stuff.” I thought “well duh, but why?” We’ve all heard the generic answers like “to make a living” or “to enjoy life.” I don’t think these answers are shallow, but I always ask myself “why?” I feel like the four-year-old asking their Dad “why” after everything he says. “Ok kids gotta go to work.” “Why?” “Well I have to make money.” “Why” and so on.
As it relates to my life and career, I have a much better answer to this question after reading the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. I know I’m behind the times, but better late than never. Here’s a quote to give you some context:
“You spend two weeks negotiating your new Infiniti with the dealership and got $10,000 off? That’s great. Does your life have a purpose? Are you contributing anything useful to this world, or just shuffling papers, banging on a keyboard, and coming home to a drunken existence on the weekends?”
Money Needs a Purpose
A bit harsh, but there’s a lot of positive learning throughout the book. One of the early chapters talks about how to live your dream. Ferris says to start with the dream and then figure out how much it costs. Then find a way to fund it. He suggests a planning tool called “Dreamlining”. Think of it as a dream calculator. (You can download it from his website here) But I don’t think most people plan life this way. Most of us seem to start with a dream, get distracted by making money, forget our dream, then remember it, then have a mid-life crisis, then retire and live our dream as an old person. We make the mistake of worrying about the whole money+car+house identity thing first and set our dream aside for some reason. When you don’t know what your dream is and you’re just making money for money sake, you lack purpose and direction.
The same thinking applies to some of the most influential companies in the world. Facebook’s little red culture book sums it up.
“We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build services.”
Of course Facebook is a successful company that makes lots and lots of money. But they started with a cause and a purpose. When a company has a well-defined purpose, they can set meaningful goals. Goals are simply answers to questions like: how much money do we need to live our dreams?
Why Do We Exist?
Since I’m a senior level dude at my company, I’m in charge of setting company goals and making sure they get executed. It’s a small company, but this happens at companies of all sizes. This may go without saying, but the best entrepreneurs and startups take goal setting seriously. It’s how you actually get things done. In order to set goals properly, the leadership team gets together to plan out the entire year ahead. The last time we did this we had the privilege of working with a strategy guru. I won’t mention his name; he’s very modest. The process is fairly simple. He asks questions and guides us through a structured conversation.
“The objective is to leave with a game plan and goals for the next year.”
Side note: I always recommend using a facilitator because as owners and leaders, we’re way too close to the business. The whole company will then use this game plan to set their own goals. For most companies, one of the biggest goals will be a revenue target. But before we could set any goals and talk about money, he made us answer this question: “Why do we exist?” Kablooey! Mind blown right?! It’s essentially the same question as “what is your dream?” And here’s the trick, the answer can never be “to make money.” This resonated with me, because making money is not a good enough reason to exist. To help us answer this question, our experienced guru used a Lean Six Sigma tool called “The 5 Whys”.
Ask “Why” 5 Times
In the Lean Six Sigma world, it’s meant to analyze and get to the root of a problem. But it works great for identifying dreams. Here’s how it works. Have the group brainstorm the answer to “Why do we exist?” The answers are usually too far in the weeds like “to offer the best services”. Then ask yourselves “Why” until you get out of the weeds and find some actual meaning to that existence. It usually takes 5 Whys. Sometimes it helps if you start with a company goal like “to be a healthy organization”. You can even start with “To make more money” if you’re that shallow. Sorry I’m not sorry.
Here’s an example:
1. We exist to make X amount of money.
2. Why? To hire more people with X skills.
3. Why? To make better products.
4. Why? To help people solve important problems.
5. Why? To make the world a better place.
When you get to something that sounds like “To make the world a better place” then you’re very close. Take a look at Facebook’s purpose. They call it their mission, but it’s the same thing.
“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.”
Facebook Started with a Purpose
Facebook has a clear purpose and money becomes a means to fulfill that purpose. If you’re an entrepreneur or someone that has a leadership role within a company, I encourage you to write your purpose down on a piece of paper and reread once a month. If people report to you, read it to them once a month. Make sure they know why you exist and why you make money to fulfill your purpose.
If you’re like me, you wrestle with questions like “What should I be doing with my time?” “Where do I want to end up?” “What’s the meaning of life for me?” “What does success look like?” I always knew that it wasn’t only about money. But I didn’t know how money played a part. Now it’s a more clear. I make money to fulfill my purpose and I always want to be apart of a company or collective that does the same.
– Matt C
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