Finding your “Why” or purpose is not easy. But I tried.
As I wrote last week, a few things became apparent on the “How I want to work.” But not really on “what,” or even on “why.”
Probably many of you know Simon Sinek’s legendary Ted talk about “How to find your Why.” It is a great talk, and I think every company should ask why they exist.
Every company can talk about the “What”: “We sell XYZ.”
Most companies know their “How” as well: “We produce XYZ / we offer the following service.”
But they rarely know their “Why” (or purpose = what you love + what others need).
Spoiler: I haven’t found my “Why” (yet?). Many people seem to think their “Why” needs to be something that saves the world. Honestly, that is too far off for me. There are super-intelligent scientists and engineers out there. They might be able to find solutions for the essential tasks that we as humanity are facing. But that is probably not me.
I want to do my part to be a part of the solution to our world’s problems. I want to be a good husband and father. I want to support others where I can. I want to encourage others to start executing their ideas.
On top of that, I want to be around friendly people, in my private time and in my work time — which is not really a big difference for me.
I also enjoy it when I see ideas and people grow. I like to make myself redundant. I don’t hold on to things.
I am not sure if this is forming a “Why.” But it is at least a base for me to start from.
I also spent some time with my values. “Freedom,” “Independence,” “Creativity,” and “Personality” were the strongest, and I can relate a lot to them.
After having a more precise idea of my values, I spent more time with the “What.” Right now, I can hardly imagine working as an employee if “Independence” and “Freedom” are two of the most substantial values I seem to carry with me. So I am not pushing this, but I listen to opportunities that sound interesting.
But it supports my gut feeling. I feel the most energy when I do a lot of different things at the same time. Very often, the loose ends of those other things somehow fit together. I also enjoy talking and meeting different people — and then using my network to connect them and build something out of these ideas and connections.
I can hardly imagine at the moment starting a “real company” with a product that needs massive funding (this would also against the “Independence” and “Freedom” values). I can relate most to the idea of being on my own — with my brain and a laptop.
But how do you call that profession? Someone who can’t do anything “real”? I am not a programmer. Not a data scientist. Not a UX designer. So describing in one word what I do is hard.
In the end, it is probably something like “entrepreneur” — but no one hires an “entrepreneur” to do something. “Consultant” is the other word that perhaps could fit. But do I want to be a “consultant”? I am not one of those suits and tie guys who produce hardly-to-read PPT charts? So I dug deeper if this is something, I can give a twist …
Jürgen
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