What's Your Entrepreneurial Purpose?

Yesterday I thought a lot about why people are willing to spend their lives working a job they hate that gives them no sense of fulfillment. So many of us live life on repeat, waking up every morning and going through the motions, counting down the days left until the weekend. Many people dream of starting a business, but unfortunately, never get a chance to share all of their great talents with the world.

But why?

Well, we’re taught to stick to the safe route — go to school, graduate, and get a job. Most people just aren’t willing to take a chance on themselves, and even worse, most people never figure out what their purpose is in life. If you can’t figure out you purpose, you can’t create a business based on it.

And I’ve been there — unsure of what my purpose was but very certain that I’d like to own a business and live a freedom lifestyle. My lifestyle requirements were that my business must be location independent, capable of providing financial stability, and — most importantly — provide a sense of fulfillment.

I tried different business ideas based on my hobbies and things I like to do — usually with money being my #1 motivation. Then one day, I took money out of the equation and considered what would actually make me happy. What could I do to share my talents with the world and help others? That’s when I came up with a formula that helped me narrow my focus and come up with a business idea that is rooted in my purpose. The formula goes like this…

What you already do + Your Passion + Your Experience = Your Purpose

My career is writing manuals, instructions, and training content and then delivering that training content. My passion is entrepreneurship. My experience (you’ll have many experiences to choose from) is starting and running an ecommerce business. How could I marry all of these and help people? I decided the best thing I could do is share my knowledge and experience in ecommerce. I produce training content to teach others how to start or grow their business online.

If you’re having a hard time figuring out how to start a business based on your purpose, try this formula. You may have to do some deep thinking about all of your experiences in life, but it’s really a great exercise to remind you of some of the great things you’ve done. Even if it doesn’t help you find your purpose, it may help you narrow your focus. Let me know if it works for you.

P.S. If you’d like to hear more about this subject, check out Episode 10 of my Master Your Mission Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and Google Podcasts.