On Finding Purpose

“Find Your Passion” is crappy and lazy advice.

Financial independence, control, calling your own shots, being a business owner, or accomplishing a big hairy audacious goal. No matter what motivates you to start your entrepreneurial journey, Purpose will be what gets you out of bed twenty years from now when nothing else can. You may chase money and success, but purpose will push you through even the darkest times.?

Please do not confuse Purpose with Passion. “Find Your Passion” is crappy and lazy advice. Passion is a byproduct of Purpose. Once you find what truly matters to you, what you can change, what you can do that makes the world better, when you find your Purpose, I promise passion for that endeavor will follow.

So the question for many becomes, “How do I find my Purpose?”?I believe there are two things you need to identify to answer that.

First: Your Toolbox

As entrepreneurs, business owners, business starters, and just dreamers, we often fall into the same trap of wondering if we are enough. Are we enough to start this business, lead this team, chase this dream? What if we are missing crucial skills? What if we don’t have a college education, deep corporate experience, or the right connections? What if I don’t act like, look like, or sound like other leaders in my field?

I believe that those are the wrong questions. The right questions should be, “What do I have that they don’t?”

Every experience, every unique skill you acquire in life, every mistake, every perceived handicap, every challenge you have overcome, and every single failure, makes up an imaginary toolbox.?This eclectic collection of skills is what makes the way you do things, unique.?

Not having been cut from the same cloth, and not having the same experience, knowledge, or background as other leaders is a substantial benefit. It means your approach will differ from theirs, your life experience will dictate a path they may not have been aware of, and this gives you an edge.

These tools are what you will use to solve challenges, fix situations, relate to your team, and most importantly find Purpose in your work.

Second: Fix What You Hate

The trick then is to find what Purpose your set of tools can fix. I think the question you should ask yourself is “What do I hate?” What I mean is, what do you fundamentally feel is wrong in this world? What is unjust, what is unfair, what needs to be changed, what needs to be better??

What do you, with your unique toolset, need to do something about? As you answer that question, fix that problem, and solve that source of hate, I have found that process will usually lead you to the next thing that needs your specialized skill set.?For me, it started with my Dad.?

My Dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1991. Nine tumors were found on his brain, and they gave him about six months to live. My dad was a fighter and chose to go down swinging. Surgeries, radiation, experimental drugs, he was willing to try anything.?

Your Path To Your Purpose Is Usually Not A Straight Line

I was thinking about him as I sat next to a Deck Decompression Chamber (DDC) on board a barge called the Chickasaw in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. I was in my early twenties, a Diver Medic, trying to work my way up the ranks to a full commercial Hard-Hat diver. As I watched the gauges and turned the valves, it occurred to me that I was thousands of miles away from where I should be.

My younger brothers, mom, and even grandmother were carrying the load of getting my dad to his appointments and therapies. Not being there for him was what I hated most. It was at that moment I chose to do something about it.

Within two weeks, I was back in CA. I had time to take my dad to some of his appointments. Those appointments quickly became something that I dreaded. I was angry. ?

Every doctor's office seemed to have less respect for my dad and the other patients in their lobby than the next. The disrespect, the disdain, the lack of empathy, understanding, or compassion pushed my anger and frustration over the line until it became a deep-seated hate.?

These people and their families needed so much more support, and in the middle of the most difficult moments they would ever face, there was none to be found.?

About this time, I was approached by a group that planned to build one of the first privately owned hyperbaric centers in California. They needed someone who knew about decompression chambers and oxygen systems to help build and run the center.

I had no idea how to build a clinical hyperbaric center, but I did know that I had the skillset they needed and that I could figure it out. My toolbox seemed to be custom-made for this opportunity. More importantly, this was my chance to change the experience for patients like my dad.

Two days before we opened, my father passed away. He had made it three years after being diagnosed.?

I dealt with the loss of my Dad by focusing on every patient we saw in our center.

As I ran the chambers daily, I came to find something I hated even more than the disrespect that drove me to the medical industry in the first place; the pain and suffering that was caused by non-healing wounds. I met dozens of patients who had their feet and legs amputated due to diabetic wounds, and the tragedy was that so many of these amputations were completely avoidable.

I had no degree or real college education. I had experienced failure over and over again. I had an obscure skillset and no real business acumen. I had ADD, I was obstinate, over-confident, and underfunded. But I did have a purpose; to help eliminate deaths due to complications of wounds. With this odd array of tools in my “Personal Toolbox”, I founded my company Wound Care Advantage in 2002.

For the past two decades, I have been fortunate to work with a team that has treated hundreds of thousands of wounds across the country. I continue to learn and add new tools to my collection every day. In every wound center we work with, this amazing team reduces amputations and improves lives. Every patient is treated with the respect and compassion I wanted for my Dad. Every morning, no matter how good or bad the day before had been, and there is always both, I have a reason to get up and go to work.

For me, purpose is the intersection of where your experiences and unique skill set meet an opportunity to change the world for the better.?

Your Tool Box + Doing Something About What You Hate = Purpose

That’s my opinion, for what it's worth.