Finding Purpose in WHY?

Part of My Series: Lessons Learned Building and Bootstrapping A Business From $0-$1.5MM ARR in 5 yrs.

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It’s been said that “When the WHY is big enough, the HOW becomes easy.”

It's also been said that if you find work you love, you'll never work a day in your life.?

I don't know about that, because hard work definitely still feels like work. But the pleasure of being able to do something you're passionate about definitely changes your work into something that you enjoy.?

In building ConnectedWell, one of the critical elements of founding our company was the reason why we were doing it. And strangely, we were three years in before I even asked why we were doing it.

It was my daughter, Alexa Merrill , who helped me be able to sit down and contemplate the real reason why we decided to build a company. I didn’t know that this transformational exercise would catapult the company’s growth into doubling revenue each year after that.?

Reflecting on WHY we were in business was frankly not easy at all. I like doing things, and I felt a little like time spent away from actually doing things in the business would not be good in the long run.?

But, I pressed on.?

I knew the value of a strong purpose. I just hadn’t dialed it in yet.

To help, my daughter encouraged me to listen to Simon Sinek's Start With Why TED Talk (youtube link). It's fairly popular and famous. I reviewed this and some of the other information he discussed regarding the Golden Circle.?

These insights definitely provided challenges for me, caused me to spend time in deep reflection.?

The most profound insight for me was to really ponder the idea that “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

Sit with that for a second.

I'll admit that it was not easy to develop the reason why we were building ConnectedWell until I got some mental space and really worked through the problem.

I knew somewhere down inside what it was, but I was not able to find words to put it together — and, the last thing I wanted was to have some pithy mission statement destined to be emblazoned on a plaque somewhere, but that no one would actually remember or care about.?Bleh.

Over the days and weeks, I realized that the purpose of building ConnectedWell is actually very aligned with my personal purpose.

Earlier in my career as a recruiter, I realized the joy of helping another individual find meaningful work and being able to get paid well for it. That opportunity drove a lot of excitement for me, and while the money, personally, was excellent, I realized that I have a deep passion of helping others find meaningful work and live better lives.

A Mission-Driven Career in Recruiting

Early in my recruiting career, I realized the importance of connecting daily tasks to a greater purpose. While financial gains were nice, they didn't motivate me as much as feeling deeply connected to my work's purpose. For me, this was helping people find meaningful and high-paying jobs so they could live their best lives. This became the mission statement for ConnectedWell and reflected my personal life goal.

Having a strong reason behind our work helped our team collaborate effectively, overcome obstacles, discover hidden opportunities, simplify complex issues and prioritize human relationships above everything else. By linking our work goals with those we impacted allowed us to ensure that our communication was humane and compassionate.

Sometimes delivering unfavorable news is necessary but when you're driven by your mission - enabling others to secure gratifying high-income roles for an improved life quality - your messages become more personal and empathetic; making you open to feedback as well. In essence, understanding why we do what we do spurred innovative developments within our business that I do not know would have come otherwise.

Passion for Talent Enablement

After closing my business, you may wonder what's next for me. Some might expect another company or a different job role. However, whatever I do, I find joy in helping others get high-paying and meaningful jobs so they can live their best lives.?

I see this taking many forms from here, including operations, systems engineering, talent ops, recruiting and TA leadership and more as long as I have an opportunity to connect people to better work and better meaning.

Whatever step I take next will focus on developing people and connecting them with great work opportunities. The ultimate goal? To support my family by helping others do the same for theirs.

What About You?

What is your “why”?

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