How I discovered my purpose and it completely changed my life.

It's really great that people and companies started talking about purpose these days. It's really imperative for every single individual to discover his/her purpose, 'why' do they exist on this earth? I never asked this question to myself until the time something really significant happened, during the formative years of my life. I started introspecting, questioning my existence, who exactly I'm and why do I exist in this world?

After my Bachelors in Computer Applications, I really got "enlightened" by hearing Steve Jobs' Standford Speech on repeat mode. I still remember the words that strike me really badly and made me question my whole life.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle." - Steve Jobs

At this very moment, I promised myself, even if I don't know what I like doing, what I'm passionate about, but I will surely discover it soon. I promised myself that I'll keep looking, and never settle.

I introspected and analyzed myself, my traits, my interests, my strengths. I asked myself what can make my work & life fulfilling. I realised I like observing humans, keep on doing new & different things. I came across marketing & advertising. I started reading about it and it really fascinated me. After some research, I decided to follow my interest and passion for advertising, marketing, technology, and business. I started exploring the domain and decided that I want to do my master's from MICA, Ahmedabad, India, as that was the best college in the country for strategic Marketing Communications.

MICA needs one to give an entrance test and I started preparing for the same. I knew I was not good with Maths but I did my best. I took it as an opportunity to learn my maths skills once again. I was good with verbal skills, I tried becoming better with language. Along with it, I've been exploring a lot on the internet about advertising, marketing, technology & business from all across the globe.

I also started exploring online magazines like Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, Branding Magazine, HBR, AdAge, Social media Examiner, Content Marketing Institute, HubSpot articles, Y Combinator Vidoes and a lot of others (I'm still subscribed to all of them, and a few more).

I've been studying almost 10 hours a day for the entrance test and was also exploring my interests. I gave the entrance test, I screwd it up on my first attempt. I gave it again, I didn't make it again. I saw my peers, who were targeting a lot of other colleges, got into MICA. Whereas I adamantly was only having one option, which was MICA. Because I knew this time I only want to do what I'm truly passionate about.

I was hungry, the hungriest I have ever been in my life. Then, I discovered that the founding member and the dean of MICA left it and joined a new college. I met him, and there were only 15 students in my particular course. I felt like joining it. I got excited because even if I didn't get through MICA, I'll get to explore my passion. I took the admission and decided to follow my passion.

But even that college except for a few professors, others were pretty mediocre ones. I used to read online about global trends in marketing, entrepreneurship, technology, startups, and design. I realized they aren't aware of the latest things happening in the world. I also discovered MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) then. I fell in love with the leading MOOC platforms, Coursera and Edx. I felt like I've found a hidden treasure. I started taking courses from Coursera and started learning different subjects from the experts from the world's leading colleges. I started learning about design-led innovation, interaction-design & user-centered design, business model innovation and marketing. I thought why should I study only from my professors in college when I get to learn from the best of the best. I fell in love with it. I also recommended my college Dean to have Coursera courses part of the curriculum.

Along with my master's, I was really active in the startup ecosystem of the city. I was also reading about leading global startups and how they are innovating with their business models in design. I got involved with a lot of start-up entrepreneurs. Then, along with my masters, I started working with two startups from my city for their digital marketing and social media marketing. I was learning marketing communications in my masters and digital marketing online. In my final year, I was searching for an interesting company to work with after my graduation. But, I couldn't find a single company where I can pursue my passion, learn new things on my own. I wanted to work at a company that can help me learn and execute new & interesting things happening in my own domain globally. I thought let me just build one on my own.

Therefore, immediately after completing my master's, I started off with my own venture, ThinkWhy. With the idea of building a purposeful company working with purposeful brands creating an impact in the world. Now, I'm building a company with people with passion, hunger to learn online, with digital-first thinking, inclusive and interest-driven culture at ThinkWhy. Everyone at ThinkWhy learns, unlearns and explores, every single day.

Today, I'm really grateful that I couldn't get into MICA. Because not getting into my dream college helped me discover a meaningful purpose in my life. That made me curious and a life-long learner. Now, I'm building a company with a culture of passionate & ever-curious beings pursuing continuous learning, every single day.

I strongly believe that not just in personal life but also in business, it's really crucial to have a purpose. Humans need to connect with something bigger than themselves to make extraordinary things happen. I believe humans with deep-rooted passion and purpose can change things for the better. They push the human race forward.

So keep looking, and never ever settle.