What's the purpose of purpose?

The internet is filled with people who think you should have a purpose and are happy to help you find it for a fee.

In this excerpt from her best-selling book, Lead Bigger, Anne Chow, a senior fellow and adjunct professor of executive education at the Kellogg School, describes how an inspiring and actionable purpose statement can help a company thrive. Firms need to go beyond a focus on what they do, she explains, to get to why and how they do it, which makes them a better choice than their competitors. She points to IKEA's and Nike's purpose statements, as well as her own experience as CEO of AT&T Business, as examples to support her idea that a purpose statement should include language that embodies the work and the people involved in doing that work

Younger workers are increasingly looking to align their work with their values . About 86% of Gen Z and 89% of millennials say having a sense of purpose is important for their job satisfaction, according to Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey of nearly 23,000 respondents worldwide. About half of Gen Z and 43% of millennials have rejected an assignment “based on their personal ethics or beliefs.” Hiring managers take note: About three-quarters of these younger workers said an organization’s community engagement and societal impact is a big factor in choosing a workplace.

What if you can’t find your purpose? Does it make sense to dedicate your entire life to a specific outcome?

Consider changing the imperative pursuit of finding your life purpose to making it more important to discover “what gives meaning to my life today.”

Here are some reasons why I found having a single purpose is a bad idea:

1. You don't know what it will be until you try it

2. It assumes there is one and only one

3. When you do find something that is your "purpose", you are likely to confuse that with passion, anger, revenge, greed, or some other emotion that drives you

4. Sticking to one purpose gets in the way of your realizing other purposes

5. A purpose is the reason you are doing something. If it's making money to create financial security for you and your family, it' perceived as cheap or dirty. These days, "purpose" is code for social good. Not everyone is built to be a social entrepreneur.

6. Your purpose might be driven by childhood trauma or other toxic incentives

7. Life is not that simple, and your purpose is likely to change as you get older. S#*T happens

8. While you might make a big difference in the world pursuing your purpose e.g. one of the UN sustainable development goals, in most instances, like creating any new venture, you will fail

9. Winning the war might be your purpose, but it usually starts with a successful beachhead landing or mission.

10. You should always test your "purpose " ideas

11. What gives meaning today might get old fast. ?In this article, the author outlines three strategies you can use to make peace with your desire to scale back your ambitions, even if it conflicts with your previous vision of yourself as a driven professional.

12. You should have a purpose portfolio, not put all your eggs in one basket that you can pitch in 30 seconds at a Meetup

13. Doctors define themselves by what they do, not who they are. What happens when you retire instead of rewire? Does your purpose go up in smoke? Is there an age when you finally realize your purpose?

14. Asking "What is my purpose" is different from "What business am I need". The latter is a means toward an end. Academic medical centers should be asking themselves the latter.

Doctors and other sick care professionals are questioning their purpose and eager to rediscover it. These might help:

1. Participate in shaping the future of AI regulation

2. Learn to advocate at the local, state and national levels

3. Practice net zero medicine

4. Rethink working for corporate medical oligopolies

5. Save private practice

6. Push back against specialty, state, local, and national medical societies that have lost touch with their members and non-members

7. Donate, testify, strike

8. Do more to serve the medical needs of communities

9. Partner with organizations addressing the social determinants of health

10. Change your PR, policy, and marketing messaging

11. Reform medical education and training to include data literacy, dexterity, policy, and the business of medicine

12. Vote

I'm still not sure about "what's the point"? In the meantime, I just do things that make today worth it.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack and Editor of Digital Health Entrepreneurship