Without purpose, I suck

At the beginning of high school, essay-writing felt anxiety-inducing and laborious. I remember sitting there, reading the assignment, and doing my best to craft a text that would meet the teacher’s expectations.

A week later, I received my grade: D.

Then something changed. Instead of just trying to complete the assignment as instructed, I took my time. I read the task, thought about it, and read it again and again until something in that brief text resonated with me, something meaningful and important – even if it meant going outside of the scope of the assignment. Once I felt that connection, I started writing.

A week later, I received my grade: A.

From that day, to my surprise, writing suddenly became both easy and enjoyable. Argumentations, reviews, fiction… it all felt effortless. I still vividly remember writing an essay about a woman waiting at a bus stop—ten pages where she didn’t even move an inch; her thoughts just wandered as she observed her surroundings. Everything I wrote. Straight A’s.

This experience, trivial as it may seem, changed everything for me.

Yes, I fell in love with language and writing, but more importantly, I realized that if I find what is meaningful to me, what truly matters, regardless of the task, I’ll do it at least twice as well.

I realized that purpose can be the difference between failure and success.

Since then, understanding and defining the "why" of what I do has been absolutely central to me, both in my consultancy work and in the companies I’ve helped build.

What is the purpose? Why does this business or project exist? What difference are we supposed to make, and for whom?

In recent decades, my focus has been on making everyday life easier and more fun (17 years at inUse) and, lately, on helping the world’s designers to grow (3 years and counting at Ambition). Both purposes incredibly worthy and rewarding.

Without purpose – that "why" – I'm not even half as good as I can be. In fact, without purpose, I suck.

How about you? How important is your why? And, have you ever experienced something like I did when I discovered how important this is to me?

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