Purpose Is More Important Than Profits
Our purpose is the compass which keeps us on the straight & narrow. On our path through life, and business, it’s very easy to forget what you set out to do, to achieve, and the reason why you took this path at all.
Tom Peters has a brilliant post on not forgetting why you are here:
…many CEOs epitomize this. They get so caught up in the earnings game that they forget the fact that they are meant to be “of service” to some worthy, Olympian objective. Perversely, I’m pleased to report, this loss of attention to the basics is the wellspring of earnings that don’t measure up.
How True! But it isn’t just about CEO’s & business-people. This applies to all of us, no matter what our chosen path, our calling. Peters suggests asking yourself the following to re-discover your “why”:
Why did I take this assignment, or choose this profession? Am I doing everything possible in my current project to hold to the principles that got me into all this? Is my time here up?
Think about it!
Just Business 
i guess it’s just too easy to get caught up in the material aspect of the job. i’m sure half of us don’t even enjoy the job we’re doing, but dragging on coz of the benefits/ pay packet it offers.. i’m sure we all dream of giving it up one day for the job we’d love to do, even if it paid poorly. Q is, how many of us have the courage to walk down that path?
Little Miss Muffet
March 7, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Well said Little Miss Muffet! And that is the entire point of this post…that we should re-evaluate every few weeks or so, whether we are achieving the purpose of the job or not!
Just Mohit
March 7, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Good post, Mohit.
I totally agree about driving down C-level advice to everybody in an organization. Particularly if you ascribe to the “everyone is an entrepreneur, even if they work for a company” point of view — which I whole-heartedly do.
A good read in this vein is a book called “Small Giants” — it’s about several companies that resisted the lure to go public and grow like crazy in favor of staying private and continuing to do business in keeping with their core purpose.
There is a pretty solid application to managing one’s own worklife in there.
Erik
March 8, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Thanks for the comment Erik…and the book suggestion. Have heard of the book, but not had the chance to read it yet. Will get to it the moment i finish the 20 sitting on my table! 😉
Just Mohit
March 8, 2007 at 7:23 pm