I am of the belief that EACH of us has a unique, special purpose on this earth. None of us were accidents. I believe that God designed each of us with a particular role to fulfill.
And until we find this specific purpose, we will be feeling that something is missing. We have to search purposively. Settling is extremely wasteful.
Fortunately, we have access to a lot of clues.
We can find clues in the gifts we were given. We can find clues in our innermost desires. We can find clues in the things we do where time ceases to be a factor.
This is why I personally find the entrepreneurship process such a religious experience. Done right, it starts where your heart is. Done right, it starts with introspection – what is my passion? In this process, you ultimately find yourself grappling with the question – who am I?
It then becomes a grand quest: of trying things out, of making mistakes, of not only finding out who you are but developing and creating who you are.
I think this is very difficult to do working for another firm. Not impossible, of course, as I know extremely fulfilled individuals working in corporations. Difficult though. Why? Because more often than not, rules and structure hamper you from truly spreading your wings.
Or more simply put, it’s tough to live out your dream when you’re riding on someone else’s.
I remember as an HR practitioner preaching “alignment” of company values with individual values. You know what?They can never be perfectly aligned. Your goals are bound to be different from that of a 100,000-man multinational present in 20 countries.
If you follow your passion as an entrepreneur though, I think you are MUCH MORE LIKELY to find your calling.
Did God carve out your DNA with an interest in fashion AND also of dreams of helping your countrymen solve poverty? I highly doubt it if you could scratch your existential itch anytime soon going from one multinational firm to another. Or, you could do what Noreen Bautista did when she founded Jacinto and Lirio.
I have a passion for helping people, writing, and creative ideas. I thought I’d be able to scratch my own existential itch as I went from company to company in a ten-year career in human resources. It was only through the experience of founding my own startup, STORM, that I saw a glimmer of what my purpose was: to help people start their own startups. I highly doubt if I had been able to find this career if I stuck it out as a corporate HR practitioner.
Stop settling. Stop hating Mondays. Stop doing nothing about it.
Leap, and chances are, you’ll land where your heart is.
JUAN GREAT LEAP 