Finding purpose

I’ve been watching Sara Blakley’s MasterClass. The founder of Spanx has the one of most compelling founder stories I’ve ever heard. She went from selling fax machines door-to-door to inventing a product in her bedroom to rising to the status of self-made billionaire without a business degree or any venture capital. Plus she’s hilarious and not afraid to be vulnerable.

At one point in the class, she talks about how to “find your purpose.” For me, that mission has not always been obvious and often seems like a moving target. Sara outlined a simple exercise to help answer this not-so-simple question.

Your purpose, she says, is the intersection of what you enjoy, what you’re good at, and how you want to serve the world.

She instructs us to make threes lists outlining (1) what brings you joy, (2) what you’re good at, and (3) what breaks your heart, or, in other words, what the world needs. Circle 2-3 items in each list and see where they overlap, she says. Somewhere in there should be your reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

Yes, Sara is a major player in the clothing industry, but her “purpose” isn’t to get rich off of panties. Before all else, she wants to design answers to the problems women face. Her vehicle to fulfill that purpose just happens to be underwear.

I’m still crumpling up pencil drawings of my own purpose venn diagram, but I’ll try to keep returning to this exercise. Maybe it’ll make something click.

Also: I did some research and it turns out that this concept isn’t a Sara Blakley original. it’s a Japanese framework called Ikigai that’s focused on enabling people to find balance between the spiritual aspects of their lives and the practical ones.