How Do You Find Purpose in Your Entrepreneurial Ventures?

PURPOSE is knowing whose you are, who you are and what you are. Knowing what you are born to do propels you to persist until the task is complete.

PURPOSE finds an open door among many closed doors.

PURPOSE conquers failure.

PURPOSE measures itself by purposeful ambitions rather than aimless accomplishments.
PURPOSE does not accept the labels of others.

PURPOSE defines itself through self-affirmation and steadfastness.

PURPOSE finds power and peace!

I call them “Aha! moments” – those brilliant epiphanies when something quite simple illustrates a profound fact about life as an entrepreneur. Well, an awesome “Aha! moment” happened during a grocery shopping trip-gone-wrong. I had decided to surprise my wife by preparing dinner. So I stopped by the store to buy bread, eggs, cheese, flour, vegetables and a few canned goods. I also picked up chicken breasts and olive oil. But catastrophe struck my gourmet meal as I loaded the groceries into the car. An ominous crunch sound let me know I was in for a challenge. Turns out, the cans had crushed the glass bottle of olive oil; my groceries glistened in a slippery slick in my trunk. At first, the mess symbolized those moments in business when everything is going according to plan, when boom! something explodes and drowns everything around it in chaos.

But suddenly, the symbolism spun far deeper. As I began wiping the oil off the cans, cheese and veggies, an epiphany illuminated my thoughts. The thick, aromatic oil reminded me of a Sunday morning church service when our pastor explained the intricacies of transforming olives into a precious delicacy. He said that in order to produce one drop of olive oil, each tiny leaf of the olive tree is pressed separately to maintain its purity. The leaves are ground, crushed and put through a complicated process before the oil reaches our grocery carts. In Middle Eastern nations, the process of producing olive oil is often painstakingly slow. Hours, weeks, months and sometimes years go into ensuring that it is processed to perfection.

I realized, you can’t rush perfection; pressing olive oil is a metaphor for the creation of an excellent entrepreneur. It takes many hours, days, weeks, months, and years to truly develop ourselves and our businesses into perfection. That idea takes on a spiritual depth because olive oil is an integral part of anointing in religious ceremonies. It is pure and worthy of such honor only because of what has gone into making it. It has withstood immense grinding and crushing to be used for its multiple purposes.

The same goes for us in business. Knowing our purpose enables us to submit to the process, knowing that it will produce superior products and services for our customers.

We often try to escape the grinding, but to grow, we must be pressed. The Pillsbury Dough Boy misquoted the wise men by stating, “Easy in, easy out.” The real saying goes something like, “Hard in, holy out.” Press yourself toward your purpose. You are ordained to do great business. Press on. And, keep pressing on so that you will experience an anointed, holy, miraculous outcome.

Knowing our purpose allows us the opportunity to be changed and expanded.

“Every person is born into this world to do something unique and something distinctive. And if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.” – Benjamin E. Mays, Educator

“One’s mission in life is determined by one’s actions.” – Robert S. Shumake