Law Nine

Always Make Your Purpose Greater Than Your Money

Greater purpose is essential for lifetime growth. Many people start off their careers thinking that money is the goal. Money can be a useful measure of success or progress in certain circumstances, and it’s a resource we can use to realize greater possibilities, but at some point money without purpose loses its meaning. Money as an end becomes a growth stopper. Having a purpose that is greater than yourself will give you a constant impetus to strive. Purpose gives life meaning and helps us to direct and focus our talents and efforts. It also attracts the talents and energies of others whose purposes align with our own. Think of money only as a means of achieving a greater purpose, and you’ll attract all the resources and rewards that make up a rich life, not just money.

Some people might look at this law and think, that’s a nice idea, but isn’t it a bit idealistic? The answer is no. Even in the business world, it’s quite possible to grow successfully by making your purpose greater than your money.

Where Profit Serves Purpose

When Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith first met, Babs was running a holistic health practice and Dan was coaching entrepreneurs and politicians one-on-one. They both got a lot of energy out of helping people to overcome the obstacles that were keeping them from growing, being happier, and achieving their goals. The two became fast friends, supporting each other’s ideas and business development, and as their personal bond grew and strengthened, they eventually joined forces in life as a couple.

Babs could see that Dan’s tools and processes had the potential to reach and help a lot more people. She committed herself personally to using her talents and business sense to create an organization that could help this work grow and thrive and reach more people. In her vision, this organization would sustain not only Dan and her, but also the other people who would join with them to help fulfill this purpose; and it would always keep growing, continuing to be viable and sustainable even beyond their lifetimes. This was the initial vision that became The Strategic Coach Inc. Babs concluded her health practice and began to apply her abilities to build this organization around Dan’s work, growing the business that would achieve these goals.

Money was an important part of achieving this purpose and continues to be, in order to fund the growth that allows the work to continue and the full vision to be realized. But it has never been the main purpose, and over the years Dan and Babs have learned how to protect the guiding vision and align their team members behind it. This began with a series of statements they call their “prime directives.”

When they started The Strategic Coach Program in 1989, their goal was to make enough money to pay off a large lump sum of back taxes. Although the goal was driven by a need for cash flow, they chose to achieve it in a way that would also further their bigger purpose. They decided to start a workshop program in which Dan would coach a group of entrepreneurs together instead of meeting with clients individually. This allowed them to apply Dan’s process to more people, which meant more revenue.

Protecting the Core

It became clear to Dan and Babs, through challenges and opportunities in the growth of The Strategic Coach, that the strength of their personal connection was the most important factor in achieving their bigger goals in life and with the business. To ensure that this would always be protected, they gradually came up with three “prime directives” to guide them as they grew the business. These are as follows:

1. Everything we do has to support our increasing teamwork and intimacy.

2. We will always maintain control over the forward forces of our progress.

3. We will only align ourselves with people who are aligned with us.

As you can see, these points are not a mission statement for the company, but rather a personal value statement of what is important to Dan and Babs for preserving the core components of their personal and business success: their relationship, and the company as an engine of growth. As guidance for business decisions, these directives nipped in the bud many opportunities that seemed potentially lucrative at the outset but might have proved disastrous later. They have removed temptation to make pacts with the wrong people. They have spawned systems to improve communication so that Dan and Babs and the team are kept more closely in alignment. They have shaped a company that is known for its integrity and for walking its talk. And they have allowed the team to join in to support Dan and Babs in preserving their core values and strength as a couple.

The company has grown its revenue by more than a hundredfold since they came up with these directives, and there is always a sense of abundant resources to fund more growth. The team has over 100 more people, and the vision is unfolding in a way that respects, values, integrates, and rewards each team member’s unique contribution. The company is reaching more people than ever, and Dan’s work is having a tremendous and growing impact on an increasing number of lives. In short, the original bigger purpose is being realized. Money continues to be viewed always as a by-product of the company’s efforts to create value by realizing this purpose in ever-greater ways.

Could Dan and Babs have made more money by compromising some of these values? Perhaps in the short term. However, in retrospect it’s almost certain that any of the ventures that seemed tempting at the time would have disrupted the organic growth that has since led to much bigger opportunities completely in alignment with their bigger purpose.

When Purpose and Money Clash

Dan and Babs have managed to create a business in which money flows in from their pursuing their greater purpose. This structure has allowed both of them, along with their team members and of course their clients, to grow in many ways, personally and professionally, while making more money. However, it isn’t always the case in life that our opportunities to make money are so aligned with our purpose and values. This is where making your purpose greater than your money can seem like a much tougher choice. After all, we need money to live, and the benefits of maintaining a sense of purpose aren’t always so clear.

The problem is that, faced with a choice between money and purpose, if we choose money and give up on purpose, it often leads to a trap that stops us from growing. The money can help us distract ourselves from this fact, but the honest truth is that what we will have to show for our efforts is just more money or stuff, rather than personal growth. Without the purpose to put it to good use, more money becomes meaningless. A drop in income is a small price to pay for the rewards you get when you choose to stick to your purpose, as we see from Bryson’s story.

Bryson MacDonald is a retired social worker. Early in his career, he took a high-paying job with a car manufacturer as an “employment counselor.” Once in the position, he was asked to find excuses for not hiring “ethnics” or women.

Although he had a new family and nothing else lined up, he stuck with his principles and quit.

He’d helped a local halfway house by hiring parolees for the assembly line. (“You can’t steal a car that isn’t assembled,” he jokes.) When the parole office heard he was available, they hired him immediately.

“I took a terrific pay cut,” Bryson says, “but it was good for my health.” The decision set the tone for the rest of his career, and several ex-convicts still remember “Mr. Mac” as the man who helped them turn their lives around.

Bryson’s story shows that purpose doesn’t have to be grandiose; it can be as down-to-earth as the commitment to be a good person, as defined by one’s own standards.

The Slippery Slope

But what about when there’s good money to be made and you just have to compromise a little? Can’t you take the money and then go back to having a purpose later? This is a personal choice that may depend on circumstances and the importance of the purpose you’re being asked to undermine or ignore. The problem with taking a little payoff is that it can be a slippery slope. Once you compromise your values, they become devalued in your mind, and it seems a little easier to do it the next time … and before you know it, it’s all about money again. The other thing is, what looks like a little compromise when you’re staring at a big payoff can seem like a much bigger sacrifice later when you have to live with all the results of your decision.

The Courage to Walk Away

Walking away from money to maintain integrity with your values and sense of purpose forces you to grow. It gives you the opportunity to strengthen your commitment to your values and to use your creativity and ingenuity to find other ways of meeting your financial needs that are more in line with your greater purpose.

Fidel Reijerse was an environmental consultant in the 1990s. The purpose that drove him in his work was the desire to help organizations find ways to get things done effectively while doing less damage to the environment and to people’s health.

New building sites often bring together materials that on their own may not be hazardous but in combination can create toxic spaces that are potentially harmful to people and to the natural environment. Add to these toxic substances the increased energy demands and waste-management burdens of a new large-scale building project, and the environmental impact can become substantial.

Like others in the field, Fidel was aware that there were products and solutions on the market that reduced these negative impacts—environmentally preferable products—but these were usually perceived as more expensive. The corporations doing the building were concerned with keeping costs down for their shareholders. Some corporations were willing to do enough to make themselves look like good corporate citizens, but they were very shrewd about where the line was. It became clear to Fidel that the only way corporations would make full use of environmentally preferable products and technologies was if they cost the same as or less than the mainstream alternatives.

What frustrated him was that this was possible. He knew that some of these products could save the corporations money and protect the environment, but this was not what was happening in the marketplace. Many of the companies producing products that are better for the environment take advantage of the premium they can charge and the differentiation that comes from being considered “green.” The expectation that you should have to pay more for an environmentally preferable product is actually what keeps these products from being used more widely and hence having a bigger impact on reducing harm to the environment and health hazards to people.

When Fidel realized that neither the corporations nor the producers were willing to go any further, because of where their own interests lay, he decided to leave the consulting business to pursue other projects. A new opportunity had come up that offered a greater potential for his efforts to result in better solutions, and not just more income for doing the same thing.

For the next seven years, Fidel went through a tremendous growth experience that culminated in a unique dilemma when a technology he created to help scientists could not be brought to market in an ethically acceptable manner. The technology has great potential to do good, but also equal potential to do harm if misused. Though it would have been easy to sell out and take a payoff, Fidel and his business partners thought it was more important that they retain control long enough to direct the technology toward positive applications. When it became clear to Fidel that he could no longer be useful in making this happen, he left. Once again, he was looking for a project that would recapture his passion and engage his sense of purpose.

Purpose Finds Opportunity

Freed up, Fidel experienced a rush of creativity and new ideas. The growth in his confidence and capabilities that had come from seven years in another venture gave him access to new insights. Within months, he had figured out a potential answer to the problem that had caused him to leave environmental consulting.

His initial vision was to use the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver as a showcase for a very public demonstration of how it is possible to save money while building and running facilities in a way that is better for the environment. The proof would be in the Olympic speed-skating oval in the city of Richmond, the centerpiece of the games’ facilities. Those who could provide technologies and building materials legitimately at prices that would allow the Olympic venue to save money and do better for the environment would be invited to participate. The plan enabled everyone involved to profit—in fact demanded it, since financial viability was what was to be established.

His efforts to pull this together required Fidel to draw on every strategic relationship and resource in his arsenal and forced him to push his creativity and diplomacy skills to new levels. The innovative initiative was well received. In fact, people went out of their way to listen, offer help, and get others on board whom they thought should be a part of this. He had no trouble getting the ear of decision makers. By aligning all their interests—profitability, public image, and the genuine desire to do something good for the environment—Fidel managed to create a situation where all the players’ individual purposes could align to support a greater purpose. As the idea, still in its relative infancy, became more public, his attitude was that even if someone else were to step in to try to share in achieving the same vision, it wouldn’t matter. His concern was more that the goal be reached, regardless of how it happened.

Fidel’s sense of purpose told him when to leave this problem alone, and interestingly it also led him back when the time was right. Out of all these conversations, an image of a much larger opportunity began to emerge. He and his partners began to see that the major obstacle preventing builders and building owners across the country from making renewable energy systems part of their projects was the economics, and that it was solvable. The upfront cost was simply prohibitive, even if the long-term benefits were justifiable. By thinking creatively about the problem and seeing it in a new way, they were able to develop a business model that financed the upfront installation cost of rooftop solar-geothermal energy generating systems and allowed building owners to pay for them gradually through energy savings and power sold back to the grid. Effectively, a building owner could install a system to generate power for their building on their own roof with no upfront cost and own it outright after about 20 years. RESCo Energy, the company Fidel and his partners built, has since gone on to install such systems for many large and high-profile buildings in Canada—projects many times the size of a single Olympic stadium.

This story brings up an interesting point: if growth is what energizes you, in the long run few things are worth doing just for the money. On the other hand, some things are worth doing just for the purpose and the growth, whether or not we get paid for them. However, just because you would do something for free doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to find a way to make money doing it. The best possible scenario is when you can do something that moves you in this way and get paid well for it, too. Money in support of purpose helps create sustainable long-term growth.

Searching for Purpose, on Purpose

We cannot end this chapter without looking at the obvious question: What if I don’t know what my purpose is? Not everyone has a clear, driving purpose like Dan and Babs or Fidel. Sometimes purpose becomes clearer when it’s threatened, as in Bryson’s case.

Defining a sense of purpose can be a difficult task. Even those who have achieved a lot often struggle with it. But here’s the key: even the act of searching for purpose leads to growth. It causes you to ask questions you wouldn’t otherwise ask and look for answers in places where you wouldn’t otherwise look, to pay attention to things you wouldn’t have noticed before, and to make connections and find meaning where you couldn’t see it before. Even if you don’t know what your purpose is, you can focus on purpose by searching for it. Finding your purpose becomes a purpose in itself, until it is replaced by whatever you discover your purpose to be. Paying attention to what moves you, what stirs your passion and gives you energy is the starting point. Looking for purpose will always create more growth than looking for money will.

Where Do I Start?

  Listen to your heart and your gut. Your sense of purpose is more connected to your heart, or to your gut instinct, than to your head. We can often talk ourselves into things where money is concerned, but if it doesn’t feel right, that’s a sign that your purpose may be threatened. A choice can seem logical and sensible, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best choice for achieving your desired purpose. Let your feelings guide you to the right objective, and then use your head to figure out how to make it happen.

  State your purpose in writing. Creating a statement of purpose is useful in many ways. First, choosing the right words forces you to clearly express your purpose. It’s worth the time and effort it takes to make the statement accurate. Again, your gut will tell you if it feels right. People who have found their purpose often report that it feels like they’re doing what they were always meant to do. Also, statements of purpose allow others to understand and align with you so that they can help you to achieve your vision. Once your purpose is clear, you’ll begin to see that some kinds of situations and behaviors support it and some don’t. You can use these insights to create further “directives” like Dan’s and Babs’s to serve as reminders that help you stick to your purpose when opportunities and temptations arise.

Strategic Coach’s purpose statement at the time of the writing of this second edition is expressed like this:

Expanding Entrepreneurial Freedom

Our purpose is to free up entrepreneurs and their teams to thrive and grow in a world of rapid change and unpredictability. We provide practical thinking tools and structures and a growth-oriented community to keep them in the right mindset to make their most valuable and unique contributions, achieve their biggest goals, and enjoy an unparalleled quality of life for decades to come.

It took a bunch of drafts and a lot of input and comments from different members of our team to get it right, but we’re happy that it encompasses everything we do, while still being fairly specific. You might be able to see how the tools and ideas in this book evolved out of delivering on this purpose.

Your purpose may evolve over time or you may have different purposes that drive you in different parts of your life. All this is completely normal.