The Truth About Living Your Purpose For Small Business Owners

by Michael Spindelman

In the popular press these days, a dominant theme is about living your purpose. The articles usually ask "Are you passionate about what you're doing earning an income?" One thing about living your purpose or your passion for that matter is that living your purpose can really get ugly at times.

When you live a life on purpose you might appear selfish to the people around you. That's because purpose is about unleashing the quiet giant inside of you. That giant wants to give to the world something that tends to be larger than life. The famous comic book writer Stan Lee said "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

You have to have an immense amount of love inside yourself to let your purpose come to life. When you peek at your purpose, you know that it must happen. It's a glimmer that sparks all great businesses, big and small. You are passing through you, the gift that was lovingly implanted in you at conception from the glorious universe. But you live in the everyday mundane world of hard cold realities.

All around you, you'll find well meaning people who say they absolutely support you living your purpose. (As long as they aren't inconvenienced by it.) Nobody tells you a purpose has a lifecycle to it. Only other people living their purpose know this cycle. But they even have a hard time articulating it. They will share the glory side of it and that there is no better way to live. But they won't share the phases.

Here is the hard reality I have uncovered. There is a germination phase, the assimilation phase, the achievement phase and maturity. Here's the real kicker, until you reach the third phase, you can face a lot of emotional and economic hardship. You may find that no one who knows you, will really understand you. So let me ask again "do you want to live a life of purpose?"

I don't want to scare you out of living a life of purpose. Quite the opposite, once you enter the world of living on purpose it is a Pandora's Box that can't be closed. You are a child learning to walk with everyone around you saying with a big smile (yeah right) "you can do it" while they sit on your shoulders or kick your feet out from under you any chance they can.

If you decide to create a small business from your passion you might hear a cacophony of remarks; "It can't be done", "just get a real job already" or "you can do it in your spare time". These torments only make you more determined to stand up, waddle and run. Because walking your purpose becomes the only thing controlling your existence!

So ask yourself, if you had no income coming in, would you still be doing the kind of work you are doing right now? Would you be able to endure everyone around you saying you are crazy doing what you're doing because at this moment they may see no income? Would you spend all you emotional energy and risk all your financial resources to live your purpose not knowing for certain a positive outcome? When you're on purpose there is no other choice and that's why others may not understand you. Talk to any successful business owner they'll tell you "Welcome to the world of small business."

Most people are working in a job that provides a suitable income and false safety. Yes, that's right suitable income. I specifically did not say sustainable. As soon as a JOB disappears the income stops. Suitable income is such that you have enough to pay the bills that you can't really afford. A sustainable income occurs even when you're sleeping.

What anyone who is living a life of purpose will tell you is that they can't imagine doing anything else. The amount of energy they put into their purpose creates a passion that creates even more energy. There is no working on purpose; it is only living on purpose. You get so much more than you give. "Purpose livers" will also tell you that the money takes care of itself. It does, once you abandon yourself to a "knowing" that everything will be OK and you dedicate yourself to accepting all your purpose has to offer. During the assimilation phase is when you begin to realize how to communicate your passion to others so they finally understand how your passion is about helping the world at large not a selfish lust for something.

When you reach the achievement phase of purpose, you may discover a sense of silliness and peaceful knowing that life has so much that's wonderful. A clarity falls into place and the tragedies of life are shaping tools that make life more humane. For those on the path, there is a cycle. All too often, the mature phase can introduce disharmony. But that too is part of the cycle to enter an even higher purpose with greater impact. The highest purpose is after all found when our life's activities outlive our life. And that all the lives we touched through our purpose are greatly enriched because we took a brief moment in history to love the sleeping giant within enough to teach it to walk, run and fly.