Below you’ll find the stories and lessons of some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs, artists and creatives in the community and how they found their purpose.
Dija Henry
This is quite a loaded question, isn’t it? To be honest, I still think I’m on the journey. My goal at this point in my life is to keep cutting away the extra things that don’t feel aligned so that I can become laser-focused in what I do to be the most impactful that I can be in my life. When you are younger it can feel overwhelming when you look at all the possibilities of life and compare yourself to others. Finding my purpose in life was a long journey. Read More>>
Kierston Fletcher
I found my purpose when I quit working as a Dialysis Tech. During COVID-19, working 10 hour shifts short staffed with cranky patients eventually became draining. I became unhappy going to work and on my off days I would sleep away from being so tired. I told myself this isn’t living this is depressing! I finally gained the courage to put in a two weeks notice and put more time into my niche; hair braiding! I haven’t looked back since! Read More>>
Donae Koranteng
Finding one’s purpose is a deeply personal and introspective journey. For me I prayed daily and fasted this involved self-reflection, exploration, and thoughtful consideration of one’s passions, values, and strengths. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, here are a few suggestions that may help you in your own quest for purpose: Read More>>
Cecilia Corujo
I used to work in government service, analyzing information to support a counterterrorism effort. In the course of that job, I saw photos and read accounts of children maimed from explosive devises, orphans who were shackled to beds, mentally disabled young people preyed upon for suicide missions. The trauma that I saw happening to children in war-torn countries put a fire in my belly to do something, to start something that would provide hope, care and opportunity for children who are hopeless, damaged, and in such great need. Read More>>
Elana Frank
After personally experiencing the pain and loneliness of infertility, yet noticing how lucky I was to have had my journey begin in Israel, where it’s free, I was inspired to help others. Cost, education, and access were tremendous obstacles for this “unspoken” issue in the Jewish community, so I rallied countless like-minded people and created the Jewish Fertility Foundation. Read More>>
Andrena Sawyer
I often refer to myself as an “accidental entrepreneur.” Since high school, I had one career path in mind – becoming a civil rights attorney. It would be lucrative, respectable, and, as a first generation college graduate, it would be something my parents would be proud of. Secretly, however, something else gave me satisfaction – giving back to my community through volunteerism and nonprofit development. Read More>>
Anthony Gomez
Will it all started when i was a kid all i knew i wanted to do was to intertaine or to make somthing of myself to be somebody, specially because i was a shy kid growing up, it wasn’t always like that but after the years growing up i would just spend time to myself thinking a lot and creating my own world. I use to love to pretend i was a radio host and record music on a cassette player while i would talk like i was interviewing people on the phone. Sometimes i would make cartoon character voices or even do bevus & Buthead impression, i had one i use to do called weird school with kids a princeple and teacher where the kids would act up and do a lot of bad things in class it was all just voice impression recorded on to a tape. Read More>>
Ted Meyer
It took quite some time to find my purpose. I always joke that I never had a plan until I was 52. For the first 30 years of my post college life I did graphic design. First in television and then basic branding and illustration. I made a living. I sometimes loved it, but other times it bugged me. Read More>>
Amarillo Ngozi, Robyn Stephenson, Daniel Fayi, Julie Hertogs, Samantha Reid, Ixia
Before Queertego, Montego Bay did not have any organized queer community, therefore queers, including our founder and members of our team, would have to continuously travel across the island to the capital, Kingston, to attend queer events and parties. And although our founder was able to meet many interesting people, and make multiple connections, they really wanted to have those experiences on our, the western, side of the island. Read More>>
Jackson A. Waters
I believe that the notion of me discovering my purpose at such a young age is somewhat naive because I think that my focus and desires are constantly evolving. Just two years ago, I was composing my debut orchestral symphony inspired by the Tulsa Race Massacre. Prior to that, I primarily focused on playing the trumpet at The Colburn School. Read More>>
Amy Lyle
For (too) many years, I thought my purpose was to see my name on the President’s Club list as a sales professional. I’m from the Midwest and was surrounded by hard-working people, including my parents, who demonstrated and valued resilience, persistence, and results. I performed my way to a corporate trainer role with one of the largest staffing firms in the world. Read More>>
Aaron Norris
I found my purpose, a while ago without really realizing it at the time. Coming up i’ve ways played around with cameras and editing short videos on the computer! at the time i also had learned how to cut my hair to help out my parents. Fast fowarding to college, i’ve always cut my teammates and fellow students in the dorms, it was somthing i did that brought different guys and teams together outside of practice, games, and parties! Read More>>
Larissa Davila
To be honest, I believe that my purpose found me. I used to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity as a means to create community, and because I figured I could learn carpentry while being a volunteer and chatting with another volunteer, she learned that I was an operations manager for a large corporation. She invited me for coffee so that I could help her with a business plan and I accepted to help. Read More>>
Vanessa Rodriguez
This is such a great question. I always find myself talking about “finding your purpose” with my friends and family. Let’s take it back to my childhood. I always loved to act, sing and just entertain in other words. I was always very animated and dramatic lol. My cousin’s and I would make up dances (which cousins didn’t do that growing up?!) haha such great times. Read More>>
Edel López Olán
Writing has been a constant in my life. I regularly escaped in my writings and I loved, at that moment, creating worlds and staying linear in a story that, in my opinion, was interesting, only for me because I didn’t show my writings to anyone. (smile) Read More>>
Emily June Wilcox
My purpose found me! I was five years into entrepreneurship – running an e-commerce brand and a 7-figure marketing agency. I never felt deep down like either of those were “the thing”; rather they were the thing I was meant to be doing at that time, in preparation for some bigger mystery-thing. Read More>>
Chauncey Figgures
I just simply just saw this photographer I knew and was intrigued and wanted to try it so I bought my first camera but a year I put it down haven’t touched it since that time and then one day I picked it up and start trying and learning and from that point on I have not stop and it truly been a blessing and I loved every minute and thats when I knew that was my purpose! Read More>>
Kate Titus
My purpose found me — and promptly slobbered all over my pant leg. His name was Harley and he was a gangly, three year old Great Dane/American Foxhound mix. In November 2008, I was pink-slipped from a job I didn’t really love. Left with a three-month severance package and a desire to make a significant career shift, I launched A Loyal Companion to spend more time with him. Read More>>
Brit Tincup
In an odd way I think my purpose found me. My younger brother was diagnosed with a mental illness called Schizoaffective Disorder in his early 20s. I learned early on from my families experience that there is a lot of shame and misunderstanding around the illness. I also learned that, unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of support for those who have been diagnosed or their family members. Read More>>
Josey Depew
The first part would be when I left my home state of Missouri in 2020 to follow my husband with the military. I really struggled to find a job due to the COVID 19 pandemic, especially one within my degree field. I applied and applied but no one was hiring – businesses were shut down. After getting very discouraged, I started offering freelance design work. Things started off really well and kept picking up, so I decided to start my own adventure and Graceful Leo was created. Read More>>
Jason Waldron
Interesting question, I don’t know if I have found my purpose as of yet, With all of the obstacles that I have had to overcome in life it feels that my purpose continually changes. It changes with the ending of every chapter in my life. If I don’t have a purpose to fight for then who am I? Read More>>
Pareeni Shah
Purpose starts with finding your passion and identifying how you can help this passion and make it better around the world. Find something that interests you in learning more about it and pursuing helping it in the long run, not just the short term. From that, start taking action in your own way and customizing your approach or value in this topic. Read More>>
King’Roy Hampton
God, is how I found my purpose. I believe that the close we choose to follow his guidance and allow him to enlighten our paths that we shall walk into our purpose. I believe I’m still finding my purpose. I do believe I’m on the right track with my brand God Faith Family. I believe that to find purpose you most believe in the creator. Read More>>
Leslie Jespersen
Finding my purpose was a transformative process with so many “trial and error” moments. It all started with a deep-seated passion for helping others. I’ve always enjoyed inspiring people and helping them unlock their potential. This innate desire to make a positive impact on others’ lives was the initial spark. I wanted to be what I needed when I was going through hard times. Read More>>
Kerry Long
I played baseball since the age of four, and always thought that would be my pathway in life. I played year around, was great at it, and put my heart and soul into it. I.e. mornings before school in high school, I would go hit off the hitting tee for at least 20 minutes and in addition to attending scheduled baseball practices, I would practice on my own and also attend pitching classes/instruction on weekends. Read More>>
Meghan Jaskinia
Like many people, I found my purpose through my own struggles. I wanted to help people get to their healthiest and happiest self at a much quicker rate than I did. I was able to find support throughout my healing journey from gathering bits and pieces along the way. I had mentors, friends, other resources that helped me in a specific area of life but it took a lot of searching and stumbling upon. I wanted to create something that gave a wider variety supporting someone’s journey with the “big picture” in mind covering multiple areas of life. Read More>>
Cori Wade
Photography is always something that I was interested in, and something that I knew I always wanted to do, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. When I was a kid I would just take photos of flowers, my dog, sometimes I would do photoshoots with my friends in our backyards. I took a break from photography when I went to college, but then decided to take a photography class, and then ended up working a job where I was able to take photos of my college sports teams. Read More>>
Austin Bryan
Back in 1996, the Pokémon Franchise changed my entire life in ways I couldn’t comprehend at the time as a 6-7 year old. It wasn’t until 1998/1999 when the Pokémon Trading Card Game entered the US, that I’d begin collecting, trading, and enjoying all of the cards printed and packaged in various foil-packs and boxes. Read More>>
Vitaliya Repina
That is a very sought after question. Everyone wants to discover their purpose, their destiny. As complex as life is, our purpose isn’t singular, and rather could be fulfilled every day through our creations and actions towards people. The magical act is truly balancing a sustainable lifestyle in terms of skill and wealth with passion long term. Read More>>
Tara Torres
Finding my purpose has taken a lot of self-reflection and exploration over the years. I’ve held a variety of jobs in the medical field and had the opportunity to work in different areas of specialty. I suffered the better part of my teens and early 20’s with gastrointestinal issues and was ultimately diagnosed with celiac disease which is an autoimmune disorder. I struggled to feel well despite the recommendation to simply go gluten-free. Read More>>
Laura McCann
From an early age I was driven by a desire to self express. A child actress, I started on the stage, and progressed to film and commercials when I was seven years old. By the time I was sixteen, my family moved to France and I landed a lead in a film that catapulted me onto movie screens and on the pages of magazines. Read More>>
Adam Goldberg
Finding one’s work purpose can be a long journey and that was the case for me. My path to becoming a photography took many twists and turns. I had a number of government and corporate jobs that were rewarding and required me to travel. While traveling for all these jobs, I always had my camera with me. I found I enjoyed taking pictures of the hotel I was staying in as well as the architecture of the city while walking around and exploring. Read More>>
Alonso Navarro
Finding my purpose at the beginning was really hard. Specially after graduating from college in 2015 I really didn’t knew what I wanted. Ironic right ? After spending almost five years in college and you don’t know what you want. I decided to move away from my country on my own to start a new life. I am originally born and raised in Lima, Peru and as gay person I knew it was going to be really hard for me to be happy, so I moved away. Read More>>
Daniel Jerez
Photography was not always a clear purpose for me, I most definitely took a alternate route that got me here, but being here now and knowing what I want to do almost feels like purpose fulfilling in itself. There were many things that led me here, many choices that led to me picking up a DSLR for the first time, and that is almost what made it feel like fate. Read More>>
Summer Jackson
Many of us have heard that life is a journey. I believe finding one’s purpose is deeply connected to that journey. For me, it all comes back to my faith and trusting that little voice that says, “go,” “not that way,” or even, simply “not yet.” Read More>>
