n my morning routine today, I was learning some aspects about influence and respect from Evan Carmichael’s YouTube channel. He featured a number of guests on this particular episode including Lebron James, Will Smith, and Kevin Hart. Each of these people have purpose written all over them. Towards the end of the video though, that is when my eyes lit up and connected to none other than Mark Zuckerberg. Guess what he was talking about? Of course he was talking about purpose. This is part of what he said:
You know, it is easy to quote such like people and it easily becomes cliché. However, I think the life and work of Mark Zuckerberg exemplifies what trust is all about. In that particular speech, Mark says that he told someone when launching Facebook that he hoped to connect people at Harvard, but some day, he knew that someone will be able to connect the rest of the world. Little did he know that that person would be himself…but do you know what he did? He trusted in his little project of connecting students at Harvard. That is what I want to talk about today.
It is one of the most interesting relationships between trust and connection. Just like Mark did not know that he would one day connect the whole world, so is it with you and I. I have no idea where the trust that I put in my ideas, projects, gifts, talents, potential and purpose would take me. You too have no idea, and probably that is where the problem begins. We all want to venture where we are sure what the end result looks like
But the most unfortunate thing about the end result that we are looking at is that it is selfish, self-centered and of little impact to the world. We want to trust something that will assure us of housing, shelter, clothing, status and fun. Only after we have attained that do we want to start thinking about impact and meaning. So we find very few people exuding trust because they do not know how the end looks like. Here is the thing, none of us ever will know what tomorrow will look like, let alone the end of our pursuits of legacy!
One of the greatest things I have come to learn about purpose is that it provides for itself, it creates its own powerful and harmonious connections. Mark Zuckerberg said, “The challenge for our generation is to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose…” That is the secret. Everyone does have a sense of purpose. Everyone does have a part to play. I have come to realize that we do not drive purpose (especially when we are engaged with it), purpose is what drives us. There is an even greater purpose than the purpose that you and I are engaged in. What I mean is that there is a grander scale of things that fits our pulls all other connections together.
That is why when you trust your purpose, all of a sudden, subtle and meaningful connections will get created. Let me show you how it happened to me and still is happening to me. When I trusted that I could coach or was called to coach, purpose provided for me a guide in the name of Coach Phil in a mysterious way. I had taken my girlfriend to sing at a friend’s wedding reception and saw a guy wearing a T-Shirt printed on “Coach”. I mean what are the odds? At the moment that I trusted coaching, a coach appears in my life.
In 2014, I lived and worked in Ghana. Being a writer as well as speaker, I was able to share a platform with Ghana’s leading inspirational speaker Comfort Ocran within 3 months of being in Ghana. Purpose provided that subtle connection. At the same time I was also introduced to another big shot in the speaking industry in Ghana by the name of Emmanuel Dei Tumi. Purpose was providing that connection for itself.
I cannot begin to mention how I got scholarships when I did not have funds but had so much passion to learn from Jeffrey Howard of Visionary Business University and Kristine Closer of Transformational Author Experience.
What I am telling you in short is this: you do not have to see the whole staircase to get started. All you need to do is trust your instincts, trust your talent, trust your gifts and go for it. Connections will be made to the highest of the high. The ancient Roman saying sums it all up like this:
Do not be an aimless drifter. Trust your purpose and go for it!