I remember my freshman year of college, when different speakers came in to talk to the whole student body about being part of something bigger than ourselves. I sat there deeply inspired by those men and women. They understood that the one life they had been given had a direction to it. It was headed somewhere.
That idea of a quest, of moving toward something instead of drifting, sits at the heartbeat of every entrepreneur I know. I would go even further and say it is wired into all of us. There is a longing in a person to be part of something they can't always put into words, something more meaningful than the routine of their days.
So let me ask you. What is your quest? What is the pursuit that gets you out of bed in the morning? Maybe it's fighting for your kids. Maybe you simply love the people you spend forty hours a week with, and you would show up for them no matter the task or the project. Maybe you have a product you deeply believe in, and you get to watch someone light up because they are a better person after meeting your service or your widget.
Early on, my mentors were very intentional about putting authors and speakers in front of me who made me face my own mortality. Our days are brief, and these voices pushed me to use them to leave a mark. Rick Warren, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, Ken Blanchard, Deepak Chopra, Robin Sharma, just to name a few. Some of you younger readers may think of these as old school names, and maybe they are. But every one of them made me look decades down the road. They would not let me live myopically, stuck in the immediate. They asked me to picture what my life could look like over the long haul.
I'm still reading people who challenge me to live with direction, and some of them are doing it even better than the ones I started with. Mel Robbins, Dan Sullivan, Seth Godin, Dan Martell, Brené Brown, Simon Sinek. Each one has stretched my thinking and pushed me into the next layer of my life.
So I'll ask again. What is your quest? What is your journey? Where are you aiming? You won't hit it every time, and there will be painful stretches along the way. But what happens if you do hit it? What happens when you arrive at the place you always longed to be?
Making your mark is a beautiful and meaningful thing. Whether you're starting a nonprofit or a for-profit, you are building a system, you are building a community, and you are building a small business that you get to lead humbly, and where you get to keep learning and growing right alongside the people you serve.
So don't wait until you feel ready. Name your quest, even if it's rough and half formed, and take one small step toward it today. You were never meant to drift. Your one life has a direction, and somewhere out there are people waiting on the very thing you are called to build. Go chase it, and let it make you into the person you were always meant to become.
*If I could ever help you with your idea that you want to take to market, whether it's a service or a specific item, I would love to be able to work with you. Feel free to email me scott@colsenkeane.pro.
