On Your Road to Greater Purpose, Start by Learning Your Ikigai (Part 2 of 4)

There’s no single way to harness your purpose and connect it to your business. Last time, we outlined three steps you can take to define your role, zone of genius and passion. Did that get you off to the races?

Here’s another way. It’s called ikigai (pronounced ee-kee-guy), it’s 800 years old, Japanese in origin, and translates into English as “a reason for being.” Ikigai describes the intersection—the sweet spot—of your answer to four questions: what do you love, what does the world need, what can you be paid for, and what are you good at?

What is unique and powerful about this concept—and why it still speaks to us like it was invented yesterday—is that you have to integrate all four quadrants to maximize your ikigai. The diagram shows what happens if even one element is not answered satisfactorily: it’s still a heck of a lot better than nothing, but it’s not ikigai.

Years ago, I met an entrepreneur named Jordan Rubin whose suffering from Crohn’s Disease led him to do some research in which he discovered that many of the foods we eat made us sick. Tapping into his passion and talent for teaching and product development, he built a successful company, Garden of LIfe, that really kicked the probiotics category into high gear! Then, two books and a ton of keynote speeches later, he went on to found Ancient Nutrition, which he still leads.

That, my friends, describes a man living every blessed day in his ikigai. But he didn’t just drop out of the sky to that rewarding place. He had to do the hard work of learning how to lead so that others could support his purpose of promoting extraordinary health.

So, what about you? Do you have an ikigai? Start brainstorming on paper to discover what you love, what the world needs, what you're passionate about, and what you can be paid for. Get your team involved as well. Or contact ScalePassion, and we’ll get you started on the road to ikigai lickety-split.