my wife and I started our internet
software business in 1999 just a few
months before the dot-com bubble burst
we’ve had some challenging times
that’s an interesting times well I
believe that now is the most exciting
time for us all to be in business we do
have a problem though many of us are
miserable at work
we’re unfulfilled or unsatisfied
we’re disengaged we haven’t got purpose
we don’t have meaning in fact the
younger generation the so-called
Millennials 66% of them are looking to
change jobs already doesn’t feel right
to me that so many of us are spending
our days waiting for them to end we
wonder why this is Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs gives us a little pointer Maslow
found that all of us as human beings
we have certain base needs we want
warmth shelter comfort security once
we’ve got those things we want the
feeling of belonging well we want to be
part of a community then we want this
esteem and once we have those things at
the top of the pyramid
self-actualization you want that feeling
that we have the opportunity to be the
best versions of ourselves we want our
life to mean something we want to matter
we want meaning so those so-called
Millennials they’re not lazy they’re not
entitled they’re disengaged not because
they don’t want to be part of the
community but because they need meaning
they want to do something that makes a
I believe that purpose gives us that
meaning it’s an exciting time because
there’s a new wave of businesses
sweeping the world sustainable
businesses that put purpose at their
core these businesses they nurture the
needs and unique individual talents of
all of their employees and they put
those talents to the good not just of
the business and for profit but for the
good of the whole world this excites me
greatly and I believe it’s the future I
believe that these businesses are the
ones that will not only survive but
thrive in the new era and the businesses
that put profit first profit any cost I
don’t believe they’ll survive I came to
this conclusion by a difficult room
few years ago we’re running our business
and business was good business was doing
well but I was stressed a host really
stressed I I’d lost my way I didn’t know
why we were doing what we were doing we
were working from project to project
the only thing ahead of us was the next
project and the projects were good but
there was that lack of a sense of
purpose I’d lost my wife and I’d lost my
way tiredness turned to fatigue and
irritability turned to pain and I hid
that pain with painkillers which I took
every day just to get through the day
and I ignored it because I was focused
on the business and the profit and the
projects and the stress and on the 19th
of February 2015
my 42nd birthday I was rushed to
hospital for emergency surgery I was
diagnosed with an aggressive form of
Crohn’s disease my body was at war with
it was a difficult time and my wife and
daughter there there were incredible
supports through that time the doctors
told me that I needed to take a cocktail
of immunosuppressants to stop my body
from trying to attack what it thought
was an invader I’d need to take those
immune suppressant for the rest of my
life to live a normal life and if I
didn’t I would get worse and if I got
worse I would need surgery and I was so
weak I was unlikely to be surviving the
surgery a couple of weeks later I
started my recovery at home and my wife
Jeannie and I we were faced with this
choice do I take the immune suppressants
and continue to suppress the symptoms
that I’ve been experiencing in order to
get through my days or did I go deeper
did I look at what was causing the
symptoms in the first place
did I dare face the demons that I held
inside the trauma and stress that I’d
internalized for all these years and
hadn’t wanted to face it was a tough
conversation but an easy conversation
there’s no choice right the conversation
where the doctor had told me that I was
unlikely to survive was the last
conversation I had with my doctor and we
started a new road an inward journey EFT
I Aveda meditation grounding Reiki
craniosacral therapy all worked with me
amazing collection of therapists and
friends to find my balance again and to
look inside and dare face those demons
nine months after this picture was taken
I was well enough to go back to work and
I continued my recovery slowly as
business began to become business as
usual and a year after that I was strong
enough to be trekking with my family in
the Atlas Mountains it was an incredible
experience not only I mean the Atlas
Mountains is a pretty incredible place
to go trekking but the fact that I was
strong enough to cut a note mountain and
to make that Trek the fact that I was
there at all to look over that Vista I
felt alive it was it was incredible we
came back to work to a surprise I found
sense of purpose and meaning I was
coming alive again but I hadn’t changed
anything in the work place you see we
were still working project to project to
project and we’re still grow turning
around great projects but my work
colleagues hadn’t found of their sense
of meaning our company didn’t have a
purpose and it became quite a stark
contrast and so Dean and I we made a
decision we bring purpose to the
workplace and so we rebooted our company
and we started a series of value-based
recruitment processes and we started
regular one-to-one coaching sessions
with all of our staff where we sat down
and we asked them what is your purpose
now generally the it was critical looks
that came back to me but we went deeper
and we stuck with it what is it that you
wakes you up in the morning feeling
alive
what is it that you’re good at what is
it that you find naturally comes to you
that you love doing that puts you in the
flow that when you look at other people
doing you can’t work out why they find
that so difficult
what are your natural abilities and how
can you put those natural abilities to
use for your
purpose your purpose that’s something
bigger than yourself something that you
can put to work for the whole world
that’s what we ask them and the answers
formed the basis of how we worked as a
company moving forward and what we
discovered I’ve never been rowing so I’m
not going to pretend to be an expert but
I get the idea that if the people in the
rowing boat are all sitting in different
positions and rowing at different paces
in different directions
I can’t imagine you’ll do much more than
go around in circles at best that’s what
we had been doing previously but when
every member of the rowing team knows
their position knows which stroke is
best
and knows most importantly where they’re
headed then all of a sudden you find
momentum builds and that’s what happened
with our company we built momentum
inspiration happened productivity
improves profitability improved and all
of a sudden our business came alive in
looking outwards and looking to put our
work to the good of the whole world we
found that we had accidentally slipped
into a community of like-minded
businesses others that were putting
purpose at the core of their business
and what we found to our relief was that
it worked you can do this as a business
in fact we found that of businesses that
put purpose at their core 90% of them
report an improvement in financial
performance as well as employee
engagement and customer satisfaction
customers when they’re faced with an
equal footing of quality and price and
they’re comparing those goods between a
company that puts profit first and a
company that puts purpose first they’ll
go for the purpose profit purpose
so I’d like to ask you can you go inside
can you look at your career where you’re
at now and your path all the way back to
when you’re a child what did you do when
you’re left to your own devices what was
it that you love to do and when you’re a
teenager what projects got you lit up
what projects really made you excited
what how did you find that flow when I
look back and I did this I found that I
had all these streams I like to make
music I like software I like
spirituality is a big part of my life
and I couldn’t see how they all fit but
what I realized was if I looked
underneath there was a why I liked those
things and actually I had to look a few
layers underneath and what I discovered
was that I’m a systems guy I love to see
how things work I love to see the model
and I love to work out how we can use
those models and systems to elevate
ourselves to become the best version of
ourselves and my passion is to share
that which is why I’m here now doing
that very thing and when I discovered
that I realized that I can bring that
into work and I could find the purpose
in our business and when I did that I
discovered that as a business because of
the combined purposes of the company or
one purpose was to bring purpose and
meaning to every workplace so I feel
passionately that if you were to do this
yourselves if you were to really look
inside and find out how you can put
those skills to the good of a greater
good your life could change dramatically
too we’re given some help though the UN
sustainable goals give us a target to
aim for a place a direction to row the
boat and so many many businesses
thousands of businesses all over the
world of picking a UN sustainable goal
and rowing towards it so suddenly we’re
not in a lone boat knowing where we’re
headed there’s thousands of other boats
all rowing with us and that connection
and that community and that help that we
all give each other means that all of a
sudden
these huge ambitious goals the
eradication of poverty hunger inequality
they’re they’re the things that as a
race as a human race we should be going
for and so all of a sudden they don’t
become impossible goals they become
achievable goals and life becomes
tremendously exciting there’s a
multiplayer though to quote Goldratt and
to somewhat summarize genius we talked
about this it’s necessary but not to put
purpose at our core it’s not sufficient
because we can only influence those
directly around us as we do that and
that’s a great thing but it’s not enough
because as we move from the age of
technology and knowledge to an age of
meaning we need to make a massive impact
and software technology can help us do
that cloud computing gives us power that
was unimaginable ten years ago and it
puts this puts it in the palm of the
hand of every small business owner if we
can automate our processes so that we’re
freed up to work to our purpose and if
we can move as much of our business onto
an automated platform what we have is
exponential growth potential exponential
growth the idea that computer power
doubles every 18 months for the same
price it means anything we move on to
that Moore’s Law curve doubles in power
to all of a sudden we have power to
quite literally change the world a
really great example be 1g1 there are
business giving platform so the idea is
that they allow any business to make an
impact no matter what their core
business is and so we’re members of b1g
one when we go out for a meal with a
client automatically thanks to their
platform and often in Thailand gets food
for a day when we buy a book of trees
planted when we go to a training seminar
schoolkids in the pool
get kit for their school b1g one in its
10 years in its first ten years made a
hundred million of the
impacts around the world but here’s the
kicker with thanks to the fact that it’s
on an exponential platform the next year
they had another 50 million impacts that
blows my mind and it’s the kind of
impact that we can all make they run it
all from a small office in Singapore so
using this technology and by going
inside finding our individual talents
and finding how we can find our purpose
but it’s a good of our team or of our
organization and align our
organization’s purpose with that of the
many thousands of Purpose Driven
organizations around the world I do
believe we can make the world a better place thank you
software business in 1999 just a few
months before the dot-com bubble burst
we’ve had some challenging times
that’s an interesting times well I
believe that now is the most exciting
time for us all to be in business we do
have a problem though many of us are
miserable at work
we’re unfulfilled or unsatisfied
we’re disengaged we haven’t got purpose
we don’t have meaning in fact the
younger generation the so-called
Millennials 66% of them are looking to
change jobs already doesn’t feel right
to me that so many of us are spending
our days waiting for them to end we
wonder why this is Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs gives us a little pointer Maslow
found that all of us as human beings
we have certain base needs we want
warmth shelter comfort security once
we’ve got those things we want the
feeling of belonging well we want to be
part of a community then we want this
esteem and once we have those things at
the top of the pyramid
self-actualization you want that feeling
that we have the opportunity to be the
best versions of ourselves we want our
life to mean something we want to matter
we want meaning so those so-called
Millennials they’re not lazy they’re not
entitled they’re disengaged not because
they don’t want to be part of the
community but because they need meaning
they want to do something that makes a
I believe that purpose gives us that
meaning it’s an exciting time because
there’s a new wave of businesses
sweeping the world sustainable
businesses that put purpose at their
core these businesses they nurture the
needs and unique individual talents of
all of their employees and they put
those talents to the good not just of
the business and for profit but for the
good of the whole world this excites me
greatly and I believe it’s the future I
believe that these businesses are the
ones that will not only survive but
thrive in the new era and the businesses
that put profit first profit any cost I
don’t believe they’ll survive I came to
this conclusion by a difficult room
few years ago we’re running our business
and business was good business was doing
well but I was stressed a host really
stressed I I’d lost my way I didn’t know
why we were doing what we were doing we
were working from project to project
the only thing ahead of us was the next
project and the projects were good but
there was that lack of a sense of
purpose I’d lost my wife and I’d lost my
way tiredness turned to fatigue and
irritability turned to pain and I hid
that pain with painkillers which I took
every day just to get through the day
and I ignored it because I was focused
on the business and the profit and the
projects and the stress and on the 19th
of February 2015
my 42nd birthday I was rushed to
hospital for emergency surgery I was
diagnosed with an aggressive form of
Crohn’s disease my body was at war with
it was a difficult time and my wife and
daughter there there were incredible
supports through that time the doctors
told me that I needed to take a cocktail
of immunosuppressants to stop my body
from trying to attack what it thought
was an invader I’d need to take those
immune suppressant for the rest of my
life to live a normal life and if I
didn’t I would get worse and if I got
worse I would need surgery and I was so
weak I was unlikely to be surviving the
surgery a couple of weeks later I
started my recovery at home and my wife
Jeannie and I we were faced with this
choice do I take the immune suppressants
and continue to suppress the symptoms
that I’ve been experiencing in order to
get through my days or did I go deeper
did I look at what was causing the
symptoms in the first place
did I dare face the demons that I held
inside the trauma and stress that I’d
internalized for all these years and
hadn’t wanted to face it was a tough
conversation but an easy conversation
there’s no choice right the conversation
where the doctor had told me that I was
unlikely to survive was the last
conversation I had with my doctor and we
started a new road an inward journey EFT
I Aveda meditation grounding Reiki
craniosacral therapy all worked with me
amazing collection of therapists and
friends to find my balance again and to
look inside and dare face those demons
nine months after this picture was taken
I was well enough to go back to work and
I continued my recovery slowly as
business began to become business as
usual and a year after that I was strong
enough to be trekking with my family in
the Atlas Mountains it was an incredible
experience not only I mean the Atlas
Mountains is a pretty incredible place
to go trekking but the fact that I was
strong enough to cut a note mountain and
to make that Trek the fact that I was
there at all to look over that Vista I
felt alive it was it was incredible we
came back to work to a surprise I found
sense of purpose and meaning I was
coming alive again but I hadn’t changed
anything in the work place you see we
were still working project to project to
project and we’re still grow turning
around great projects but my work
colleagues hadn’t found of their sense
of meaning our company didn’t have a
purpose and it became quite a stark
contrast and so Dean and I we made a
decision we bring purpose to the
workplace and so we rebooted our company
and we started a series of value-based
recruitment processes and we started
regular one-to-one coaching sessions
with all of our staff where we sat down
and we asked them what is your purpose
now generally the it was critical looks
that came back to me but we went deeper
and we stuck with it what is it that you
wakes you up in the morning feeling
alive
what is it that you’re good at what is
it that you find naturally comes to you
that you love doing that puts you in the
flow that when you look at other people
doing you can’t work out why they find
that so difficult
what are your natural abilities and how
can you put those natural abilities to
use for your
purpose your purpose that’s something
bigger than yourself something that you
can put to work for the whole world
that’s what we ask them and the answers
formed the basis of how we worked as a
company moving forward and what we
discovered I’ve never been rowing so I’m
not going to pretend to be an expert but
I get the idea that if the people in the
rowing boat are all sitting in different
positions and rowing at different paces
in different directions
I can’t imagine you’ll do much more than
go around in circles at best that’s what
we had been doing previously but when
every member of the rowing team knows
their position knows which stroke is
best
and knows most importantly where they’re
headed then all of a sudden you find
momentum builds and that’s what happened
with our company we built momentum
inspiration happened productivity
improves profitability improved and all
of a sudden our business came alive in
looking outwards and looking to put our
work to the good of the whole world we
found that we had accidentally slipped
into a community of like-minded
businesses others that were putting
purpose at the core of their business
and what we found to our relief was that
it worked you can do this as a business
in fact we found that of businesses that
put purpose at their core 90% of them
report an improvement in financial
performance as well as employee
engagement and customer satisfaction
customers when they’re faced with an
equal footing of quality and price and
they’re comparing those goods between a
company that puts profit first and a
company that puts purpose first they’ll
go for the purpose profit purpose
so I’d like to ask you can you go inside
can you look at your career where you’re
at now and your path all the way back to
when you’re a child what did you do when
you’re left to your own devices what was
it that you love to do and when you’re a
teenager what projects got you lit up
what projects really made you excited
what how did you find that flow when I
look back and I did this I found that I
had all these streams I like to make
music I like software I like
spirituality is a big part of my life
and I couldn’t see how they all fit but
what I realized was if I looked
underneath there was a why I liked those
things and actually I had to look a few
layers underneath and what I discovered
was that I’m a systems guy I love to see
how things work I love to see the model
and I love to work out how we can use
those models and systems to elevate
ourselves to become the best version of
ourselves and my passion is to share
that which is why I’m here now doing
that very thing and when I discovered
that I realized that I can bring that
into work and I could find the purpose
in our business and when I did that I
discovered that as a business because of
the combined purposes of the company or
one purpose was to bring purpose and
meaning to every workplace so I feel
passionately that if you were to do this
yourselves if you were to really look
inside and find out how you can put
those skills to the good of a greater
good your life could change dramatically
too we’re given some help though the UN
sustainable goals give us a target to
aim for a place a direction to row the
boat and so many many businesses
thousands of businesses all over the
world of picking a UN sustainable goal
and rowing towards it so suddenly we’re
not in a lone boat knowing where we’re
headed there’s thousands of other boats
all rowing with us and that connection
and that community and that help that we
all give each other means that all of a
sudden
these huge ambitious goals the
eradication of poverty hunger inequality
they’re they’re the things that as a
race as a human race we should be going
for and so all of a sudden they don’t
become impossible goals they become
achievable goals and life becomes
tremendously exciting there’s a
multiplayer though to quote Goldratt and
to somewhat summarize genius we talked
about this it’s necessary but not to put
purpose at our core it’s not sufficient
because we can only influence those
directly around us as we do that and
that’s a great thing but it’s not enough
because as we move from the age of
technology and knowledge to an age of
meaning we need to make a massive impact
and software technology can help us do
that cloud computing gives us power that
was unimaginable ten years ago and it
puts this puts it in the palm of the
hand of every small business owner if we
can automate our processes so that we’re
freed up to work to our purpose and if
we can move as much of our business onto
an automated platform what we have is
exponential growth potential exponential
growth the idea that computer power
doubles every 18 months for the same
price it means anything we move on to
that Moore’s Law curve doubles in power
to all of a sudden we have power to
quite literally change the world a
really great example be 1g1 there are
business giving platform so the idea is
that they allow any business to make an
impact no matter what their core
business is and so we’re members of b1g
one when we go out for a meal with a
client automatically thanks to their
platform and often in Thailand gets food
for a day when we buy a book of trees
planted when we go to a training seminar
schoolkids in the pool
get kit for their school b1g one in its
10 years in its first ten years made a
hundred million of the
impacts around the world but here’s the
kicker with thanks to the fact that it’s
on an exponential platform the next year
they had another 50 million impacts that
blows my mind and it’s the kind of
impact that we can all make they run it
all from a small office in Singapore so
using this technology and by going
inside finding our individual talents
and finding how we can find our purpose
but it’s a good of our team or of our
organization and align our
organization’s purpose with that of the
many thousands of Purpose Driven
organizations around the world I do
believe we can make the world a better place thank you
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