What You’re Great At, What You Love, What The World Needs
How to navigate the magical equation for a successful career and a fulfilling life.
“What’s my purpose?”
We all ask ourselves this question at some point or another along the journey of personal growth. It’s not a bad question per se, but I for one have never been a big fan of it. That’s because it’s very difficult to answer, and I believe we should be considering additional variables.
Rather than focusing on some singular, elusive “purpose” that will magically make everything click into place in our lives, I’ve found it valuable to take a more multidimensional look at your unique combination of innate talents, skills, and enthusiasms. There’s a handy little equation that can help you begin to contemplate this. It’s a simple and surprisingly helpful way to gain clarity on what you’re really meant to be doing in this lifetime.
The equation has three parts:
What you're great at
What you love and what gives you energy
What the world wants or needs
What you’re looking for is the thing that lies at the intersection of these three qualities; the middle point in the Venn diagram. Landing in that sweet spot is the key to a fulfilling career and a meaningful life. It’s a pathway to being your fullest self, having a shit ton of fun, and having a positive impact on others. That's what I'm advocating and standing for.
This is not a new concept, many people have been preaching something similar to this for a long time. We are all riffing off the age-old Japanese concept of Ikagai, defined as a motivating force; something or someone that gives a person a sense of purpose or a reason for living. What I’m talking about today is essentially a more simplified version of Ikagai where it combines what the world needs and what the world will pay for into one section.
And no, this is not just advice for (and from) rich people who have already made it. No matter your station in life, self-reflection is free, and I believe that we can all benefit from considering how to best apply ourselves in a way that we enjoy and pays the bills well.
Putting formalities aside, let’s now get clear about how you can make the best use of your brief tenure on this planet.
What You’re Great At
Let's break this equation down. The first piece is what you’re great at.
This requires some unconventional thinking.
First, you need to be really honest about the hand that you've been dealt and eliminate any shame around that.
Many of us grew up with parents who told us we could do and be anything we chose to be in life. That’s nice, but I think our parents got it wrong. You can do anything you want, but you won’t be that good at it if it’s not where your gifts lie.
It’s important to take stock of what you’re really great at. I wouldn’t try to be an NBA post player if I wasn’t at least 6’10,” and I wouldn’t try to be an engineer if I wasn’t brilliant at math and science. You want to be very accurate about the hand you've been dealt, and then you want to play that hand as well as possible. As a Texas hold ‘em poker player, I often notice that the most exciting hands to play are not pocket aces (the best hand you can possibly be dealt). Instead, they’re usually the more unexpected hands—you can often surprise your opponents and make more money with them.
What I’m getting at here is that you probably have an unusual blend of skills that comes together in a unique way. You may not be a genius at the things you wish you were good at or the things that our culture values the most. But you probably have a handful of areas where you really excel, and I think it’s exciting to focus there.
One of the best ways to tap into this is to ask a few of your closest people: What do you think are the 1-3 things I’m really great at? Go for unfiltered responses and you should get some good insights here.
You’ll also want to do some self-reflection. I really enjoy ‘The Best Stuff’ exercise from Conscious Leadership Group. This exercise is money in the bank. Essentially, you come up with eight times in your life when you did something that you enjoyed and received a positive response or great feedback in return. Then you want to find the throughlines of all eight of these experiences. When you’re complete, you should have a decent idea of what the world thinks you’re really good at.
Narrow it down to two or three things max. Then you want to combine these two or three strengths together to create your own unique special sauce.
I’ll use myself as an example of what this might look like. My three things are as follows: 1) I’ve had business success co-founding and leading multiple start-ups; 2) I have expertise and passion in personal development and business leadership; and 3) I’m a high-level athlete, so I understand high performance and what a winning team culture looks like. Put all those things together, and you get a magic combination that is uniquely me. You can see why I became an executive coach, and what I bring to that work that is unique.
Finding this unique essence is how you transcend competition. When you are completely authentic and embracing what you’re truly great at, you’re only competing with yourself. You don’t worry about being original, doing it better than the next person, or standing out in the crowd—which is often what happens when you try to fit yourself into a space that doesn’t reflect what you’re great at. You’ll find yourself fighting an uphill battle and the competition will just roll over you because you’re up against people who are naturally gifted in those particular areas. As Naval says, escape competition through authenticity.
Play around with combining your strengths.
It could be a combination of being a great nurturer, an excellent cook, and fantastic curation abilities. It could be a mix of cybersecurity expertise, an intense work ethic, and visionary gifts. It could be a PhD in AI, a deep expertise in baseball, and an ability to be brutally honest in difficult conversations.
As I said, this is also about getting honest about the hand you’ve been dealt—which means taking some inventory of what you’re not great at that you have tried (and failed) to make work.
For example, I had some success as an entrepreneur. But if I’m honest, my nervous system didn't have the capacity to handle the high-level, consistent stress load of growing a start-up. When I went full-throttle for an extended period of time, I’d become either miserable or sick. Sometimes it was both. And I’m not just talking about a cold or a mild case of burnout. I mean really sick. I had to get real with myself that I didn’t have the capacity for stress that Musk, Jobs, or Bezos had, or even your average growth-stage founder. My nervous system was not designed to shoulder that kind of burden.
I got clear with myself that whatever I did going forward, I needed to have a stress load that worked for my nervous system. This was a tough pill to swallow. At first, my ego did not like this and was in pure denial about it.
For a while, I continued to put myself in situations that got me into all kinds of trouble. On a few occasions, I started projects with awesome energy and made some amazing things happen, and then over time, my energy would fizzle. I went into a state of self-preservation and wasn’t able to sustain the level of effort that was needed. Once I accepted this as truth, I was able to honor the part of the work that I was great at (business leadership and connecting with people in meaningful ways) and take it in a different direction (leadership coaching) that was much more natural and energizing for me.
What You Love and What Gives You Energy
Next is what you love and what gives you energy, which are ultimately one and the same.
Let’s start here with my mentor Gay Hendricks’ Zone of Genius framework, which I highly recommend as a support in determining what you love and what gives you energy. It’s designed to help individuals identify and leverage their unique strengths and talents in order to achieve their highest levels of performance and fulfillment.
Here's how it works. There are four zones:
The Zone of Incompetence: Tasks and activities that you're not skilled at, that often drain your energy and enthusiasm.
The Zone of Competence: Tasks that you can do reasonably well, but they don't necessarily bring you joy or fulfillment.
The Zone of Excellence: Tasks and activities you excel at, often due to your education, training, or experience. You may receive recognition and success in this zone, but it may not bring you deep satisfaction or fulfillment.
The Zone of Genius: Activities that make you feel most alive, fulfilled, and inspired. You lose track of time when you're engaged in them, and they often lead to your best and most creative work.
Most people spend their lives in the Zone of Competence or the Zone of Excellence. The ultimate goal here is to identify and operate within your Zone of Genius as much as possible. This is the area where you have a unique combination of innate talents, passions, and skills. It’s also the place where you can make the most significant impact and contribution to the world.
Getting clear on what you do that lights you up is key to getting into your Zone of Genius. What activities could you do all day long without getting sick of them? When do you feel like you’re in flow? What would fire you up to spend your days doing? What would bring you the most fun and aliveness?
For me, this part of the equation is pretty straightforward. What I love is having meaningful, connected conversations as well as engaging in personal development. I love to learn and grow. And I love talking about it. Being an entrepreneur did not give me energy, and I didn't love it. I had to get super honest and real with myself about that, and it was an unfortunate reality because my ego would have loved to have been a successful entrepreneur. It felt great to go to parties and say I was an entrepreneur working on the next thing to save the world. Sadly my heart wasn’t in it.
What The World Wants Or Needs
The final step is to take what you’re great at, what you love, and what gives you energy, and then figure out where you can apply that in an area that the world deems useful.
For me, I’m great at personal development, business leadership, and sports. I also love connecting with people and having deep, growth-oriented conversations. I could do this all day long. Awesome—now how can I apply this in a way that is useful to the world? Well, growth-stage startups have the budget and need for coaching for their founders and leaders. As companies start to scale, founders reach an inflection point where they need to shift from being just founders to being great leaders who can grow their businesses and bring their vision to the world in the most impactful way possible. Given my experience and what I love, this feels like the perfect place for me to offer my services. And now it's my work, which I’m so grateful for.
Business leaders want an edge. They want to get better. They want to learn and grow. They want to know how they can treat their people better. They want to make more money. If they can be (even slightly) better in their work leading large companies, then the coaching is worth its weight in gold. I’ve been able to utilize my unique combination of skills and passions to meet this need.
I was able to build a successful, thriving coaching business in a very short period of time, and I believe it’s because I was in my personal sweet spot at the center of that Venn Diagram. It all lined up. It was a slam dunk, a home run.
Starting my coaching business was truly an unlock for me. It was that sweet moment of getting the right combination on a lock and hearing it click as it opened up. As a result, amazing things have happened and I'm having a blast.
When you nail this equation, you're going to know it because it's going to feel awesome. The world is gonna really show you that they want your services, and you will find that your work is received well. Clients and opportunities will come much more effortlessly.
Making It Happen
If you decide to give this process a try, I’d love to hear how it went for you—what was challenging, what was surprising, and what you learned about yourself. Feel free to drop me a line at matt@matthunter.co to fill me in!
For some people, the hardest part of this process is discovering who you are—beyond all the voices in your head, subtle or not so subtle, that have been telling you who you should be.
For most people, the hardest part is having the courage to be yourself and to deal with whatever fallout occurs as a result of you fully and unapologetically being who you are. That could mean being a medicine woman. That could mean being a coach. It could mean being a chef, a teacher, an experience designer, or a storyteller. It could mean giving up a “successful” career that didn’t make you happy. It could mean dealing with your parents being very upset with you. Being who you are always requires you to sacrifice who you’re not, but I promise it’s a sacrifice that will give you the world in return.
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PS - I’m opening one seat in my executive coaching practice next month. Reply with COACHING or drop me an email at matt@matthunter.co if you’re a founder/CEO interested in exploring a coaching partnership with me.