E-Notes: On Discovering Your Purpose, What If People Don’t Like You, and Being Purple

Setting up this blog, I have come to realize how vulnerable it is to share content that you like. I am not typically one to post things on social media and until now only shared things with close friends. There’s a moment of “What if no one else likes this as much as I do?” The bloggers and podcasters I follow have been putting themselves out there on a weekly basis for 5 to 10 years, some for much longer. I’m thrilled to give their work more exposure and I thank them for their contribution to improving my life and my knowledge.

So here I go! (lets out deep breath) Each week, E-notes will include two to three curated items that complement each other and are worth your time. Head over to The Repository for a frequently updated list of shareworthy items that, while also great, didn’t make the E-Notes cut.

Discovering Your Purpose

As many of us are re-evaluating our lives and careers, I appreciated this diagram posted by author Dan Pink. The Japanese term ikigai has been compared to the French raison d’etre, the Greek eudaimonia, and even Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s idea of flow. Dan cited a recent article in his post but ikigai even appeared in the comments of Pinkcast 1.20: Discover your purpose (in one minute) with the Napkin Test (another useful tool to determine your reason for getting out of bed each day created by executive coach Richard Leider).

If People Don’t Like You

My husband and I are fans of Airbnb and have stayed at them all over the world. Even if you’ve never stayed at an Airbnb, take a listen to this episode or read the transcript. Brian has lots of unconventional ideas – I don’t think Airbnb would exist otherwise.

“Why the Future of Work is the Future of Travel, with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky” on the podcast Decoder with Nilay Patel (transcript) (Spotify)

In addition to the title topic, Brian also covers:

• Airbnb’s early pandemic experiences
• Airbnb in comparison with other tech companies
• The Metaverse and Digital Experiences
• Future of Work and Connecting to Communities
• Functional vs Divisional/Conglomerate Organizational Structures
• Pulling in Decisions vs Autonomy
• The Valuable Lesson He Learned about People Who Don’t Like You
• Theories of Internet Moderation – Moving from an Immune System vs Being More Hands On
• A Revolution for Travel

Being Purple

Gary Vaynerchuk, aka GaryVee, is an intense, prolific creator of _________ (fill in the blank and he has probably done it). I’ve only listened to a few podcast interviews with him but every time I learn something and end up thinking about something differently. This time he’s on The Daily Stoic podcast to talk about his new book Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success (affiliate) and a thousand other things.

Gary talks so fast and is so eager to share the rapid fire thoughts in his head…he brings his whole self! Buckle up, brace yourself, and hold on as Gary takes you on a ride seeing the world through his eyes.

A few of the topics Gary talks about: [explicit warning]

• Using Business to Touch Humanity
• The Alpha Way to Win is Grounded in Kindness, Gratitude, Empathy, and Accountability
• Being Purple and Building a Honey Empire
• Removing Fear and Other Emotional Ingredients of Success (let it roll here to go down this rabbit hole for about 20 minutes)
• Competition is Fun and is NOT Zero Sum
• “You’ve Got Time!”
• No Opinion is the Super Power
• Not the Super Bowl Ring, the Statue Outside the Stadium!

So What Did You Think?

Have you identified your ikigai? What do you do when people don’t like you? Do you fall into the “You’ve Got Time” camp with Gary or the “Life is Short” crowd? Let me know in the comments below.

Did you poke around the site a bit and see anything you liked? Do you have feedback about the blog in general? Get in touch!