“Today I want to talk about purpose… I’m here to tell you finding your purpose isn’t enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.”
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the two most famous people to not graduate from Harvard. (The other is Bill Gates!) But he gave the commencement address at Harvard this year, and what he said really hit home for me because I’ve been writing for the past year about purpose and leadership and the way companies like Facebook channel purpose in a different way to connect to customers and change people’s lives.
“To keep our society moving forward, we have a generational challenge — to not only create new jobs, but create a renewed sense of purpose.”
Zuckerberg talked about three different areas where people should pursue a sense of purpose:
1. By taking on big, meaningful projects
2. By redefining equality to give everyone the ability to pursue their dreams, and
3. By building community across the world
Zuckerberg didn’t say this, but companies like Facebook are so successful because they somehow manage to do all three of those things at once — for the people who work there and the people they serve as customers.
Today, high growth companies aren’t just looking for purpose. They’re in the purpose business.
Phot John Arguedas