Wonder Through Life. Don’t Wander Through Life.
**What is your purpose?**
Too many people wander through life. I prefer to wonder through life. One little letter, it makes all the difference. When I was younger (in my mid-teens), I was absorbed by music magazines. Remember, there was no Internet. What I knew about the music I loved (and for me, that was mostly the heavy kind of music), I learned from the monthly magazines and the odd/random instances when one of my favorite bands’ video would be played on TV. Otherwise, that was it. Nothing. No contact. No [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mitchjoel “Twitter”) feeds. No [Instagram](http://instagram.com/mitchjoel “Instagram”). No [YouTube](http://www.youtube.com “YouTube”). No websites. It was barbaric. Back then, I somehow lucked my way into writing about music for a national teen magazine. That magazine was published monthly. One edition was in English, and one edition was in French (that’s how Canada rolls). The French edition was sort of like the English one, but it featured selected cultural artists that were emerging either because they were French or because they were more popular in French Canada. When that magazine went away (the publisher had a life-altering event and decided to change career paths), I had to figure out how to keep writing about music, which I loved so much. I started asking questions.
**I went on a quest.**
What I didn’t know then, that I realize now is that I was starting to ask questions about the music magazine publishing industry. I was curious, and I wanted to do something about it. But, I didn’t know what. Without knowing it, it became my quest. More important than a college degree, more important than spending time at the bar, and more important than anything on TV. I began to realize that in Quebec (where the majority of people speak French), there was no rock magazine that wrote about the major, international bands, but written like a fan, in French for this audience. With a lot of help from a business partner and other resources, we launched an ad-supported free music magazine to address this audience. No one else had done this. No one else was doing it. No one else saw this opportunity. It became the reason that I would wake up in the morning, and the reason that I could not sleep at night.
**Once you find your purpose, our potential grows.**
In my second business book, [CTRL ALT Delete](http://sixpixels.com/books/ “CTRL ALT Delete”), I wrote the entire last half of the book about us – as individuals – and how we have to think differently about the work that we do, and how we go to work. I called that second half: Reboot – You. The road to publishing those music magazines was not linear. The road to uncovering my purpose, and then making it happen was not linear. It was, without a doubt, a very squiggly path. No clear line of sight. It only makes sense, when I look back on it. In reverse. It was like that when we started [Twist Image](http://sixpixels.com “Twist Image”). Not many marketing agencies were thinking about how to use technology and the Internet to make brands better marketers. Not many marketing agencies were actually getting their hands dirty, and doing the work. We were. We wanted to. We found our purpose. Nearly fifteen years later, we keep our eyes open, we keep asking questions, we keep pushing (you can even read about how we’re pushing our thinking here, on this blog, on when we have conversations with other business thinkers on our [Six Pixels of Separation Podcast](http://sixpixels.com/podcast “Six Pixels of Separation Podcast”)). It keeps the team hungry. I’m hungrier than ever. I believe – from the bottom of my heart – that this is still *”day one”* as [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com “Amazon”)’s [Jeff Bezos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos “Jeff Bezos”) likes to say.
**Opening your heart to a new purpose.**
I got an note from [Saul Colt](http://saul.is/ “Saul Colt”) about a [TEDx Talk](https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program “TEDx”) called, [Purpose And The Love-Based Economy](http://youtu.be/Mye5p4MOZxw) by [Jelly Helm](https://twitter.com/jellyhelm “Jelly Helm”) at [TEDxBend](http://tedxbend.com/ “TEDxBend”). I had never heard of Jelly Helm before, but the recommendation from Saul, and a first name like “Jelly,” how could I not check it out? Jelly runs his own creative business called, [Studio Jelly](http://www.studiojelly.com/ “Studio Jelly”) in Portland, Oregon where he has helped brands like [Starbucks](http://www.starbucks.com “Starbucks”), [Nike](http://www.nike.com “Nike”), [Wikipedia](http://www.wikipedia.org “Wikipedia”) and [DC Comics](http://www.dccomics.com “DC Comics”) find their purpose and how it connects their business to consumers (a man after my own heart). In this short TEDx Talk, talks about purpose in life, why it’s important and how you can open your eyes, in order to find yours.
**[Enjoy this](http://youtu.be/Mye5p4MOZxw)…**