The last job I had before I became an entrepreneur, I was working for a corporate sustainability think tank. The subject matter was interesting, and the organization was mission-led– everything I needed to feel intrinsically motivated.
But something was missing. I felt I had no autonomy over what I was doing, no creative freedom. The managerial style was very hands-on, and I felt micro-managed. I was simply working through a series of to-do lists, and my original ideas were largely ignored.
I clashed with my manager, but I didn’t have the words to describe what was wrong. It was only when I joined the founding team on a startup that it became clear what was missing.
I recognized it as early as the job interview, which went something like this:“You can pick your job title, you can choose where and how you work, and you can decide what it is you actually do.”
Those words uncovered deep wells of intrinsic motivation. Despite having little or no managerial oversight, I worked harder and longer than I ever had in my life. And I was happy doing so. Although the work itself was not radically different, everything I did was filled with a sense of purpose.
I think anyone who has transitioned from employee to entrepreneur would understand why this small shift had such a profound transformative effect. I had created something myself, and creating something from scratch is inherently meaningful.
As writer Emily Esfahani Smith, author of the book “The Power of Meaning” explains, “Studies show that people who have meaning in life, they're more resilient, they do better in school and at work, and they even live longer.”
This fundamental truth about entrepreneurship is the single most powerful motivator behind entrepreneurs. It drives us to take all those risks, to work all those evenings and weekends, and to take on all that extra responsibility. It’s never just about the potential financial upside; it’s the sense of meaning and purpose we get from building something from scratch.
Despite all the stresses and strains of building your own business, a sense of meaning and purpose yields enormous benefits that carry over into every part of our lives.
My exploration of meaning and purpose–which has characterized my journey as an entrepreneur–is rooted in a project I had begun several years earlier. In 2020, I released a podcast series called “Conscious Evolution” which argued that our contemporary secular society struggles to articulate a coherent worldview that speaks to our deep need for meaning and purpose. And this struggle is the root cause of the mental health crisis.
Three pillars for a meaningful life–and business
Over the course of four years, I interviewed psychologists, philosophers and spiritual teachers–I also spoke to just about everyone I met–to ask them what they found meaningful in life. I wanted to understand if there were any common themes.
After a while, I realized that although the particulars of people’s answers were very different, they could be categorized into three pillars that encompass everything people deem meaningful:
Cooperation: Being of service to others and being part of something larger than ourselves.
Creativity: Creating original work that has value, taking what is unique within us and bringing it out into the world.
Transcendence: Going beyond our limits–whether through religion, spirituality, or personal growth–and becoming more than we were before.
All three pillars of a meaningful life are part of the entrepreneur’s journey. But I believe they can also serve as compasses, guiding entrepreneurs to deepen their sense of purpose in what they do and weave that purpose into every aspect of the business, so that all team members can share in it.
At my company Native, a startup that helps people protect our planet one square at a time, we’re a remote team with members based across the world–from Cayman Islands to Pakistan to Southeast Asia. So creating strong bonds of cooperation has been a challenge.
I’ve come to realize that opportunities to spend time together face-to-face are crucial for fostering a sense of shared purpose. So when five of us happened to be in England at the same time, I invited everyone to Kew Gardens in West London. It was a reminder of the reason that brought us together–the beauty and preciousness of nature.
When it comes to creativity, I’m always asking whether we’re truly harnessing everyone’s creative potential and ensuring team members have the freedom to develop and execute new ideas.
I do this by giving people objectives and letting each person decide how they’ll execute them. I might offer guidance and advice, but I try and let people run with their ideas and processes. Some people find this a challenge, particularly when moving from a corporate “command and control” structure to a more loose environment where people are encouraged to take initiative. When it works well, people feel far more satisfaction and meaning in their work.
And finally, on transcendence in the workplace.
One of the most rewarding parts of building a team has been bringing on younger members and watching them learn and grow into their roles. Inexperience naturally leads to mistakes and plenty of feedback, but it’s important not to nitpick every detail. Balancing constructive criticism with genuine encouragement helps them move forward rather than getting stuck.
On a deeper level, I’m always asking whether we can align each person’s sense of meaning with our company’s mission. When we manage to do that–and keep reinforcing that alignment in a way that feels authentic–every role becomes infused with the same level of intrinsic motivation that inspired the founders in the first place. That, in essence, is how we foster transcendence in a professional setting: by helping each team member push beyond their own limits and become more than they were before.
Putting the pillars into action
There’s a facilitation process called Prosocial which helps teams through this exact process, and it helps individuals identify barriers that are getting in the way of them acting in alignment with what they find most meaningful about their work. One thing that really helps us at Native is that everyone on the team is united by our passion and dedication to protecting our planet. We believe nature and humanity can live in harmony and it’s our mission to help bring that about. We’re still very early and most team members are part-time or working for equity. But as soon as we bring on a few more full-time team members, I’ll implement the Prosocial Process because it’s essential that every team member shares our mission and taps into the same feeling of intrinsic motivation I have for our work.
I’ve realized we will never create the more beautiful world all of us in our hearts know is possible if the vast majority of us spend almost all of our waking hours working towards goals and objectives which we don’t find meaningful. We’re all naturally inclined to create things we find meaningful, but far too many of us suppress that impulse when it comes to our work–even as entrepreneurs.
When we build cooperation, creativity and transcendence into our ventures, we tap into something far larger than ourselves. We stand at the apex of a 13.8-billion-year evolutionary journey, shaping its next chapter through our innovations. As founders, we’re not just generating revenue—we’re contributing to the ongoing evolution of humanity. What could be more meaningful than that?