Pursuing Your Righteous Path
Being an impact capitalist is not about “changing the world” or “pursuing your passion.” It’s very much different from either of those misguided notions…
As you may well know by now, being an impact capitalist is about using business ownership to make an impact, or a meaningful difference, in the lives of others.
But how do we, as impact capitalists, make a meaningful difference in the lives of others?
It starts with pursuing our own Righteous Path.
There are three components involved in pursuing your Righteous Path:
The first of the three components is Purpose. Purpose has 2 parts:
- The reason for your business as it relates to the foundations and development of your core story
- The reason for what you’re doing; right here, right now
For example, we believe that our purpose, right here and right now, is to develop the Impact Capitalist platform. Given our skills, abilities, and knowledge of the small business marketplace, it makes sense that we’re doing what we’re doing.
The second component of pursuing your Righteous Path is Passion.
Passion for what you do and being passionate about how you do it.
Telling someone to pursue their passion as the reason for starting a business is the worst advice that you could give them.
For example, Mark Aubry played college basketball. He has, since the age of 6, been passionate about playing the game of basketball. In fact, now in his mid/late-40s, he is still passionate about playing basketball.
But there is no one, in their right mind, that is going to pay him (or Tom) – a 6’2”, slightly out of shape, 40-something-has-been, who will still beat you, to PLAY basketball.
Being a successful business owner and impact capitalist is more than just pursuing your passion. While it is important – and good – to have a love for and/or derive enjoyment from what we are doing in our business, it is not necessarily where we should start.
The last component of a Righteous path is Profit.
If you can’t make a profit, you won’t be in business for very long. And, if you’re not in business, it’s very difficult to pursue your passion.
Besides, regardless of what you’ve been told or might believe, pursuing a profit is righteous, both in a scriptural sense, and how a surfer uses the word while shredding an epic wave.
To go deeper with this topic, you can use the following resources:
Pursuing your Righteous Path is not the same as pursuing your passion (Blog)
It is good to righteously pursue both Impact and Profit,