Dr. Cummings: What's my purpose?

Every leader — in politics or religion or business, or even in the home, must ask and answer this question: Why am I here? What's my purpose? What motivates me? What gets me out of bed in the morning? This may seem to some a simple question.

And the answers may range from: "survival" (I don't like it but I've got to go to work) to "promotion" (I'll never get that next position if I don't show a little ambition) to "making money" (are you kidding? Isn't this the only real purpose any of us have?) But none of these answers satisfy real leaders.

I'm working with a team of business executives right now who prefer this definition: "Our purpose in this organization (and in our lives) is the ongoing discovery of how we utilize our own individual strengths and talents to add value to others."

Is that wild, or what?

Here's how they're approaching it: Both as a team and as individuals they ask:

First, what am I really good at doing? Some people are good at talking and others at analyzing. Some are good with their hands; others with their minds. Some can evaluate new hires; others work better with numbers. Very few of us know how to listen.

Let's take our time on this; let's ask other people; (it's called a 360). Let's find our special talent; we know it's there, sometimes hiding, but it's always there.

Second, let's figure out how we can use this talent to add value to others.

This is tricky. Why not figure out how it can add value to me? Shouldn't my purpose be to add value to myself? Why should I base my whole purpose in life and in this business on helping other people? Religious people do that, I suppose, (or at least, they pretend to) but why me? But here's the reason; it's called the Great Paradox.

The Great Paradox is not a religious concept, it's just basic human nature. "Help others, you win; help only yourself, you lose." Selfish people are shunned and excluded and in the end, they lose. Charitable people are welcomed and included and in the end, they win.

If our purpose is to advance ourselves and make ourselves healthy, wealthy and wise, and we use other people to help us achieve this — we will eventually fail. Honest. And the opposite is true as well: If our purpose is to help others, we will be helped in the process. Like all paradoxes, it doesn't seem true at first.

I saw this in bold print when I was a vice president of Charter Medical Corporation. We had 81 hospitals — each with 40 beds for adolescents and 40 beds for alcoholics and drug abusers. These patients needed expert care and constant attention. But it was easy for some of the top executives, who worked all day in their paneled offices, to forget the patients and focus only on making money. That was their purpose, and in the end, they lost.

I agree with these business executives I'm currently working with: I think our purpose must be to channel our talents and special gifts of nature into a funnel of assistance for others. If this is our purpose, we will never run out of things to do. It will be an "ongoing discovery."

My purpose in life and in business has always been to help other people "think and analyze," and I never seem to run out of ways to do this. I've done this as a professor in the university and as a consultant to many businesses.

Lately I've focused on religion. I have some special gifts in this arena, and I know many people here in Middle Georgia want desperately to re-think their religious beliefs. My purpose is not to destroy their faith — on the contrary, "thinking and analyzing" will only strengthen it.

Of course, (as you can read in the letters to the Editor) not all agree with my purpose. But that's their purpose.

Dr. Bill Cummings is the CEO of Cummings Consolidated Corporation and Cummings Management Consultants. His blog is www.progressiveheretic.com.

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Dr. Cummings: What's my purpose? ."