It’s easy to tell that I’ve put my stamp on the Dragon Army values. They are:

• Team First (I played on tennis teams through college…I’m a big TEAM guy)
• Think Positively (basically my entire outlook on life is to look at things optimistically)
• Celebrate Diversity (this has been a driving force in my life ever since I went through Leadership Atlanta in 2012 — here’s why)
• Do Good (my Purpose is to have an out-sized, positive impact on the world)
• Have Fun (in almost all situations I’m trying my best to have fun :)

Those values guide everything we do at the company, and focusing on them is why I decided to stop applying for the Best Places to Work award.

With that outlook — thinking positively, working toward empathy, and even just being an entrepreneur — I don’t look back at my past and ‘regret’ anything. Yes, I’ve made mistakes. Buckets of mistakes. So many that I wrote a blog post about 10 of my biggest mistakes in the hopes that others can avoid them.

All of those mistakes have led me to where I am and who I am today. If I made a mistake as a leader, I’ve hopefully learned from that and am a better leader today because of it. If I was spending my time inefficiently in the past, that probably has led to my ability to focus better today. Example.

So I don’t tend to look back at the past and regret what happened.

There’s no such thing as failure if you’re learning and growing through it. Take those mistakes and make them your new set of armor.

But there is one regret I have that I do look back and wish I had done differently. It is not something I could have foreseen, but it absolutely would have changed me for the better if I had discovered it earlier.

Finding my personal purpose

In 2012–13 I went through a program called Leadership Atlanta. The program runs for a year and brings together ~80 leaders from the Atlanta community. CEOs of large companies, head pastors of local churches, entrepreneurs like myself, Executive Directors of nonprofits, etc.

The purpose of Leadership Atlanta, as I see it, is to build a community of leaders who understand more deeply the challenges facing Atlanta and inspire them to make a difference.

At the early outset of the program the class is taken through a Race Awareness weekend. You spend two days with an amazing leader breaking down walls and educating everyone on the impact of race in our world today.

It was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had, and it changed my life forever. I started to see the world through a different set of eyes, for the first time realizing the massive amount of privilege I have in today’s society. And instead of feeling guilty about it, I decided to use that privilege to a) try to change it to any extent I can, and b) do good with it. I just wasn’t sure how.

Skip forward a few years and I found myself on a mission to establish a personal purpose for my life. I read books, talked to experts, and did some deep soul-searching, and I landed on this:

My Purpose is to have an out-sized, positive impact on the world.

Everything I do — every board I join, every decision I make with Dragon Army, everything — I try to connect to my purpose. Having that clarity of vision has helped me accomplish more in the last eight years than I ever have in my life. And I feel energized and excited every day because I know why I’m doing the things I’m doing.

I don’t regret much about my life. But I do regret not finding my purpose sooner.

This is why the very first phase of Ripples of Hope is focused on helping each of these leaders find their personal purpose (led by the incredible Leah Wilson.)

I can think of no better thing for a person’s life (once all basic needs are met) than finding your personal purpose. It’s why it has become a major part of my book talks, and it’s why it will be a major part of my next book (more coming on that in my email newsletter, link below).

The point is, by searching for and finding your purpose, your reason for being, your ‘why’, you will unlock your full potential and realize a life you never knew you could have. I implore you to start this journey, and please let me know how I can help.

Before you leave

I run a weekly email newsletter where I send interesting articles and books I’m reading, productivity hacks, leadership lessons, and an update from that week’s blog posts. There is exclusive content that only comes out in the email!

If this sounds interesting, you can use this link to sign up!