Reading Piers Morgan’s moving conversation with Joe Biden after his son’s death brought to my mind those moments in life when the power of your purpose, and the power to have a purpose, becomes so clear and important. When we find our purpose then our whole existence instantly becomes richer. We have the value and meaning to rise above whatever challenges threaten to drag us into the negative. When our purpose is also about communicating what we’ve overcome to reach that positive realisation, then it reaches the level of inspiration. For me, that is where power through purpose resides: when our lived experience of finding purpose is part of the purpose we wish to share with others.
As Biden described to Piers Morgan: ‘It's so important to remember that however bad things may seem, a lot of people are going through a lot worse than you and the way they get through it is other people reaching out to them to give them solace, and in finding a purpose. …. What I learned when my wife and daughter died was that when you have purpose, it makes it all easier to deal with.’ (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8924671/PIERS-MORGAN-cartoon-Joe-Biden-told-helped-survive-two-family-tragedies.html)
Reaching out to help people realise their purpose feels a profoundly important thing.
In my own life, the TEDx speech I gave in 2011 had a huge impact on what I’ve been able to achieve. But, not just in terms of influencing others through its vision for Advantaged Thinking (which has been on my mind with the launch of Foyer Federation's exciting new Home for Advantaged Thinking strategy). The most meaningful aspect of that speech went far beyond the outline of ‘Open Talent’ or the message to stop ‘dissing’ young people; it was the personal anecdote of how I overcame the experience of being labelled as a ‘remedial child’ to reach my true potential. Realising and sharing the story of my parents’ belief and investment in me revealed my own purpose in life to believe and invest in the talents of others. Which is why the most rewarding aspect of my InspireChilli work remains the space I have built to work directly with and support young people who are finding their purpose through social enterprise.
I want you to know how important that work is. However challenging the process to find new contracts (the curse of consultancy), the thing that will sustain InspireChilli is the relationship with young people. The time to listen to them, share opportunity to work with their skills, and invest resources for them to make their own progress, builds a powerful energy for good. Which is why I loved this year’s Room for Young People Awards, as a platform to showcase the amazing stories of individuals and services overcoming the challenges of the pandemic, proudly judged by InspireChilli’s Team Young People.
What I have missed most over the Covid-19 period is not my usual desk space at the Bootstrap Charity building in Dalston, but the social enterprise programme within it that allowed me to meet and mentor new young people. Community spaces for people to relate and create are vitally important for our future. Those of us who can invest in such spaces must continue to do so, reaching out in new imaginative ways through the digital as well as the physical, so we can all keep finding our purpose together.
