What's Your Purpose

A kid's brain is such an amazing thing. Sometimes the questions they ask really catch you off guard. While I was writing a post for Hotel Charlie, my 7 year old daughter asked, "Dad, what is your purpose?"

I thought that is what I heard, but I asked her again. She asked my purpose. I said, "What do you mean?" She wanted to know what my purpose was with Human Catalyst. Why do I even do it? Is my goal to sell a lot of shirts, or be famous, etc? I wanted to give her a truthful answer but she really made me think.
All day my head is consumed with HC, but rarely do I stop and think about the purpose. At surface level, of course, it's to make the brand grow and be sustainable. That isn't the answer she was looking for so I needed some time to really think. I realized that often times we get misguided with chasing the carrot, but that really isn't why I do this.

I started HC in the first place because I needed to make my own job.  It was purely monetary reasons but fast forward a few years and that is only a small portion of the purpose. Trying to provide for my family is a no brainer but deeper than that is my goal to make HC a connector for people. There are so many people out there that need help, and I just want to offer what I could. I want HC to be the bridge to get them where they need to go. Sometimes that bridge comes in the form of advice, connections, or hopefully one day even providing employment. The clothing is what keeps the lights on, but I know that HC is  more than that.

So to sum it up, my answer was this, "I do this so I can take care of you guys. I want to be able to make it so Mommy doesn't have to work so hard. I want to make other people happy. Whether that is by my art or through connecting with them. I just want to do it the best that I can."

I know I am doing something right because my daughter stopped and replied, "I think you are doing a great job." So I couldn't be any happier than that.