I sat down with Govindh Jayaraman on the Paper Napkin Wisdom podcast and he asked me to draw my wisdom on a napkin. I drew two overlapping circles.
The left circle: Why — your purpose, what you're actually here to do. The right circle: Personal Definition of Success — what you want your life to look like.
Where they overlap, I shaded it in and wrote: Zone of Genius.
That's where fulfillment lives. And most entrepreneurs I coach are operating almost entirely outside of it.
How I Found My Why
My why — the one I worked on with Simon Sinek — is two words: improve lives. That's it. I can do it anywhere, for anyone, at any time, for free or for pay. It doesn't require a particular business model or a particular title. It's just what I'm here to do.
My personal definition of success comes from Tony Robbins: doing what I want, where I want, with whom I want, as often as I want.
When those two things fully overlap — when I'm improving lives in the way I choose to, with people I choose to work with, at a pace I've chosen — that's my Zone of Genius. That's what I mean by life by design. And it took me years of coaching with Dr. Daniel Friedland, a neuroscientist who worked with me for eight years, to actually understand what it felt like to be in it.
The diagnostic Dr. Danny used was simple: what gives you energy and what drains it? He'd watch me talk about my work. When I described facilitating an EO Forum retreat — twelve hours in and I have more energy than I did at hour one — he'd say: "Look at that. Look what that does to you." That's how I knew facilitation and coaching was the work. Not because it fit a business plan. Because of what it did to my energy.
What Happened When I Applied It to My Business
Before I understood any of this, I ran a general staffing company in Detroit. Anything for a buck. Temps, placements, whatever the client needed. Standard industry model.
When I got clear that my why was improve lives, the whole business reorganized around that idea. We built a candidate-centric model — unusual in an industry where most recruiters sit at the top of the pyramid and the placement fee drives everything.
We inverted it. Candidate first. Company second. Revenue at the bottom, because that's where it actually falls when the other two are right.
And we made it a standard: if a job didn't improve the life of the candidate, we didn't encourage them to take it. If a candidate didn't genuinely improve the business, we didn't encourage the company to hire them. Only when both were true did we feel comfortable making the recommendation.
Clients would push back. "You've got Bob making $25 an hour — you think he'll take this for $22?" And we'd say no, we don't think so. Because Bob has to go home and tell his wife he's leaving a job he's had for five years to take a pay cut. That doesn't improve Bob's life.
Here's what that clarity did for the business: my team could make placement decisions without me in the room. The question was simple enough to diagram, concrete enough to apply, and human enough that it actually resonated. They didn't need a policy manual. They needed a why.
The Question Most Entrepreneurs Never Ask
I have coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and the pattern is consistent: the ones who feel the emptiest are not the ones who haven't succeeded. They're the ones who succeeded at something they never actually chose.
They chased someone else's definition of winning — their industry's, their peers', their parents', some cultural standard they absorbed without examining it — and hit it. And the hit didn't feel like anything.
Dr. Daniel Friedland, who was nearly in tears with me one day when I was asking when I was finally going to feel happy after all the Inc. 5000 appearances, put it directly: "Stop chasing happy. Happy isn't sustainable. Start designing for satisfaction."
The difference matters. Happiness is a reaction to a moment. Satisfaction is what you feel when your life is aligned with what you actually care about. You can design for satisfaction. You can't really design for happiness — it shows up as a byproduct when you're in the right conditions.
The Two-Circle Exercise
Draw two circles that partially overlap. In the left circle, write your Why — not your mission statement, not your elevator pitch, but the actual reason the work matters to you. In the right circle, write your Personal Definition of Success — not what sounds impressive, but what your life looks like when it's working on your terms. What are you doing? Who are you with? Where are you? How does it feel?
Look at where they overlap. How much of your current work lives inside that overlap? And how much of it lives outside it — in the territory of obligation, expectation, or someone else's definition of good?
That gap is the real conversation.
If you're not sure where your ceiling is — whether it's structural, strategic, or a matter of chasing targets that were never really yours — the Growth Ceiling Audit is a place to start.
With gratitude,
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does success feel empty even when I've achieved everything I planned?
Because you probably achieved someone else's plan. Most entrepreneurs absorb their definition of success from the culture around them — revenue milestones, headcount, status markers — without ever stopping to ask whether those targets connect to what they actually want their life to look like. When you hit a goal that was never really yours, the reward doesn't land. There's nothing to feel because the achievement doesn't validate what you actually care about.
What is the Zone of Genius for entrepreneurs?
The Zone of Genius is where your why — your core purpose, what you're actually here to do — overlaps with your personal definition of success. The purpose side answers why the work matters. The success side answers what you want your life to look like: what you do, where you do it, who you do it with, and how often. Where those two circles overlap is where work produces meaning rather than just output. Most entrepreneurs operate almost entirely outside that overlap without realizing it.
How do I discover my why as a business owner?
Start by looking at where your energy goes rather than where your attention goes. Todd Palmer worked with neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Friedland for eight years tracking one question: what gives me energy and what drains it? The activities and interactions that reliably increase your energy — that leave you more engaged at hour twelve than hour one — are pointing toward your why. The work you endure rather than enjoy is pointing away from it.
How does having a clear purpose affect my team's ability to make decisions?
Dramatically. When your why is clear and simple enough to diagram, your team can make decisions without you in the room. Todd Palmer's staffing company operated by a single principle — does this placement improve the life of the candidate? — and that standard empowered recruiters to decline placements that didn't qualify, even against client pressure, without escalating to leadership. A clear why isn't just a values statement. It's a decision-making tool that scales.
What is the difference between a personal definition of success and a goal?
A goal is an outcome you're trying to reach. A personal definition of success is the broader condition you're trying to create — what your life looks like when it's working on your terms. Without the destination clearly defined, you hit goals and feel nothing because you have no frame for what they mean. With it defined, every goal either moves you toward the life you're building or it doesn't — and that distinction changes which goals you chase.
