About the Book

Author's Introduction

In 2016, I was four years short of 50, and could feel the years slipping by. Like many my age, where I thought I would be at that point wasn’t where I was, and I was feeling restless, a little ineffective and slightly under-motivated.

A year earlier, after much contemplation and praying, I had made a business decision that was good for me financially, but still felt like failure. The business I envisioned running itself and funding my retirement hadn’t taken off like I thought it would, so my partner and I split and let our employees and costly office space go. It wasn’t easy, but it was a strategic decision that we made after running the numbers and seeing that we earned more on our own than we did working together with employees.

After more than ten years of running that business, I was back on my own, forced to accept that the vision I had for my company wasn’t going to be my destiny. What that destiny was, I had no idea. I just knew that I needed to figure it out quickly, so I could capitalize on the next ten years.

The Purpose Driven Life had sat on my nightstand for nearly a year when I finally picked it up in 2016. My wife Lynda had bought it at a used bookstore, and the weathered jacket it wore deterred me from giving it a chance, until I ran out of other options. Ironically, the book that would set me on my path had been a quiet witness to many bedroom conversations about business, purpose and the future. When I finally opened it, I felt foolish that the key that I was looking for was within arm’s reach nearly every night.

Adding to the mystique of The Purpose Driven Life was the uniqueness of my copy. In it were very personal thoughts shared by the previous owner. It was like I was reading a novel in the margins of a self-help book, and both had my full attention. Every night, I looked forward to spending a few minutes with both Pastor Rick Warren and a stranger who I would likely never meet.

As I read the chapters in Pastor Warren’s book, I could feel myself closing in on finding my purpose, though I wasn’t sure what that was. That came a couple of weeks into my reading, as I was sitting quietly in our weekly worship service. The book that I was reading was a nearly perfect basis for the book that I SHOULD be writing.

Since penning my first published piece in sixth grade, I had thought that I had the potential to write a book and maybe even sell a few copies. I had even started a few pieces that withered and died from neglect and a lack of passion. The motivational blog I started in 2012 showed me that I could write consistently and that at least some readers enjoyed my writing; however, there is a huge difference between writing a monthly 600-word essay and an entire book. I just didn’t have the passion to dedicate myself to writing at the level necessary to write an entire book – until I discovered my purpose.

Pastor Warren says that when you find your purpose, your life simplifies, and you become motivated and focused. I found that while daydreaming from a wooden church pew on a quiet Sunday morning. I couldn’t tell you a thing that the priest said in his sermon that Sunday, but I finally heard God.