How I came up with my somewhat weird mission statement

We only get one life, so I think it is worthwhile to ponder the question: why the heck am I here?

That's what I have done - probably too extensively! - and what ultimately led me to define the mission statement for my personal venture as:

Be chill and create from love.

In this article, I want to explain the journey of how I arrived at this particular, somewhat strange mission!

Part 1: Be Chill

It starts with my favourite novel: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

Reading it again a year or so ago, I was once again delighted by the best job interview of all times!

The main character, Siddhartha, seeks employment with a merchant by the name of Kamaswami and upon being asked what skills he possesses, Siddhartha answers:

I can think, I can wait, I can fast.

Doesn't sound like the perfect candidate to me!

In any case, I am particularly fascinated by waiting as a skill, and on this I wrote the article On Waiting: A Skill Often Overlooked.

I think we often rush from one thing to the next, never find peace, and consequently often do more harm than good, so I would be well advised to get a bit better at being patient.

Here is how Siddhartha explains his recipe for success:

When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn’t let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal.

This is where I get the first part of the mission from, to be chill.

Part 2: Create From Love

Notwithstanding Siddhartha's confidence, I figured that this by itself may not make for the most successful business venture, so in the past few weeks I started reading a whole bunch of books on entrepreneurship.

One of the first ones I read was The Millionaire Fastlane by M. J. de Marco. This was recommended in many 'best entrepreneurship books' lists and it fascinated me since it seemed exactly contradictory to what I am after: I neither want to become rich, nor do so through a get rich quick scheme.

In the beginning, The Millionaire Fastlane didn't disappoint. De Marco relates meeting a Lamborghini driver in his youth, and ever since then being driven by the desire to become rich and owning one himself.

In pursuit of this dream, De Marco starts various business ventures. All of them are unsuccessful.

Eventually, he comes to the realisation that a business is not successful because someone wants to make money, a business is successful because it solves people's needs.

This is an interesting thought, and one I hadn't considered before: good business can be about helping others and shouldn't be based on selfish desired.

And what's one opposite of selfishness? Love!

And that's where the second part of the mission originates from, to create from love.

Part 3: and

The last missing piece of this mission is to connect the seemingly contradictory passive being chill with the active creation of things.

That sounds like a tall order! But thankfully this is exactly the problem that Hindu and Buddhist thinkers have been exploring for a few millennia.

In any case, I think I'll leave the details of that discussion to a future article, since we've already got enough philosophy for a day!

I will also discuss in future articles the other elements of my plan:

• To develop small products by myself or with others, and
• To focus on problems for which new problems become available through generative AI.

If you think that could be of any interest or entertainment to you, please consider subscribing, and always be welcome to let me know your thoughts via DM on LinkedIn or X.