You hit a wall.

Nothing is going your way.

The advice that you get or read generally falls within these two areas:

1. Try harder.

Wake up earlier. Send more emails. Apply to more jobs. You have to stay the course and be persistent.

Nothing wrong with this advice. In fact, many success stories are built on hard work and persistence.

2. Fail Fast.

Pivot quickly. Try something new. Adapt and change with the times.

Again, nothing wrong with this advice either.

But here’s a third piece of advice when it comes to your career, that is not often talked about:

Find a purpose and not just a job.

• A job can be taken from you, but your purpose no one can take from you.
• A job can provide a paycheck. A purpose can provide fulfillment.
• Don’t ask where I can find a job; instead, what problem can I solve?
• Look to solve problems and create value, and not pursue a paycheck.
• Innovate, expand, and look to bless others.
• Shift from being a consumer to being a producer.

Words into Actions.

Finally, two leaders from different industries took time out of their busy days to share thoughtful advice with me. It’s so good that I had to share it with others…

On interviewing:

“Be authentic and confident in what you know, but equally confident in areas you need to explore or develop further. As a leader, I prefer self-awareness and honesty over someone filling the space with made-up answers or just trying to oversell.”

On metrics and KPIs as a tool for collaboration:

“There is no perfect answer to that, so we shifted our mentality. KPIs aren’t designed to point blame. They’re designed to drive action. We treat (this metric) as an HR KPI; all teams are responsible for moving it in the right direction. We work together to determine the root cause, and sometimes we adjust what we’re doing in several parts of HR.

These two VPs took time out of their day to share what they’ve learned.

No bonus.

No raise.

No Podcast that can go viral.

Just the fulfillment of helping someone find clarity.

Maybe that’s the reason they are leading many in their organizations.

I think so.