TikTok & the Purpose Filled Life
Enjoying the climb to 1 million views
Last week Aydan Al-Saad (head of UKI & Nordics at Ravio, among other his other entrepreneurial pursuits), sat down with me for close to an hour (or however long that is in the UK, don’t have a calculator out in front of me at the moment), and we talked about our shared experiences - riding startup rocketships (what goes up, might come down), becoming fathers, going viral on tiktok (him, not me) and most importantly - finding your purpose in life.
Ready to find yours? Let’s go.
One of the greatest takeaways I….umm….took away from our conversation is: none of this happens overnight.
I mean sure Aydan has only uploaded three or so videos on tiktok and is already close to (and likely now has broken) the million view mark (insert some disclaimer on past results not being indicative of future performance here) - but for 99.99% of cases in life - whether its the CEO of a fortune 500 company, your favorite hollywood actor, or even the small business owner that lives down the street - none of their successes just… “happened”.
Its the result of days, weeks, months, likely years of grinding - waiting to gain traction - suffering through defeat - to eventually reach - success.
Learn on the way up (good times). Learn on the way down (bad times).
And Aydan’s advice? Start now.
Success is a hockey stick - and like all formidable slopes, you don’t reach the top unless you climb. And that climb is usually an unseen, unrecognized, and unappreciated journey by those around you.
Overnight success? No way, I’ve been climbing.
Aydan’s learned similar lessons with his adventures not just professionally (the rollercoasters of working with me at Hired, and subsequently Covid-unicorn Hopin) but also personally - launching European Income on TikTok (which, I just checked, has 5.8M views, so feel free to already disregard my million view remark made above) and the London Startup Club. Good things take time, but as Aydan notes - when you find what you’re interested in, and carve out your niche, good things come. “Enjoy it.”
When I consider my own professional and personal journeys, “enjoy it” is one of the most powerful phrases I can think of to articulate just what it takes to keep up the grind. Enjoying what you’re doing means you’ve found what it is that makes you the best version of yourself. It doesn’t mean its not still work, but it means the work is intentional, it is exciting, and you’re doing what you’re put on this planet to do.
It’s purpose.
And a purpose filled life is a condition precedent to success, money, fame…whatever it is you may be chasing…Chase purpose first.
Finding what you’re meant to do, what excites you, what you’re built for - well, that will invariably yield all of the success, money, fame, etc. that you were looking for in the first place.
But remember, your purpose is yours - and yours alone.
The optics of success, are purely that - optics.
Having a sexy title, cool company, fancy car, none of that matters if it in search of itself - it is only a (very cool, but wholly unnecessary) byproduct of what you should truly be searching for - purpose.
Find the thing that energizes you. Find your purpose.
And don’t wait.
Start climbing now.