Clarity and Focus through Three Questions

As a business leader, there is a strong temptation to try to be all things to all people. In my first
business as the performing musician, Sweet Baby James, I succumbed to that temptation. By learning as many songs from as many genres as possible, (from Pete Seeger to John Mayer) I attempted to be known as a musician that could play a request for anyone of any age or background. You should know that this is a daunting task as new songs are born at a ferocious rate due to the amazing productivity and massive creativity of original songwriters. As much as I have enjoyed learning hundreds of songs, this strategy, trying to please everyone, did not produce the results that I had hoped for. The more songs I learned the more like plain vanilla I sounded and the less unique I became.

Today I use a much different approach. Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, I provide clarity and focus to my business and life by asking three questions: WHO do I serve, HOW do I serve them, and WHY do I serve them.

WHO are the people in this big, beautiful world that YOU would love to work with, that you admire. Who are the ones for whom you wish to make a difference?  What do these people's faces look like? What captures their imagination and what are the objects of their heart's desire?

HOW does someone serve them? How does one feed, facilitate, transport, empower, and help them to be more happy and satisfied. How can you make another’s life and their life experience better? What is YOUR unique ability (yes you!) that allows you to be the missing ingredient for the perfect recipe of a good life for them, the catalyst for a needed change in them, the medicine for a lack of ease in them?

But most importantly, ask yourself, "WHY do you serve them?" This is about YOUR life purpose, what you are here for, and why you were born and ideally it is considered first before the other questions. Whether or not they realize it, everyone (yes everyone) has a life purpose. And, a few even have a mission (a life purpose on fire!) A life purpose does not have to be grand, it could be something very simple for a humble profession such as: I build furniture so that people can share meals with their loved ones throughout the seasons of their lives, or I lend my presence to people who are alone in their final days to provide a witness to the fullness of their lives, or I walk dogs so that others may experience their own live's significance and have an impact on our world, or I dispose of the garbage and junk from people's lives so that they can fill the void left behind with simplicity, beauty, and delightful wide-open spaces.


Many people have an external purpose, a business or organizational purpose, and an internal purpose, a personal reason for existence. An external purpose drives business or organizational results and success. An internal purpose is something that gets us out of bed each morning and sustains us through the challenges that inevitably come both in life and in business. As people evolve and grow, their life and business purpose is likely to change over time. As the layers of their identity peal away to reveal the authentic self, they find themselves growing into their core purpose.


The following list represents my answers for the three questions:

WHO do you serve? I serve LEADERS of organizations and businesses.
HOW do you serve them? I ask them two questions: (1.) "Who are you?" and (2.) "Why are you here?" Then, I help them to answer these two.
WHY do you serve them? (external) I am here to SERVE the SPIRIT of LEADERSHIP arising in all of us.
WHY do you serve them? (internal) I am here to MAKE a BETTER WORLD for my great grandchildren, your great grandchildren, and future generations.

Although these provide focus and clarity for me (as well as getting me out of bed in the morning), I consider them to be a work in progress and I choose to remain open to further clarification.

If I listen carefully in the deep quiet everyday, life may yet reveal to me with even more clarity and focus who I serve, how to serve them, and why I serve them.

Rain is good for me. I feel like I achieve clarity actually when it rains. The longer I have to sit and wait, the clearer my game becomes to me - Venus Williams

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