What is Purposeful?

Purposeful aims to shift the capitalist system towards one that serves people and planet for generations by helping individuals and organisations to design purposeful jobs and businesses.

Why do you use AI?

Purposeful believes in using AI for the betterment of humankind by helping us think beyond the walls of both personal and societal constructs. Most of us already have a sense of what makes us feel alive and what we care most about, but are clueless on how to apply them to our work. Purposeful leverages on the power of AI to expand our imagination and connect the dots in ways that transcend our own mental models and biases. We can then make better informed decisions in our day-to-day life, especially for complex matters like career.

We are continously training our AI to better support you in understanding your interests and motivations, and connecting them in the most relatable yet inspiring ways to possible work unique to your profile. As with any new technology, there are bound to be bugs. We seek your patience and understanding as we work towards a better version of Purposeful. We are deeply grateful for you being with us on this journey from the beginning.

Why is this free?

We envision a world where everyone is empowered to explore, imagine and strive towards their flourishing selves and societies. We acknowledge that such a world requires changes to existing systems, such as, addressing basic safety and healthcare needs for all, as well as paying decent wages across all jobs that are valuable to the society. While we cannot immediately change and create new rules to existing systems, we can start by helping everyone with exploration, imagination, and hopefully experimentation.

To change a system, we have to be able to influence from the top. Therefore, we intend to use aggregated and anonymised data that we gathered to generate insights that can inform organisation leaders and policymakers on what truly motivates people, the types of societies we aspire to live in, as well as the types of jobs and industries that make us feel engaged and fulfilled. Through these data-backed conversations, we hope to agree on the kind of work, economic structures and systems that support our flourishing and what we need to do now to get there.

Is my data secure?

Absolutely, your privacy and data security are our top priorities. No data will be shared with any external party, except in the form of aggregated and anonymised data that we will publish from time to time, as part of our efforts to create economy or system that supports flourishing of people and planet. You can refer to our Data Protection Notice for more details.

When will Purposeful for Business launch?

We are working on developing the tools for businesses and are in the process of doing beta testing with a few companies. We plan to launch Purposeful for Businesses by mid 2025. If you are keen to find out more or to be updated on the progress of the development, do sign up to be on our waiting list. We will send updates to those on our waiting list and also offer early bird privileges to show our gratitude for the trust and faith in our product. We seriously promise no spam.

Which other leaders or organisations are championing a purposeful economy?

The examples listed here are purely to give an idea of how purpose-driven businesses look like and a few ongoing voice from academia to consultancy firms in advocating a purpose-driven economy. They are not representative of the entire ecosystem of individuals, businesses and organisations that make up the purpose economy.

• Alex Edmans, Finance Professor at the London Business School and author of "Grow the Pie", who researches and teaches about how companies can deliver both purpose and profit.
• Purpose Economy, a think tank based in Hamburg that makes steward-ownership accessible to help keep business independent and purpose-driven.
• Patagonia, an outdoor clothing and gear company that operates under a steward-ownership model, with a mission statement "we're in the business to save our home planet"
• Bosch, an engineering and technology company with a mission statement to provide technology "invented for life", is owned largely by a charitable foundation, but the voting rights are largely held by an industrial trust, enabling Bosch to plan over the long term and undertake upfront investments in safeguarding of its future
• Ramboll, a global architecture, engineering and consultancy company with a mission to create sustainable societies and drive positive change for their clients, has a foundation ownership structure that ensures long-term and independent development of the company, its employees and communities they serve
• Aaron Hurst, author of the "Purpose Economy" and founder of Purpose Mindset, alongside Akhtar Badshah
• Naina Dhingra, McKinsey Partner based in New York that focuses on tapping into purpose to lift individuals, teams and organisations
• Adam Penny, CEO of The Beautiful Truth, a publishing company based in London that interviews leaders and writes about purpose
• Hubert Joly, former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and one of the authors of "The Heart of Business"
• Purposeful Growth Institute, a nonprofit corporation with a mission to develop the leaders required for a more inclusive and sustainable version of capitalism that is fair and healthy for all people and our planet
• Purposeful Business, a consulting firm based in San Diego that helps organisations get clarity on their purpose and create value for all
• Doughnut Economics (also the Doughnut Economics Action Lab), founded by Kate Raworth, an economist focused on transforming economic theory and practice so that it reflects the social and ecological realities of the 21st century

Purposeful is not affiliated to any of the organisations and leaders mentioned above, but we recognise each and everyone's effort in making the world more purposeful. There are many more individuals and organisations out there that are advocating a purpose-driven narrative, so do give a shoutout if you would like to work together!

What is wrong with current capitalist system?

For most part of human existence, the purpose of work focused on serving the community we live in, so that the community could thrive. When Xenophon first came up with the term "economics" in Ancient Greece, he defined it as the art of household management. From the 18th century onwards, Industrial Revolution made mass production possible and mechanised the definition of "work". We received regular salaries and started wanting more things i.e. the rise of middle class. Alongside the prevalence of economic theories of profit maximisation and growth, businesses started producing things as cheaply as possible to satisfy our wants and maximise their profits. Profits became the obsession of every business owner and government, little attention was paid to how these activities affected our planet, and sometimes, the people. Even as the economy shifts away from labour-oriented to knowledge-based and service-oriented work, the obsession with profits continue.

The result of decades focusing on maximising profits is the nested crises we face today e.g. climate crisis, political crisis, mental health crisis. An economic system that used to prioritise serving the community so that the community could flourish has shifted to prioritising wealth. Many businesses grew by extracting the planet resources, including human labour, just because there was abundance. But everything has a limit. We are increasingly experiencing such limits in our day-to-day, from natural disasters and unpredictable weather, to a sense of disengagement and helplessness. Purposeful believes that we urgently need to transform our capitalist system and economic structures in order to keep our people and planet flourishing for generations. If you are keen to read more about these topics, we highly recommend starting with Kate Raworth's "Doughnut Economics".

How do you define "purposeful" jobs and businesses?

We define purposeful business as one that creates profits only through creating long-term value for society, i.e. value that is regenerative and improves the resilience of people and planet. This is adapted from the definition offered by Alex Edmans in his book "Grow the Pie - How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit".

Purposeful businesses ask themselves questions such as, "how is its existence adding value to the society, whether the value is regenerative and improves resilience of people and planet, and most importantly, what are the possible (side) effects on the ecosystem as a result of its activities". Being mindful of our actions, be it on the people we interact with or the systems we are trying to influence, is key to being purposeful. In his book, Edmans shared that businesses could create value by looking at the resources and expertise the company has in hand and how the people could use these creatively to serve the society. Ultimately, the company is run by people, and every one of them should feel empowered to be purposeful at work. A company's responsibility is not merely to provide jobs, it is to allow individuals to be assigned to careers where they can use their talents to serve society and flourish as humans.

There's no such thing as a single purpose or calling in life?

This is for the philosophical-minded among us and happy to hear your thoughts. We do not believe that there is a single purpose or calling in life. Our beliefs around sense of purpose or meaning are similar to those of Viktor Frankl and Jean-Paul Sartre, just to name a few. Viktor Frankl developed Logotherapy, considered the third Viennese School of Psychotherapy following Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology. In Logotherapy, Frankl argued that life has meaning under all circumstances and that all of us have the freedom of choice, even in suffering, to choose the meaning of that circumstance. Sartre echoed similar view that "life has no meaning a priori...It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose". Therefore, Purposeful is not meant to help you articulate the single purpose or calling of your life, but it is meant to articulate your sense of purpose at that moment or phase in your life. We intend to keep this free version going forever so that everyone can return to use this at any point in life.

How does the AI-Assisted Self-Discovery process work?

This Self-Discovery process will require you to answer four carefully designed questions that delve into (i) what engages you in life, (ii) what engages you at work, (iii) the topics you're most curious about and (iv) the ideal society you would like to live in. These can be difficult questions for most of us, but rest assured that our AI will help you to the best of its ability whenever you ask for help. Don't worry if you don't have clear answers for any of them despite the prompts provided by our AI. This is free for everyone to try, so you can always restart from the beginning, edit your responses along the way or update your responses another time. Whenever you've responded to all four questions, our AI will process your responses and generate work profiles that connect your interests, motivations and ideal society in a manner that is unique to you.

Why are the work profiles not matched with existing jobs market?

The work profiles that our AI generates are meant to inspire everyone to reimagine our career in a manner that is aligned with our unique sense of purpose. For example, someone curious about technology and cares about having nature in cities may consider Conservation Technologist work. In an ideal world, we are able to seek out or design such work that supports our journey of self-actualisation. However, we acknowledge that existing jobs market and systems are far from ideal. This free version will serve to inspire and spark conversations as a first step. When the timing is ripe, we will definitely introduce the feature to match work profiles to existing jobs market.

Can I download the visuals and responses generated?

You can certainly download the visuals generated since they are meant to be shared with others. We would like to see more people sharing about their ideal societies and purposeful careers on social media. Remember to tag us @purposeful.world on Instagram!

While you cannot download text responses generated, they will always be kept in your account and retrievable whenever you need it. Your responses may be paraphrased but the gist will always be retained.

I have questions that are not answered here, how can I get in touch with the team?

We love curiosity! You can reach out to us via the comment section right at the end of this page. We will do our best to reply promptly.