Page 135 - SpontaneousSuccessMatos

chasing easy money or simply seeking temporary
amusement.
Until I found my own Purpose Statement when I
was fifty-two, no matter what I did, something was
always missing. Looking back, I remember spending
many hours banished to the corridor at school.
Whenever a teacher said something that had the class
looking confused, I‘d pipe up and say, "Why don't you
just say ‘such and such’ and we‘ll all get it?" On one
occasion, Mr. Kennedy was trying to explain what the
hypotenuse was in the Pythagoras theorem. Everyone
was baffled, so I said it was like a ladder leaning against a
wall.
"Boothman,! Corridor. I‘ve told you not to do that.”
My Purpose Statement? I make complicated
concepts sound simple and interesting. How do I do
that? By writing books and giving speeches. Today I get
paid for doing the things I got punished for at school.
Before I discovered my Purpose Statement, if a friend
proposed, "Let's start a fish and chip shop," I might have
said, “Sure,” without much thought. But now, I can
consult my Purpose Statement and confidently say,
“Sorry, that’s not what I do.”
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