4 May 2026 · 2 min
Mike Vance, who mentored Walt Disney and Steve Jobs, taught five questions to find your purpose: What is your purpose? What do you value? What are your talents? What dent will you make in 20 years? Who would you be if you already embodied that future self? Spend 30 to 45 days writing answers daily.
Chapters
There's no easy way to do it. You don't just wake up one day and go, oh, I found it. I know for me, I spent some time with Mike Vance, who was my mentor for many years. He helped Walt Disney, Steve Jobs. He was friends with, uh, Jack Welch and also a business coach, Mother Teresa. I asked him, what do they all have in common? And he said, Tom, they've all answered the 5 fundamental questions. And then what they do is they live by them. And I was like, what are the 5 questions? He said, number 1, they all answered what is their purpose? Like, why are they on this planet? Now, if you just stopped and answered that one, You'd already be fine. But then he said, number 2, they all answered, what do you value? Like, what are my values? And the reason why that was so important is we're gonna get bombarded with opportunities and, and requests every single day. And if you don't know what you value, you don't know what to say yes or no to. And I was like, that's pretty insightful. Then he said, number 3, they all understood their God-given talents. And I said, what does that mean? He said, they knew what they did that was impactful, that would also, you know, impact the world, create revenue, be good for business, be good for life. Think Mother Teresa. So they understood their God-given talents and they did that and got rid of everything else. But then he said, number 4, they all answered the question, what's the dent they're making in the universe? What does their life look like 20 years from now? So they created this monster vision for their business and for their life. And that's also what gave them a lot of the why, the motive for action, the juice. But then the question that moved me the most was the last one. He said, number 5, they all answered the question, who would I be if I was already there? So it's 20 years from now and you are that person. How does that person show up? How does that person dress? How does that, how does that person communicate with others? How do they show up for people? He said, they've all answered those, those questions, and that's what gave them that sustainable motive for action every single day. Think Mother Teresa as she's on the streets in Calcutta serving people in the passing of their life while she's being being asked to come back to Italy and they wanna shower her with gold and they wanna give her robes and they wanna make her a saint. And she said, I can't cuz I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to do. She knew that was her calling. So my challenge for you is why don't you spend the next 30 or 45 days, list out the 5 questions. So the more you just write and write and write, all of a sudden it's just gonna hit and you're gonna know that, that wonderful question of how do I discover my why?