Winnie Hart speaks to the Entrepreneurs' Organization about leadership and purpose, drawing on the 2020 annual planning meeting and the launch of the Purpose Project. She calls on EO members to unite around a shared vision for impact through entrepreneurship.
Have you ever reached down in your pocket and found something that you thought you lost? Why do you do what you do? A speaker handed me this coin at an EO chapter event in 2009. I'd been in EO about five years at the time, and I remember just consuming as much as I could. And I remember sitting in the front row that day, front and center, thinking about leadership. Because up until that time, I thought my role as a leader was to tell people what to do. But what I learned that day was that great leaders inspire everyone to take action. I remember writing that statement in my journal, and I remember noting the date April 22nd. That was just over 13 years ago. And something that I still think about every day and something we continually strive to achieve. In eo. Great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Why do we do what we do? What is our purpose as an organization? This conversation started in February 2020, where EO members, leaders, staff came together and traveled five hours by bus from Los Angeles to San Francisco, California. This was the annual planning meeting. Each shared what they individually stood for. Why we do what we do. The goal was to understand our own purpose and how our individual purpose connects with the purpose of eo. And this was the beginning of defining a broader purpose for our organization. This was the last time many of us saw each other in person. Then, five months later, July 2020, we virtually came together to launch our new brand, our values, our purpose to help entrepreneurs achieve their full potential. We knew little then the impact we would make in the months and years that followed. And today, so much of our worlds have changed. We look to that purpose and ask, were we thinking big enough? Were we being bold? And how have we grown together? What impact have we made to each other, our regions and this world? One of the many books that inspires me is the Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. He writes about great leaders, the ones that think beyond the short term, the ones that know that it's not about the next quarter or the next leadership role. It's about the next generations and the ones that follow that great leaders set up their organizations to succeed beyond their own lifetimes. And when they do, the outcomes extraordinary. This requires thinking beyond a why, a purpose which he calls a just cause, which is a specific vision of a future state that does not yet exist. A token of inspiration from Simon Sinek. Simon Sinek was that speaker in 2009 that handed me this coin. Great leaders inspire everyone to take action. We, as entrepreneurs, take action every day. We innovate, we take risks, we See opportunity and a challenge. We want to make the world a better place for our teams, our families, our communities, and for humankind. We want to make a difference beyond ourselves, for the people in our lives and for a better future for everyone. The question is, what better future are we making? What contribution are we making in this world? And why do we do what we do? What could we achieve together that none of us could do alone? And something that may never be achieved but will always be pursued. We realized at that moment that we needed to come back together to build a future vision and a purpose that would help get us there. We launched the Purpose Project along with member leaders to ask those very questions. Did we get it right? We started with our current purpose to help entrepreneurs achieve their full potential. And added so that. So that what? What would happen if we did? And these themes emerged. To grow together. To create unlimited possibilities for all humanity. Every person on this planet. Solve any problem. To bring the collective potential of entrepreneurs together. To transform the world. Build a better tomorrow. Infinite possibilities exist for all. To eliminate boundaries. To grow and shape a better future for our world. Achieve their full potential. To create opportunity, transform the world. Unlock the potential of entrepreneurs better together and inspire better leaders. To enable the world to reach new heights. To move the world forward, shape a better future and create a better tomorrow. To create a more impactful world. To eliminate boundaries. To enhance diversity through global community leadership. To grow together. To create a more connected, unified world that unleashes human potential. To create ripples of changes. To design a world of unlimited possibilities for growth. Empower entrepreneurs. We can reach our full potential. To spark transformational growth. To create opportunities for all people. Unlimited possibilities exist for all. To build a better tomorrow. To advance entrepreneurship as a force for good. To build a better tomorrow. Ripples of change A force for good. Incredible, incredible thoughts from all of our leaders. And all see the need to move the world forward to create a better future and believe that entrepreneurship is the way to get there. We realized we needed to shift from the me in our purpose to the we in our full potential. We think big. We are bold today. Together we stand with the world and for each other. Our potential is infinite and we are playing that infinite game. Picture a day when we unlock the full potential of all entrepreneurs. Picture a day when we are known as the force for good in entrepreneurship. Picture a day when all people know EO and the impact we make. When that bus finally arrived just south of San Francisco for the EO planning meeting in 2020, I remember looking out the window 1440. Multiversity. 1440. The number that represents the number of minutes in a single day. We couldn't even count how many minutes we've spent at EO events, how many speakers we've seen, forum meetings, every genuine connection that we've made and how very precious every moment has been. And I think about the moments in front of us, the challenges we will face, the problems we will solve, the impact we will make. This is our time to grow together, to live our purpose, a noble purpose that drives to advance a cause bigger than ourselves, for each other, for our teams, our families, our forums, our chapters, our communities, our regions and humankind. We are eo. We move the world forward by unlocking the full potential of entrepreneurs.
