A story of the pursuit of ones purpose as defined by Author Daniel Pink in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Sunset from the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, CA
Destination: a dramatic 18th-floor rooftop dining experience at the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, California complete with panoramic ocean views – awaiting the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Two thirty-something guys offered for us four women to share their prime perch in a booth along the windows, where they were winding down their work day. Nice.
Consequently, we shortly discovered all six of us had grown up in Missouri. Cheers to that! Also, did you know you can bring your large breed dogs into a restaurant? In California, apparently dogs are people too.
From this perch with sweeping ocean views. We watched actor Andrew Keegan in the booth next to us playing the very normal role of ‘Dad’. He did an excellent job.
The story would not be complete without two windsurfers and their long blonde wavy hair. One coaches high level athletes and the other being his student. Just a stop in southern California as they chased waves around the globe.
This all sets the stage for the real reason for this story. Being witness to all this from across the bar. A woman made her way to our table. Later confessing she was drawn to our energy. Which apparently was not being contained to our immediate group. She will go unnamed. As it is her story I want to share.
Upon revealing we were visiting from Kansas City. She recalled her connection via Future Farmers of America was where she showed her sheep. She realized she could make good money doing this. Later giving this pursuit up, in order to study Film Production. From where she responded to a call for Production Assistants; landing her on the movie set of Jerry McGuire and later the Wedding Crashers.
One would say they had obtained a level of success with a career in Hollywood working with Stephen Spielberg and with then Kate Hudson for 5 years. So, you can imagine when she announced she was leaving this behind in pursuit of her ‘purpose’. People were like “whaaat”?
What followed was amazing. She found herself involved with the launch of the Uber App. Initially this was presented to celebrities for a way to ditch the paparazzi by avoiding their regular drivers (yeah…..that is what we use it for too). Another she developed was Comic con (Big Bang Theory). We were in awe of her accomplishments.
But this day was huge. Her latest app was sold for a large amount of money. Cause for a celebration! This app’s intent was for tracking your moments in a pregnancy. It was inquired of her what the real reason behind the development of this app was. She explains “gay couples or those using a surrogate; miss out on the experience of a pregnancy without these moments”.
Yet with all this success. It was a tribe that she wanted on this day to share this accomplishment. She revealed “being gay means you don’t really fit in with the guys or the girls”. While I refer to her as ‘She’ yet she would say ‘He’. We were honored to be her tribe.
Best summed up, in one of my favorite quotes. It is from Holocaust survivor – Victor Frankel
“Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue. And it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.”
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