What the world urgently needs are people who understand the challenges and opportunities ahead, cherish high values, have the courage to stand up for what is right, and are willing to build the skills needed to address the problems ahead. Most people possess a drive to succeed and a need to discover and live a life of purpose.

Viktor Frankl was held captive in Nazi concentration camps. As a physician and a psychiatrist, he believed that the young, tough, and healthy would withstand the horrors of the detention camps. While there, Viktor continually interviewed and aided his fellow detainees.

What Viktor learned was that the secret to surviving was not youth, strength, or health. Those that did survive the camps possessed one common trait. They all had a real reason to endure. Each had meaning in their life. These insights changed his life forever.

Viktor shared, “the men who walked through the huts comforting others; giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man, but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s own attitude in any given set of circumstances—to choose one’s own way.” Victor survived the incredible tribulations and humiliation of the Nazi camps by committing himself to assisting other prisoners to build meaning in their lives and to keep them from committing suicide—which unfortunately was too commonplace. Victor hung on to his vision of eventually meeting again his wife and of standing before a classroom once again and teaching the powerful deep insights he was learning.

How can you make a difference? One of the most important things you can do is to identify and concentrate on your most noble of passions. In fact, the more honorable the passions, the better you will be able to assist others.

Please don't waste your career or business on things that don't matter. If you think about it, you probably spend the prime of your life and the bulk of your days focused on earning a living.  Your work impacts how you think about yourself and the kind of person you develop into.

Resolve not to waste the majority of your career or business life-time working on something that does not matter deeply to you. Few things are worse than spending your time and career feeling you have no purpose and are simply captive at work and a slave to a paycheck.