This post is about a life-long career goal I’m setting for myself.

The goal is: I will serve one million people with a net positive impact on the world in a personally sustainable way.

A reachable goal is a clear goal. That is why I need to define this goal more clearly:

  • By “serve” I mean producing value for people.
  • One million can be a sum from multiple different services I provided.
  • By “net positive impact” I mean creating a positive change for the sake of society. It can be either direct (the service itself creates a positive change), or indirect (the service is an enabler for something which creates a positive change).
  • In case I am part of an organization, I will consider that I am serving somebody when I am at a position that is both measurable and has leverage. The performance of my work needs to be measurable so I can safely say I did indeed provide value. It also needs enough leverage in the sense that my decisions have a big effect. This is usually a leader position of some sort, like CEO, founder, lead of engineering, product manager, etc.
  • By “personally sustainable way” I mean that I should not sacrifice my health, relationships, happiness or any other foundational and important area of life in pursuit of this goal. Not just because a career should be there to fund those in the first place, but because that is a good long-term strategy for reaching big goals like these.

A goal needs to have a clear purpose. This is a reflection of internal motivators which are indications that a person will stick to the goal long-term.

He who has a WHY to live can bear almost any HOW. ~ Nietzsche

Here is my purpose for the goal:

  • While “kingdom of happiness lies within you”, I believe that a kingdom of a true life meaning lies in a world outside of you - by serving and loving others.
  • I want to make a best use of my skills and strengths that were gifted to me by my parents through unconditional love and a lot of sacrifices.
  • This entails self-actualization. I want to become a best version of myself.
  • It will force me to think about what solution can I bring to this world.
  • It will force me to be a producer, not a consumer.
  • It will force me to do valuable work, not busy work.
  • I will force me to learn to listen to problems, and how to solve them, which is a timeless skill.
  • If I am able to serve 1 million people, I expect to satisfy my minimal financial expectations.
  • Almost nothing excites me more than building products people love to use.