“Make your life a story worth telling.”

Today I’ve got my good friend Adam Braun on the show, and I’m excited because I’ve been able to be a part of his story over the last 5 years of building his charity, Pencils of Promise. I met Adam through a mutual friend, Reid, and after a couple beers, we set off to what has become a synchronous business partnership. As we talk about later in the podcast, one thing I saw in him when we met was a mixture that is rare: a bleeding heart for the cause, and the amazing mind to build a business. He invited me to come to Laos to shoot and build branding imagery for the organization when he had built one school. Now fast forward 5 years and we just got back from Ghana together and celebrated the ground breaking of the 200th school. I feel so grateful to have been able to be a part of the movement.

Adam’s new book called “The Promise of a Pencil” comes out this week. I’m excited about the release as it’s going to be an amazing one about finding your purpose, with 30 lessons and stories on how to do that. Not only is his story great, but if you find yourself in a place where you are searching for your purpose, it will be a great read. Adam really discovered his purpose after he was on the Semester at Sea boat that was hit by a 60 foot wave and they barely made it out alive. Now he sees living life with purpose as the most fulfilling way to live.

I always describe Adam as the guy you talk to for 5 minutes and you want to go change the world. He’s a highly inspiring individual and is on a mission to create a new space at the intersect of the non-profit and for profit space he calls “For Purpose,” which we talk a little bit about in the podcast.

Get pumped to want to get off your butt and change the world!

“The longer time that you spend being content, satisfied, and comfortable, the less exposure you have to self-discovery.”

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Some things we learn in this podcast:

• The impact of growing up in Connecticut with a fascination for finance and wall street
• What it’s like getting into the hedge fund game at 16 years old
• How working with Bain Capital helped mold his creative entrepreneurship
• How a life threatening Semester At Sea kickstarted a life of purpose
• Why meaning and purpose are core to success and a creative
• How to apply business skills to social enterprise
• The origins of Pencils of Promise
• To turn things we take for granted, like a birthday, and make an opportunity to change the world.
• Why an organization like Pencils of Promise can fuel a creative career even more than commercial shoots.

Connect with Adam: Instagram | Twitter | Website | PoP