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“…And now comes the most difficult trial of all,” said the master.

The student knelt with his head bowed and remained silent.

“So far you’ve completed four trials.

“In the trial of fire, you defeated your peers in combat.

“In the trial of earth, you remained still in meditation for two days and two nights.

“In the trial of water, you survived the gauntlet.

“Now comes the trial of air. Are you ready?”

The student nodded, then immediately felt his body dematerialize.

Not a second later, he reappeared in a vast empty space. All he saw in every direction was a black void.

Just as the thought of what might happen next appeared in his mind, so too did the master’s voice:

“The trial of air is simple: you must create—and pass—a trial of your own creation.”

The creation and continuation of your purpose-based business is your own trial of air. No-one can tell you what your business should offer, and no-one can tell you how you should present that offer.

What I can tell you is that there are four ingredients every purpose-based business needs:

1. Identity: if you don’t know who you are, and if you don’t represent yourself with authenticity and confidence, no-one will be able to relate to you. And if no-one can relate to you, no-one will become confident that you can help them.
2. Ideas: if you don’t demonstrate your personality, knowledge, skills and expertise through social media content, no-one will know that you have those things—nor how they can be of use.
3. Income: if you don’t generate revenue, you won’t be able to continue helping people. You’ll have to continue employment or freelancing to meet your basic needs and your impact on the world will forever be limited.
4. Inventions: if you don’t learn to package your knowledge as products and services people want, they’ll never be able to get the full benefit of it.