Martin Luther King Jr. once famously said, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” This powerful quote underscores an important virtue that can guide life. A life devoid of the meaning that drives people to live for a cause is impoverished, even if it is glittering with material success. Purpose drives human beings to live for something greater than life itself. The meaning of life that we attribute to things has a strong influence on how we see life, humanity, our jobs, and the people we relate to.
As Viktor Frankl observed in Man’s Search for Meaning, humanity’s main concern is not merely gaining pleasure or avoiding pain, but finding meaning in life. Frankl argued that a human being is not driven by the satisfaction of basic needs alone, but fundamentally by a “will to meaning” — an innate drive to find purpose even in times of difficulty and suffering. When individuals lack this anchor, no amount of material comfort can fill the void. Indeed, without a clear sense of why we exist, life becomes a series of busy events without a destination, reducing our existence to mere survival rather than intentional living.
We cannot deny the reality that modern life, with all its incessant demands, calls for pragmatism and pushes us toward the allure of a stable life. This stability often seems to come not through pursuing elusive goals or larger-than-life purposes, but from realistically adjusting our expectations and shrewdly dealing with the environment around us, including our jobs, relationships, and money.
Ideally, surrendering our realistic instincts to some form of ideal or utopian expectation — grounded in the fairness of life and the hope of leaving a legacy that transcends time and space — is sometimes seen as mere naïveté and, at best, Quixotism. This view dismisses such thinking as impractical idealism driven by romantic notions, lofty goals, or grand chivalrous actions without regard for practical reality.
But losing purpose in our lives, professions, and relationships comes at a heavy cost. Modern humanity has been driven to accumulate wealth, status, and fame at the expense of so-called “ideal goals” such as purpose and commitment, even when the reward does not come immediately. This creates a generation in which purpose and sacrifice are seen as a lack of understanding of “real life.” Real life, in this view, becomes an existence bound by short-term, myopic, and immediate gratification rather than long-term, generational legacy.
In this context, what holds the community together is not trust, love for one’s profession, or a genuine desire to improve things, but a formal legal statute. The calculating modern mind may view this as a bizarre and unrealistic adulation of old-fashioned tradition — perhaps even a religion-induced false consciousness, as described in the Marxist tradition. Indeed, Marx argued that in a materialist system, where material ownership ultimately defines one’s worth, noble ideas of living for something that transcends materialism might be dismissed as farce.
Furthermore, Maslow, in his famous theory of the hierarchy of needs, originally argued that one cannot satisfy higher-order needs, such as self-actualization or contributing to society without monetary reward, until lower needs are met. However, in his later life, Maslow revised this view, stating that one can — and perhaps even should — not be confined by such strict hierarchies, and that it is possible to achieve self-actualization even when lower-level needs are not fully satisfied.
Despite this, the spirit of the age has vigorously hunted down any remnant of such notions. Everyone seems to be struggling just to get by, viewing others as competitors. This predatory perception is weakening social cohesion, as relationships — even among relatives — are increasingly defined by financial or material success. Marriage risks becoming a careful calculation of a potential partner’s financial and material status rather than a union shaped by love, compatibility, and shared purpose. Are we creating social zombies, where people place less value on spiritual and communal values and elevate material success as the supreme feature of life?
The pressure is real, driven not only by cultural messaging but also by systemic financial demands, skyrocketing costs of living, and the scarcity of stable, high-paying jobs. These harsh economic factors create genuine survival anxiety that deeply strains social bonds, making the scramble for security feel like necessity rather than greed. Yet compounding this pressure is the alluring image of a luxurious lifestyle promoted on social media, which intensifies the competitive spirit by making people feel they are missing out on “the good life.” As a result, people are driven to replicate and experience that good life for themselves, often sacrificing moral convictions and, at times, their decency for immediate financial gain and fame. They fail to critically question whether the enchanted and glamorized life represented on social media actually provides depth or enriches a person holistically.
Yes, travel to exotic destinations may have recreational value and may even deepen our experience by exposing us to a different world and making us more aware of livelihoods beyond our own background. However, does that mean everybody should do it? Is it worth it if it comes at the expense of your savings or your future? Few stop to consider the environmental damage it may cause. Bewitched and enchanted by the allure of social expectations and uncritically absorbed notions of a glamorous life, people continually strive to repeat the experience.
At the core of this cultural disposition is a lack of purpose. Cultivating purpose in an age that discourages it requires intentional inward reflection — a deliberate choice to step off the treadmill of external validation and reconnect with what truly sustains the human spirit. Discovering our purpose requires looking beyond the immediate pressures of the world and aligning our daily actions with enduring values. Without it, culture slowly degrades toward materialism, and losing oneself in the process becomes deeply costly.
A purpose-driven life has a long-term orientation. It sees life as a seed and envisions a life of contributing to and nourishing individuals and organizations. A purpose-driven life can endure pain and inconvenience for the sake of the greater good, seeing each day as an opportunity to build something of greater value for future generations. A generation that forgets or becomes indifferent to future generations is a lost generation; it forgets the price that was paid to bring us here. The purpose-driven individual discerns whether organizations and people place the long-term well-being of society at the center of their drive, aligns with that purpose, and rejects anything that goes against it. For such a person, the monetary value a company offers is not the sole standard.
Companies with cost-oriented marketing may have a short-term advantage over purpose-driven organizations. However, when it comes to earning loyal, long-term customers and sustainable profits, success is tied to having a larger purpose that justifies existence. People buy a company’s story before they buy the commodities it sells. If they connect with that purpose, they know that every penny they spend not only fulfills a physical need but also satisfies higher-order needs, such as contributing to a cause and promoting values they hold dear. This model is now widely considered one of the best marketing strategies for attracting support from diverse stakeholders, including the government, the broader society, and customers invested in the product.
Similarly, companies are looking for recruits who possess not only relevant skills and knowledge but also a bold personal and organizational vision that can harmonize with the company’s mission. The old days when a relevant degree and work experience were enough are fading, as employers now pay close attention to individuals who think differently and have the audacity to shape their industries innovatively.
This mutual, purpose-driven interaction among diverse stakeholders is more human and serene. It aligns with the social, personal, and spiritual dimensions of society by focusing on our true selves and communal instincts. This approach also brings sound economic prosperity, ensuring that individuals never lose themselves in the process of making a living.
Ultimately, reclaiming our destiny requires an awakening of the soul. When we dare to anchor our lives to something enduring, we transform mere existence into a legacy of significance, proving that a life measured by deep conviction will always outlive the transient glitter of the material world. Indeed, purpose is actively searching for man, calling us back from the brink of superficiality and reminding us that a life anchored in profound meaning is the true measure of human achievement.
