The Purpose Economy

How Your Desire for Impact, Personal Growth and Community Is Changing the World

By: Aaron Hurst

Narrated by: Darryl Hughes Kurylo

A series of shifts are happening in our economy: Millennials are trading in conventional career paths to launch tech start-ups, start small businesses that are rooted in local communities, or freelance their expertise. We are sharing everything, from bikes and cars, to extra rooms in our homes. We now create, buy and sell handcrafted products in our local communities with ease.

CEO of Imperative Aaron Hurst argues in his latest book that while these developments seem unrelated at first, taken together they reveal a powerful pattern that points to purpose as the new driver of the American economy.

Like the Information Economy, which has driven innovation and economic growth until now, Hurst argues that our new economic era is driven by connecting people to their purpose. It's an economy where value lies in establishing purpose for employees and customers through serving needs greater than their own, enabling personal growth and building community. Based on interviews with thousands of entrepreneurs, Hurst shows this new era is already fueling demand for a whole host of products and services and transforming how Millennials view their careers. A new breed of startups like Etsy, Zaarly, Tough Mudder, Kickstarter, and Airbnb are finding new ways to create value by connecting us with our local communities. At the same time, companies like Tesla and Whole Foods are making the march from just appealing to affluent buyers to becoming mainstream brands. Hurst calls these companies, along with the pioneering entrepreneurs who founded them, the Purpose Economy's taste-makers.

This book is at once a personal memoir of Aaron Hurst's own awakening as a purpose driven entrepreneur, when he left a well-paying tech job in 2001 to launch Taproot, creating a pathway for millions of professionals and Fortune 500 companies to volunteer for nonprofits. It's also a blueprint for a new economic era that is transforming companies, markets and our careers to better serve people and the world.

©2014 Aaron Hurst (P)2014 Aaron Hurst

Thoughtful

Recommended reading for a grad class... Very thought provoking! Loved it! Have listened to it twice in 2 weeks.

Fantastic book!

this book was just what I was looking for at this moment, it shows great concepts and encouraging examples

Truth Emotion and Fierce Truth

Based in Spiritual grounded Truth. Purpose Economy key to effective Purpose Trusts. Fierce intent is key to Doing Good. Our Hearts and Souls are the fierce intent to do Good.

review

great book. it gives us for the future. every business should adopt policy of making the world a better place.

Writer is extremely insightful...a true leader.

Worthwhile to consider, apply, and press forward in your own purposeful endeavor and as an advocate for change in broader society.

Great content, could have used better narration

Informative, rousing and inspiring book for anyone looking to find and /or join purpose to career. Being a first-gen frustrated by having to figure out what, how & why on my own despite immigrant parents who, while educated, haven't successfully navigated the social terrain of their new country, it was tempting initially to view Hurst as 1% progeny set up from the beginning, preaching from an ivory tower, but the sincere mix of telling his story while providing insight on societal norms, relevant historical context & career development, won me over. I've been a fan of Imperative since its early start, but this was so much more. It's a great read - full of useful, applicable info if you're building a purpose business, or just trying to tweak your work to reflect greater purpose. It's not fluff, but it's not boring either; it's personable and current.
My main gripe is the narration- namely that the narrator just "changed" his voice to express different characters whether male or female, and he did so poorly. From "lowering" his voice (for males) or making it shrill (for women), bad accents and even auto tune, the narration was ineffective, distracting & annoying. Dude- you could've really hired a few ppl to play different characters, ESPECIALLY for female voices! Fail on the pretend voices, but overall, content was great and glad I purchased the book.

Run on sentence

Easy to lose your focus while listening. Much of the book seems “ borrowed “. I was able to still glean something from it, but felt it took to long to get to a point which was typically vague. You may really like this, I may just be picky. It also might be that I listened to The Power of Habit right before this book ( Which was extremely well written, and kept my attention throughout it).

Horrible narration

I'm not rating the book content since I couldn't even get through 1h of this audiobook.
I had read a review prior to purchasing that mentioned the exact same thing I'm about to write about. Lesson learned: trust other reviewers.
The narrator uses different voices to read passages meant to represent different people's testimonies. Horrible... and the women's voices... wow! So patronising! I can't believe this actually passed a screening test (which I assume exists) to get to the app.
After the first time the narrator did this (right at the beginning of the audiobook) I decided to push through the "cringiness" and keep going. But a few minutes later when he started doing a woman's voice again, I just couldn't take it anymore. Absolutely horrible.
I'm definitely returning this audiobook. Though I might still read the book...