Purpose Matters More Than Money — My Entrepreneurial Awakening in Texas

I wanted a business to create my utopia, my world — somewhere I could live up to my high ideals and then, make money… But I got lost along the way.

I wanted a mission that would push my creative juices, give me plenty of time flexibility, and make me more money than I needed.

I wanted to be a music producer with a recording studio. That’s what success meant to me.

But there’s very little you can actually plan in life because life just happens.

And it certainly happened to me — and over nine million Venezuelans — when I moved to the US as a refugee, fleeing the Venezuelan narco-communist government. Then, those dreams of “making it big in the music industry” were shattered.

As an immigrant, I ended up working in many soul-sucking labor jobs.

• Demolition labor in the Florida Keys when Hurricane Irma destroyed South Florida.
• Dishwasher in a restaurant I can’t remember in Atlanta.
• “Finichero” helper traveling across the US while living in my car.

And many others.

Tired of it, I stumbled upon web development and taught myself HTML, CSS and JavaScript to build websites for my friends and make a little side income.

Fast forward, and after much trial and error, I landed a job at a small web agency that paid me more money than I’d ever seen or needed. For the first time, I wasn’t broke, so I started using that money to buy experiences — a new car, audio gear, travel, toys — and funded some silly experiments.

I enjoyed it a lot. But I got very distracted from what mattered.

Now, as I’ve entered my thirties, I’ve started thinking more about my purpose.

Having more money than you need is extremely cool, but it wears off, just like a new car, an expensive pair of sneakers, or dining at fancy restaurants… And it wears off quickly.

Without a purpose, you’re just heading toward unfulfillment and unhappiness.

But what is “purpose”?

I stumbled upon the book So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Carl Newport, which I didn’t actually read, but I skimmed a few sections and watched a YouTube review. From that, I took away this definition:

Purpose is an intersection between being creative, being helpful, and developing mastery.

Being helpful was the most significant missing piece I’d never considered in my utopia.

All this time, I’d only considered the benefits I wanted: time and money. This is fine until it becomes greed, and greed can only take you so far.

Greed is the opposite of gratitude.

So, I made a hard U-turn in my life.

I quit my fancy “Software Engineer” LinkedIn professional headline at Haku and moved to San Antonio, TX — a city undergoing a lot of development and growth, strategically located one hour from Austin, a major tech hub — to work full-time on my web development and web design agency LPV.DEV.

I’m attending meetups and events in the San Antonio and Austin areas, and I can’t help but feel bullish about the entrepreneurial scene and spirit here.

I’ve met people from different walks of life, with wildly different perspectives, niches I didn’t even know existed, and at various stages of their entrepreneurial journeys:

Newcomers looking to learn the ropes of running a business Early-stage startups gathering feedback on their MVPs People seeking their first seed round of funding Startups looking to expand Today, I am grateful to be part of this thriving creative ecosystem and look forward to using the skills I’ve acquired over the years to be as helpful and resourceful as possible.

More than ever, I want others’ utopias to become real; I want people with purpose to succeed.