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# Daily Lab: Where purpose comes from
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/daily-lab-where-purpose-comes-from/
- Published: 2023-07-05T10:29:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-27T17:30:26.000Z
- Description: How is your purpose demonstrated?
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, value, focus, books, first principles, distance

*“Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals.”* 
—Donella Meadows, *Thinking in Systems*

When a giant company tells us they care while making us wait on hold, we can easily pick apart the mismatch between their stated purpose and their real one.

**But what about when it’s us?**

When I think about the stated purpose of my business, it’s to help entrepreneurs get what they want by demonstrating their value at a distance.

But if I look at what I do all day, is it true that *all* of my activities are in service of that purpose?

Or am I doing other things that might pull me away from it?

**What about you?**

What’s the stated purpose of your business? And if an outside observer watched what you did all day—would they be able to guess what your purpose is?

Would they guess *right*?

Purposes are deduced from behavior, not statements, as Meadows said.

So, what would someone deduce from yours?

**Whatever they’d deduce, *that’s* your purpose.**

Let’s make sure it’s the one we want.

By focusing more on demonstrating our value—our *purpose*—at a distance, no matter what kind of business we’re in.

[Read more: Don’t promise benefits](https://kelfordinc.com/daily-lab-dont-promise-benefits/)

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