Aaron Hurst

The future is purpose. It is what is driving innovation and radically reshaping careers and organizations. The Purpose Economy is a roadmap to create a better future and sums up the fundamental changes taking place in business today.

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

The Purpose Economy

In 2014 Aaron Hurst, Ashoka fellow and founder of Imperative and Taproot Foundation, published The Purpose Economy, the book that catalyzed the purpose revolution. With his prediction that purpose was the next major economic era, many are now racing to find answers and direction toward discovering their personal, professional, and organizational purpose. Leaders from around the world have embraced Hurst’s work and have asked for more. In this expanded and updated edition Hurst unpacks critical new research and tools for individuals and organizations to find purpose and thrive in this new era. Based on interviews with thousands of entrepreneurs, new survey-backed metrics, and refined societal trends, Hurst shows that this new era is fueling demand for purpose-centered professionals who not only create more satisfying careers, but also contribute more productively to teams and organizations. A new view of success based on relationships, impact, and growth is spreading across the globe, and individuals and organizations that embrace that view have emerged as the leaders of the new economy.

The Purpose Economy, Expanded and Updated

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. Globally recognized entrepreneur, founder of Taproot Foundation and 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.

Aaron Hurst

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