Alicia Curtis Podcast - Living with Purpose Interviews

Alicia Curtis is involved in many projects that may seem at first glance to be unconnected. She’s involved in the philanthropy project 100 Women, the Emerging Young Leaders on Boards project, and many other initiatives. What I learnt in having a conversation with Alicia is that she’s passionate about developing the leadership of people that she works with, particularly focusing on purpose and meaning.

She told me that

“Purpose is a really simple concept – its really about giving your greatest talents in the greatest service to the world. I think a lot of people get caught up in this Holy Grail search – What is my PURPOSE! And I think that it is nothing more difficult than working out what are you good at and how can you serve the world with that.”

Alicia has been unfolding the purpose of service in her life from when she was 12 years old and attended a UN children’s conference on the environment. It’s apparent that she has always sought to be collaborative and has found people that she can partner with. She was doing this as a teenager working with other teenagers to spread the message that young people can be powerful actors in their own lives and in the community. She has continued to find ways to use her strengths of developing leadership in others as she helped to develop a number of leadership and community projects.

She told me in this interview that she doesn’t lack energy in her life – in fact she has so many ideas and so much energy that she needs to make sure it’s focussed. Alicia is not one to do what people expect of her – she’s never been employed by someone else and has been running her own company since she was 19. She does what she believes is right:

To live a really fulfilling life, in the way I see fulfilment, you have to be a revolutionary in modern society, because at every turn you’re pushed into fame and fortune and beauty. Those are the things that our external society admires and encourages. So I think to stand strong and turn away from that is what brings about the revolutionary point of it, to be courageous.

I think this is an interview that you might want to listen to more than once – there’s so much in it.

Resources Mentioned

Alicia’s website

Emerging Leaders in Governance Program

Gross National Happiness Centre – Bhutan

100 Women – philanthropy

Francis Lynch

Alicia Curtis

Alicia Curtis – Living With Purpose Interviews

Resources Mentioned