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Built to Serve: Find Your Purpose and Become the Leader You Were Born to Be

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What is my purpose? How do I find my passion?

Most people wake up and drive to a job that they hate.

Think about your five closest friends. Are they happy? Do they live their lives with purpose? Do you? We put on a fake front for what we want people to see and think about us, but the reality is most people aren’t happy. We’re lost. We settle. We aren’t happy with where we are. You can’t be happy if you don’t know your purpose. It’s not possible. You want more but you don’t even know where to start. You know there is more out there. You see others having success and you want it, too; there is nothing wrong with that. You just need help finding your purpose so you can find the success you see all around you. You can be productive, crush your goals, pretend that all the things that you’ve acquired actually mean something…but at the end of the day, if you don’t know your purpose, you’ll always feel like there’s something missing. You’ll know that you’re capable of more and that you’re not living the life you should be. You might be fooling the world, but you’re not fooling the person looking back at you in the mirror. You need to find your actual power source.

Your purpose is your source of power.

Once you find your purpose it’ll fuel you for life. You’ll do things that you never thought you were capable of. Achieving your purpose will force you to morph into a stronger version of yourself. You’ll have to push through fears, insecurities, and doubts that held you back. But somehow it’ll all feel possible and necessary because you’re purpose-driven now…and that’s the only thing you’ll ever need.

270 pages, Paperback

Published August 17, 2021

75 people are currently reading
1484 people want to read

About the author

Evan Carmichael

9 books71 followers

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5 stars
82 (48%)
4 stars
56 (32%)
3 stars
24 (14%)
2 stars
7 (4%)
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1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Nopadol Rompho.
Author 4 books388 followers
September 4, 2020
This can be your life-changing book. I love the concept of finding WHO WHY and HOW. If you love 'Your One Word' book written by the same author, you will love this one even more. Strongly recommended.
11 reviews
July 12, 2020
A great guide to figure out why are you on this planet, it even comes with a PDF guide that you can download online, very useful!
Profile Image for Ken E..
58 reviews3 followers
March 15, 2021
Evan’s book puts major focus on your Who, Why, and How so that you can live (and make money) living a purpose driven life. You will only see what your life’s potential would have been if you never understand the power of your Who, Why and How.

Definitely a book worth reading if you feel like you’re not living your best life and unsure why what you are doing doesn’t line up with where you are right now.
Profile Image for Matt Hutson.
311 reviews107 followers
May 9, 2021
Evan is such a positive human being! His book seeps with amazing advice and solid strategies to discovering your WHO, WHY, and HOW. At first I was thinking this book is way too similar to Start With Why talking about how to find your purpose in life. But then I realized it's much deeper than that and has practical exercises to lead you in the direction of not just fulfilling your purpose but building a life-changing business.

I'm going to simplify what the WHO, WHY, and HOW is.
▪︎Your WHO is what you stand for.
▪︎Your WHY is your most painful experience.
▪︎Your HOW is how you overcame your pain.

I like how straightforward the book is with lots of great examples of how well-known entrepreneurs have used their WHO, WHY, and HOW to build powerful and profitable business that help people to become better.

But Evan Doesn't Stop There
In the last third of the book Evan tells you exactly how you can build a service-based business from the ground up, and get this, FOR (almost) FREE!

When I started reading this section, I was blown away because some of the strategies are similar to what I've been using. The strategies work!

Here's a simplified explanation:
1. Fast Pass to Freedom
After you have figured out what your WHO, WHY, and HOW is you can start reaching out directly to Ideal clients, showing your credibility, and offering them value up front. You can build your roster of paid clients through direct conversations on social media.

2. Partnerships and Alliances
This is what is called the dream 100 where you start reaching out to influential people to you admire and who has access to more connections and your target audience. This is where you build up a relationship with your dream 100 and help each other to achieve greater success.

3. Become a Thought Leader
This is where you've been doing both the first and second step for a while and you have created content that becomes a marketing magnet, attracting ideal clients so you don't actually have to reach out personally to them anymore. You've built up so much influence and credibility that people just keep on coming to you. The income from being a thought leader will be an ongoing flow that builds with time and influence.

Follow These Steps
I can vouch for Evan's steps because I personally used them and they work! I believe that if you use them as well, it will make a huge difference in the way you build your business.

If you have not already started a business but you want to start one, this book is a great place to start. Use these strategies to grow, and to make a huge difference in other people's lives.
Profile Image for Isabella Zapata.
408 reviews5 followers
July 30, 2021
El mensaje de Evan en este libro es poderoso, pero lo que me atrapo completamente es cuando Evan nos recuerda que nosotros los humanos estamos hechos para servir a los demas. Durante el libro el autor nos da pasos e informacion valiosa para encontrar nuestro proposito en la vida, el cual el lo divide en tres pasos: who, why and how.

Comparto con Evan que lo unico que nos hara verdaderamente feliz es vivir con con proposito y servir a los demas a traves de nuestras acciones diarias. Aqui estan los tres mensajes que me llevo de este libro:

1. Humans are built to serve: as humans we find our truest happiness serving and helping others.

2. Our purpose is the way we help others. We find our purpose answering these three questions:
Who: which the author refers as our core values. This is the world that identifies me as a person. This should never change. Everything I do should go around this value.
Why: our purpose. Evan mentions here that our why comes from our pain. This is what motivate us to make a change and help others get over a similar situation we have been in the past.
How: our passion. These are things we do in order to serve our values and purpose. This can change over time.

3. When we find our purpose we should focus on how we are going to spread the message to the world. Evan recommends starting offering a service instead of a product. We should give our best every day and believe in ourselves so others believe in the message we are spreading.

La razon por la que solo le doy tres estrellas al libro es porque considero que la manera en que Evan esta explicando su mensaje no es muy original o diferente a lo que he leido en otros libros. Ya he leido varios libros con enfoque en la importancia de encontrar nuestro proposito en la vida, y este de Evan no me atrapo por completo.
Profile Image for Divyanshu Oberoi.
59 reviews3 followers
October 20, 2020
“When you give people hope and a path, amazing things will happen.”

I have been following @evancarmichael for a while. I truly love the way he inspires and forge to become the Best version of our-self. He isn't the person who informs you of the products you need to buy in order to start your own business. Instead, he truly guides you to find your PASSION through YOUR PAIN POINT.

Humans are built to serve others, whether that means serving the world or serving the twenty-five people closest to them. If you’re not happy, it means you’re not living your life with a purpose that’s bigger than you. That purpose has to be found within you. When you find your purpose, it gives you the strength to do things that you never thought were possible.

My Pain Point:
Growing up, I have trained not to fail in anything in life,
When I was in school, I was afraid to be a failure,
Afraid that I may not excel and please my family,
Afraid that I may not be accepted anywhere if I don’t do well in school,
Afraid that one day when I grew up I will not succeed.

Story Time:
What’s your definition of success?
Who I am and who I wanna be cannot connect,
I'm a busy person, got no time for lies; one of a kind
I've been doin' this for most my life with no advice
Take my chances, I just roll the dice, do what I like
I don't care what anybody else thinks,
A lot of people know me, but they don’t know me well.

My Who: Belong
My WHY: Acceptance
My How: Helping people to increase their value, improve their lives, and build a brand of their own.

A must-read book for everyone who feels like they’re yet to find their purpose or is confused about what they’re supposed to do in life!
Profile Image for Kyle Brennan.
148 reviews4 followers
October 31, 2023
When I launched Observe and Rapport, I had no purpose. I knew I wanted a creative outlet but I never intentionally set out to make it a book-focused page or anything like that.

Over time, I realized that books are what encouraged me to start it in the first place - writing, exploring, being curious, and learning new things. Books brought out so much in me that I wanted to encourage others so that they could learn and grow in the same ways I had.

Reading Built to Serve made it all the more clear to me how I should have been looking at it from the outset. In the book, Evan Carmichael @evancarmichael explains how to find your Who, Why, and How so that you can live (and make money) a purpose-driven life.

▪︎Your WHO is what you stand for.
▪︎Your WHY is your most painful experience.
▪︎Your HOW is how you overcame your pain.
Your Who is what you would tell your younger self if you had the chance.
My Who is Encouragement
* Encouragement to try and learn new things (Curiosity)
* Encouragement to work hard and stay committed (Discipline)
* Encouragement to have fun (Enjoyment)
My Why is that I used to be shy, out-of-shape, and scared
My How is that through reading, I was able to learn and change my mental and physical I can encourage others to learn and grow to their fullest potential

If you’re looking to start your own brand, business, or just a unique social media page, start by reading Built to Serve. Evan lays out everything you need to know to identify your passion and make it a mission-built process from beginning to end.

Rating: 4.7 / 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Profile Image for Vishakha Raghav.
58 reviews4 followers
May 30, 2021
Let me start by saying that I will be adding this list to my re-read books.🤩that is how much I loved it.

The book is all about how each one of us is designed to find our purpose and become a leader.

🚩How I felt while reading the book?

My reading journey through this book was very smooth and thoughtful at the same time. Evan has explained each concept with a lot of details and examples.
The book starts with finding your "WHY" and how it drives a fire in us to reach towards our mission. Evan has explained how we can conclude our WHY, what can be our strategy to find it. The later chapters talk about "HOW" and "WHAT". 🔥

Evan has shared a glimpse of Nina(Evan's wife) and his life as well to give a personal touch to the book and that is part that focuses on how you can touch people's hearts by telling your real story. I enjoyed the perfect balance between analytical and emotions that the book carries.😎

🚩How I changed after reading the book?

The first thing would be I found out my WHY, before reading the book I had a blurry WHY but now I have a strong WHY. 🌻

I understood that building a billion-dollar empire ain't important, it matters how many hearts you are touching while building that empire. 🌻

I understood the importance of sharing the real you and putting your story out there.
I would like each one of you to read it at least once, trust me you will not regret it. I am going to re-read this soon! 🌻
Profile Image for Maxine Meneses.
3 reviews11 followers
September 24, 2020

📙The first chapter of the book is my favourite. ⁣

👉It's all about purpose and the only way you'll feel fulfilled , successful and serving others is if you get clarity on your purpose.⁣

👉I love how Evan takes you step by step through discovering you're mission and how sharing it even in its early stages will help someone. ⁣

👉You will never know everything, yet you may be able to help someone who was like you last week, last month, last year.⁣

👉Waiting to be ready, to know it all or be perfect will prevent you from serving, from helping others and from evolving.⁣

👉Evan shows you through stories, examples and exercises. That by looking towards yourself, your struggles and beliefs. The way you overcame them, is the recipe you can share with others to help them.⁣

🟣If you are looking to grow your self belief, be purpose driven and to add value to your audience or customers this book shows you what to look for within yourself to continue to work towards this. ⁣

🟣The book even has some bonus material to help you work through the exercises. This is a book I'll be reading again, filling in the workbook and returning to often. ⁣

4 reviews
March 6, 2025
I was coming into this book hoping to figure out how I could serve this society.

The first half of this book explains Carmichael's three-question framework for finding your purpose. (1) Find your who (in other words your main value), (2) find your why (more or less why you value your value), and (3) find your how or how you are going to live/earn in accordance with yourself. Carmichael provides some, not too many, exercises to help you with answering those three key questions.

The second half of the book goes more in-depth on the how which is catered more to coaching and content creation. If you are not into that, this is where you will find Build to Serve quite irrelevant and maybe somewhat irritating.

Also, when will the trend of spamming quotes end?
Profile Image for Ana.
35 reviews1 follower
November 25, 2020
Everyone who’s gone through a spiritual awakening knows Eckhart Tolle and his quote, “instead fighting the darkness, you bring in the light.”
Evan’s message of finding purpose through suffering deeply resonates with me.
I’m a single mom of two little ones. With all my sufferings, I decided to take a different approach to a life that was likely to be filled with hatred, confusion, and self-pity. I’m grateful to have found purpose through a period of dark night of the soul. Now I’m thriving in every aspect of my life and living with an attitude of gratitude, with the purpose of serving my community for the higher good.
Thank you, Evan. I’ve been following you for a while now. Thanks for bringing light into this world.
Profile Image for D.A. Lee.
Author 8 books12 followers
May 11, 2021
Full of wonderful guidance to find your purpose! Loved it!

Evan, this book really spoke to me. As an author myself I know how difficult that is to write in a way that can speak to your readers. Finding my purpose has been my life long search. I have read many self help books to get close to identifying and understanding that. This book helps you identify you and turn your life long passion into a business and life you longed for. I took a lot of time over this book because each chapter has practical steps and questions that help you decipher what you really want to do. Thank you so much for helping me figure this out and encouraging me to move in the direction of that calling!!
Profile Image for Sarah Fejfar.
7 reviews
January 30, 2024
I typically classify books as "entry level" or "advanced" in the entrepreneurial space (helps me know what to recommend to who after I've finished reading a book.) Before I read this book, I assumed this book was just for beginners, but boy was I wrong... it's for EVERYONE! I've read a lot of books aimed at entrepreneurs and this one caught me by surprise and uncovered something HUGELY VALUABLE for me that I unexpectedly had not yet figured out... MY PURPOSE IN LIFE!!!!!!!!!! I'm not going to give away the spoilers, but I'll leave you with this... the journaling prompts at the beginning are a must do. (And then you might get so excited (like me) and start asking all your family members and clients and colleagues to work the journal prompts too!
Profile Image for Amelie✨.
63 reviews
January 25, 2023
I loved this book. It was very precise and clear. If you read this book there's no way you won't get anything out of it. Evan makes sure you understand the basis of his philosophy and the steps you can take to not just be more successful but also just... to be happier in general. Because as he says, we are meant to be serving others. To share our story and help others going through what we went through.

My only 'gripe' with this book is that I kind of left wanting more. HOWEVER! The book says if I send a picture I'll get a bunch of bonus content and work sheets and I sent my picture so... Maybe that'll change my "wanting more."
Haven't gotten it so far though.
Profile Image for YOKO.
15 reviews4 followers
March 29, 2020
I appreciate the author’s content on YouTube so much.
It’s encouraging, uplifting, very educational and the book also has the vibe.

While reading the author’s previous book, the Your One Word, I found my word and I felt like everything fell into place.
It was an eye opening experience re-examining my core values and why I do what I do.

How the author explains about our purpose is clear, simple in this book but something didn’t totally click with me.
I don’t think I want to “change” them by showing how I have gone through my pain.
I don’t think I change them but they will change themselves.

The book greatly has helped me have a deep look at my highest values.
I appreciate it so much.
36 reviews
July 29, 2021
An amazing book on How to Find Our Life Purpose.
Book is divided into 3 Section:-
Who
Why
How
This is an eye opening book in which we go through a journey to discover our purpose. Which always motivates and inspires us in our hard times.
The author tells, we are like Trees, as trees absorbs Carbon Dioxide and gives Oxygen. We should same clean the negativity around and more our environment more positive.
Happy Reading :)
2 reviews6 followers
October 17, 2020
It is helpful how Evan Carmichael breaks down how to figure out your “who, why and how” and why it is important. When I finished the book, I didn’t feel like my “who” was very clear yet. I’m going to read his other book, “Your One Word” to dig deeper. I enjoy the way that Carmichael writes, so I’m looking forward to reading his other book.
Profile Image for Rutuja Ramteke.
1,965 reviews91 followers
November 25, 2020
This is such an amazing book with an amazing purpose. I loved how well written and well executed it is, right from the very first page, it's so strong, bold and helps the readers till the end to find their Why, Who and How.

I will highly highly recommend it and I feel at the end of the book, the author leaves you fuelled and grateful for picking it up! Go for it.
Profile Image for Angela.
329 reviews12 followers
October 7, 2020
Success starts with self introspection. First you have to figure out who you are, what drives you and what motivates you.
I love his concept that success is about service and what value you give to others.
A lot of great ideas in this book!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Itsbarbiesbooks.
66 reviews12 followers
December 23, 2020
Loved this book! It helped me clarify feelings And helped me understand myself better. I learned more about myself. The questions in this book are great exercises to help you see and understand your life better. Great book!
Profile Image for James Huynh.
30 reviews2 followers
May 29, 2022
This book is the type of book that is as useful as you are willing to put effort into the exercises.

It feels more like a workshop than a book (which is a good thing). I've gotten tremendous value out of it. It's only the latter 3rd of the book that felt a bit out of place for me.
Profile Image for Pamela.
9 reviews3 followers
August 30, 2021
I loved it. It is so practical and I am already applying it to my own life.
294 reviews2 followers
December 13, 2021
Audible Book, added notes
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Candace Bobick.
26 reviews
March 9, 2023
I thought this was a great read and it definitely made me face some trauma that I long ago buried however it also gave me newfound excitement in turning hobbies into so much more. #Truth
Profile Image for Caty Rengifo.
132 reviews6 followers
July 6, 2023
Es un buen libro que te ayuda a reflexionar sobre el propósito de tu vida y como exteriorizarlo para ayudar a otros y generar sostenibilidad financiera.
Profile Image for Sushil Kumar.
34 reviews1 follower
February 4, 2021
Definitely a worthy read and I love how it grabs the reader and got hooked till the last moment. I read this book in just 2 sittings.

This book will make you aware of your WHO, WHY, and HOW using your past experiences.
You need to answers all the questions asked by the author honestly to work it for you
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