This is a strange age we live in. If you’re a first-world human being, you essentially have access to all of the collective intelligence of all of humanity, past and present, at your fingertips. There has never been a time when wisdom could come so readily to so many.

And when I connect with people, whether in person or on some social network, it really does seem that things are different now. I see status updates from great people, teaching others to be great. I see teachers, and coaches, and students, all making the most out of life. People are progressing past physical challenges with emotional honesty. People are leading tribes of followers eager for the next lesson to implement.

This hasn’t ever happened before… not like this.

And so as human beings begin to interact in this new way — a way that is driven from something within — I wanted to share a message of my own. It is a message that I have learned only through the trials and tribulations of life. I hope you will take a moment to read it. I’m sure you won’t regret it.

My message is simple, really. Every person should have a purpose to their life. Why are you here? That is a fundamental question, true, and yet it is a question that can only be answered by each person individually. And when I think about why I am here, and I really explore this question with sincerity and depth, the only thing that makes sense for me is that I contribute. To me, life matters in those moments when people choose to be good to each other. In those times when they choose to ascribe a greater purpose to their actions and intentions.

Some people are driven to become millionaires and billionaires. I don’t find anything inherently wrong in seeking wealth for wealth’s sake, I know that most of us would rather be wealthy than poor. And yet when I look at those who purely seek wealth and financial gain without contribution, I am saddened. Because as far as I can tell, there is little meaning in stacking money other than stroking an egoic fantasy.

Life can be much more than just some egoic fantasy.

Many will say that if you look at the wealthiest of women and men, you will find people who have contributed greatly to society, and to mankind. Bill Gates became wealthy not just because he sold a lot of computers, though he did, but more so because with Microsoft, he was able to fundamentally change the culture of society, and greatly increase our collective intelligence and capabilities. Wealth follows value, and he has offered us all a lot of value.

That being said, there is a reason that Bill Gates is doing everything he can to give his money away.

And the answer may be that when you have all the money in the world, you start to wonder what’s the point of having a nice home and a fancy car and a big bank account. That’s all fine and good, but so what? What are you doing for others?

This is a lesson that you can learn without working yourself to death trying to get to the millionaire mountaintop.

For me, I find great joy in the trappings that wealth can provide — plane tickets to foreign lands, a nice place to sleep and invite friends over. But to me, the value of wealth is that I can help shape society in some way for the better.

And not only is it possible for me to shape society, it is my vision for society that underscores everything I do.

If I have a mediocre job, then that limits my ability to be at my best, and therefore show up in service of others.

If I have little money, then I can’t support the causes that matter to me.

Now in all of this talk of wisdom, I’ve said little of “enlightenment”. I actually have a couple friends who are technically “enlightened”. They tell me that no self is the only true self, and that therefore who you are is just a false self. They tell me that there is no other, that everything is not only connected but the same damn thing.

I find this fascinating, but somehow it does not attract me. I find some meaning in their teachings, but I am just not interested in giving up who I am. I happen to like myself quite a bit, and I think that a great journey in life is coming to a place where a person can authentically enjoy who they are — that they can drop the masks of ego and falsehood and just be who they are — fully who they are.

Do you know who you are?

Now that I’ve challenged you a bit, i want to get back to the main point of this article. Which is that every person can find meaning in life if they choose. And it seems to be true that the greatest and most profound meanings that there are in life, are those that involve contributing to the betterment of others.

This is a simple concept, and yet when you align yourself with this way of being, life begins to click. Things just feel right, good things happen, and the world opens up.

For me, it comes down to the education of girls in the developing world. But that’s not just a random cause I selected… there was a lot of hard work to get to this place.

You see, when I was a young man, perhaps 19 years old, traveling through South America, I saw extreme poverty up close. I met people making $1 a day. I shopped in markets where old women would sell little bags of coca leaf for pennies a bag.

And while some say that “everything is perfect in life exactly as it is”, I can’t help but recall the poor woman in Peru who tried to sell me corn. She was stuck in an economic system where the money doesn’t come easy, and she was almost begging me to buy this piece of corn from her. That’s not life. That’s not perfect. I categorically reject that idea.

The world doesn’t have to be in poverty. Sure, I’m not in poverty. I’m writing this on a MacBook and I’m warm, reasonably clothed, with some money in the bank. But there are billions of people out there that are in poverty. Like, $3 a day poverty. Billions of them.

And so I started to think — how can we human beings end this poverty? What can human beings do to help each other out of an economic system that has created both so much wealth and so much poverty all at the same time?

I researched this question through a thesis in college and beyond. It’s the reason I worked for social entrepreneurship when I lived in Los Angeles. And the answer to the question of how to end poverty is simple…

You educate girls.

The fastest route to ending poverty is to educate girls in the developing world, and here’s why. Men, please bare with me because everything I’m writing is based on research and evidence. I’m not just making it up.

In the developing world, what happens when a man with a family gets a job? Studies show, more often than not he takes a large part of his minimal discretionary income, and invests it in beer with friends at the local pub.

On the other hand, the income that a woman earns is almost exclusively re-invested in her family, both for food, shelter, and for education for her kids. Sorry guys, but our third-world counterparts really haven’t been measuring up.

Now the more educated a person is, the more money they tend to make. So if you want to end the cycle of poverty, then by educating girls, you are giving them a leg up to earn more money, and then re-invest that money in the education of their children. In this way, the cycle of poverty is broken, and that family has a chance for a middle class lifestyle within the economy they live in.

So now, with my businesses, I make sure to donate a percentage of my profits to a few high quality charities that support educating girls in the developing world. Here are the links to them, if you feel so inclined to donate:

• Girl Up
• CamFed
• Girl Effect
• Girl Rising
• One Girl
• Room to Read

You see, my life’s mission is to educate people that there are a LOT of people out there that require assistance. I’m all for teaching a woman to fish rather than selling her the fish, but the fact of the matter is that really poor people just don’t have ver many ways of making money. Bootstrapping it doesn’t do much good when all you have is a goat for milk an an unpaved road to the market 4 miles away. Make sense?

My dream is to start an organization that will change how human beings purchase things. If there’s one thing Americans are good at, it’s shopping. So I want to partner with major credit cards so that every time you, and me, and your great aunt Lucy, and everybody else buys something, their purchase rounds up to the nearest dollar — and those pennies go to the charity of your choice. Do I want people to choose the charities I care about? Absolutely. But I’m after something bigger here…

The evolution of our human awareness. I want people to feel something when they buy anything… I want them to feel that when they swipe that credit card, they are doing some good in the world. Will it give them tax relief come April 15th? Of course. So there’s that benefit. But the broad point is that I want every human being with a credit card to feel like they are doing something for others… and all they have to do is keep buying.

If you can help me with this mission, I’d love that. I’m not putting all the chips on the table until I’m financially secure and able to devote myself fully to this. But all introductions and suggestions are helpful.

The point is, that’s how I’m measuring my life. I have a very clear vision for what matters to me, and I have every intention of bringing that vision to life — and hopefully, with your help, and the help of every other person who buys something with a credit card.

When it comes time to measure your own life, whether you do that now or in your later years, I can’t stress enough that you need to have direction — you need to know where you want to go — in order to determine if where you wanted to go was worth the effort. Having direction is key, because when you know where you’re going in life, every action either feels like it’s right in the groove, or it feels just off.

Have you ever felt like you were just treading water, not really going anywhere?

The answer is to get an extremely clear picture of the world you want, and your role in it. Then, life becomes about making that vision real. And that part is really, really fun. I will also say that when everything lines up for you, and life is “all systems go”, there are few things sweeter… I’m sure my kids will be pretty sweet though too.

So I’ll leave you with this one nugget of wisdom as I sign off on this post. If you want a clue on how to get this kind of clarity for yourself — how to get that vision, then here are some questions I asked myself and then answered in detail that could be really useful for you.

Here you go:

1. What does your ideal world look like? Why?
2. What is your role in that ideal world? Why?
3. What do you want to do? Why?
4. Who do you want to be? Why?
5. How do you want to treat others? Why?
6. Where do you want to live? Why?
7. In a world where nothing can go wrong, what is life like for you?

Enjoy the exercise. If you really want to do it right, then take a full day (personally, I took 7 days) and answer all these questions. Really give it the time you can give it. This is your life, after all. And you get to measure it however you want.