Walter Bond, hall of fame keynote speaker, bestselling author, and former NBA player, said the coronavirus economic turbulence provides a good opportunity for people to find their purpose.
“Because your purpose is going to work in a recession. It's going to work in the harvest season. It's going to work when a market is up. It's going to work when the market is down.”
“If you don't really know what your purpose is, if you're not really locked into your career, and I'm not talking about just a job,” Bond told Curt Mercadante of the Freedom Media Network. “If you don't know what your purpose is, you're going to be unstable right now. You're going to be, ‘Uh-oh, my money-making opportunity is gone. Now what do I do?’ Go find your purpose.”
Bond is author of the new book, Swim: How a Shark, A Suckerfish and a Parasite Teach You Leadership, Mentoring and Next Level Success. After playing college basketball for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, he spent three seasons in the NBA, playing for the Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, and Detroit Pistons.
“This is a different time in our lifetime,” said Bond. “But I think it's a great time for anyone who's paying attention, to take advantage of the opportunity and not be a victim. We need to pay attention and figure out how not to be a victim of the coronavirus and use it to your advantage in business, life, family, investing.”
He explained that merely going into “survival mode” can keep you from discovering the opportunities to prosper that he has seen in “every recession and every setback we’ve had.” For example Bond said he and his wife discovered lucrative deals following the post-9/11 real estate crash, and are looking to do the same thing now.
He explained that he built his motivational speaking career in the midst of the economic meltdown of 2007-2008, at a time when other speakers were going out of business.
“You know, Curt, if you think about it, when do you really need a motivational speaker? You don't really need a motivational speaker when everything's going great. You really need them when things aren't going good,” Bond said. “And you're right, 2007, 2008, our business went to another level and I literally knew motivational speakers who quit the business, which is ironic.”
He stressed that now is the time to find your purpose.
“Because your purpose is going to work in a recession. It's going to work in the harvest season. It's going to work when a market is up. It's going to work when the market is down,” he said. “And I tell everybody, Curt: Before you decide a career, you should first discover your gift, and once you discover your gift, you don't get tossed around to and fro. You plant your tree and you stay there.”
You can watch Curt and Walter’s full discussion by clicking here.