Many times the roads we travel to reach our destiny confront us with crossroads we never thought imaginable.
Stops and detours along the way add value to our vision of where we hope to eventually arrive.
As we yearn to embrace our desired life successes, we awaken within ourselves the sleeping giant of purpose which will set us on a course of self-discovery for our true entrepreneurial achievement.
For a time in her life, the featured person in my column today sought a goal where she might be able to create a purpose that would enrich her life.
Eventually, she realized through her epiphany of experience and learning that “it’s not what you sell, it’s what you stand for.”
Through this acceptance, Marjorie Horne, founder and creator of CareSmart Seniors Consulting, has travelled through an entrepreneurial journey of understanding her purpose and discovering how she could harness that purpose for greater success in her professional and personal life.
So, let’s meet Marjorie, a Capital News seniors’ columnist, and identify how she found and nurtured her entrepreneurial purpose.
Let’s recognize and accept that many people who at some point in their life’s journey become entrepreneurs will have difficulty explaining to us the how and why the change occurred.
It may range from loss of a job, honing a specific interest in a field or even accepting an existing venture from a benevolent relative.
Horne and I met at the recent Okanagan Valley second annual Entrepreneurs Conference hosted by the Okanagan Entrepreneurs Society.
She thought I might be able to add some insightful thought to her personal goal setting.
So her story: After retiring as resident services manager from the Hawthorn Park Retirement Community after 10 years of solid management experience, Horne spent time in soul searching how she might bring some innovation and new creativity—entrepreneurial benchmarks—in meeting the plethora of needs of seniors and their families as they greeted the transitions of aging.
Let me note here that Horne is a married woman with an adult son and was am operating room nurse who achieved a wealth of knowledge and experience in the West Coast lifestyle before moving, with her family, to the Okanagan.
Concluding that she wished to move her innovative thinking forward, Horne jumped, with both feet, into intensive research, anywhere and everywhere she might find positive approaches for seniors’ health.
She told me her “turning point” of discovery was initiating discussion with Dr. Chip Teel, author of the book, Alone and Invisible No More.
Dr. Teel had offered many ideas and concepts toward the design of a new empowering aging approach for supporting seniors who wish to continue aging in place at home.
And so, the entrepreneurial bug sprang forth as Horne’s purpose was about to unfold.
Through her interaction with Dr. Teel, she was able to clearly envision a more holistic approach to aging well, as opposed to focusing on a traditional medical model of seniors care.
That decision made, Horne recalls, at 61 years of age made her realize that education is a lifelong learning process.
Our Okanagan entrepreneur, oozed with excitement, while sharing with me her newfound conviction— the birth of her entrepreneurial purpose in life, her new business called CareSmart Seniors Consulting Inc.
And so the journey goes for Horne as she incorporated her venture in May 2012 and launched on October 2012.
Lets define CareSmart for all of you reading this column who may be an adult child seeking answers for one or more of your aging parents or loved ones.
CareSmart offers new solutions in elder care through:
• ongoing senior care monitoring (tailored to need)
• elder care advising and planning
• relocation assistance and settling-in transition
• innovative remote wellness monitoring.
Horne’s Circle of CARE approach integrates a senior’s family, friends and professional caregivers into a single collaborative unit.
Solutions are shared to support the senior in aging well.
This avenue of entrepreneurial purpose is how Marjorie Horne has found her journey of understanding, realizing the how she might make a difference in people’s lives and find their purpose as she has.
Horne asks that all of us, whether we are searching for an answer to help seniors and others in our immediate lives, ask the this question—“What is our purpose that we have arrived at and where do we want it to take us?”
It is my strong belief in this age of finding purpose and meaning to our life and recognizing that maybe, just maybe, we are in the business of making a difference—that’s the renaissance for me.
This will then be entering us into the new age of entrepreneurship based on purpose.
You can check out more about CareSmart www.caresmart.ca.
