Three Paths Toward the Meaning of Life - The Atlantic   

“Who in the world am I?” asks Alice in Wonderland. It turns out that business school has a useful theory to help you answer that.

At business schools, scholars of entrepreneurship generally follow one of two basic theories of how enterprises start. The first, called the discovery theory, holds that the universe is filled with opportunities, and that entrepreneurs are the ones who discover and exploit them. The second is called the creation theory, and holds that opportunities are created by the actions of the entrepreneurs themselves. So either a pocket-size computer always existed in theory and Steve Jobs discovered it and called it the iPhone, or Apple’s development-and-experimentation process was what created it.

This might sound like an esoteric debate, but it is actually extremely useful for anyone looking at the enterprise that matters most: life. Probably all of us at some point have felt the pull to “find yourself,” to ascertain your essence: who you are, what your life means, what you are supposed to do with it. To find yourself, you first need to decide if at your core you are a discovery theorist or a creation theorist: whether your essence already exists but you need to discover and understand it, or whether it has yet to come into existence and you need to create it through your choices, beliefs, and actions. Deciding between these two theories will give you purpose and intentionality—and a way to proceed with the enterprise of your life.

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