By Rick Vacek
GCU News Bureau
What do you want to be when you grow up?
It is a question that many kids don’t hesitate to answer – and then their answer keeps changing as they get older. But Brian Mohr thinks it should be phrased another way:
What do you want to be A PART OF when you grow up?
Mohr is Co-Founder and President of Y Scouts, an executive-search firm that, as his LinkedIn profile states, “was founded with the sole purpose of transforming the way people and organizations connect to work that matters.”
“We’re looking for people who have clarity about what they want to do,” he said.
He calls it “purpose-based recruiting.” He also calls it an important approach in a world filled with all sorts of opening doors, including trap doors.
His purpose in speaking to several cohorts of Colangelo College of Business students at Grand Canyon University, as part of CCOB’s Dean’s Speaker Series, was to help them understand the process that led him to where he is today and how they can better explore their options.
Mohr and Dr. Randy Gibb, the CCOB dean, serve together on the board of Conscious Capitalism Arizona, and Mohr also is part of the Conscious Capitalism national board. In addition, he will be the emcee for the first AZ Conscious Capitalism Collegiate Challenge, scheduled for April 11 at GCU.
He began his talk to students with a quote from Mark Twain:
“The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you found out why.”
Mohr said he had “no clue” what he was going to do with his life when he sat in a college classroom but always has been insatiably curious. Later, he thought he had just one purpose and came to realize he had four:
- His wife and two daughters
- Other relationships, particularly with his friend Mark
- Hobbies, such as learning how to play the guitar 2½ years ago (“I have not missed a practice”) and playing Texas hold ’em poker.
- Work that matters
He was working for Banc One Financial Services, bouncing from northwest Indiana to the Chicago area to southeastern Wisconsin, but felt strangely empty. “I was making decent money,” he said, “but I wasn’t fulfilled.”
So he took a sabbatical in search of his true purpose, then just happened to see an ad for a new recruiting firm, Jobing.com, while he was sitting in Talking Stick Resort Arena. He quickly sent in his resumé and, when he got an automated reply, kept making his interest clear until he became the company’s fourth employee and ascended to Senior Vice President and General Manager.
“One of the most important turning points of my life,” he said.
He was snapped up by P.F. Chang’s as Director of Talent Strategy and Acquisition and did that for about a year before starting Y Scouts in 2012 – even though he had never done an executive search.
“Never in my life,” he said, “did I dream that I’d start a recruiting company.”
But there he was, telling the GCU students about how his dream came true … and how they can do the same thing if they can find their purpose.
“We need people like you in this room,” he said, “to understand where you want to make a contribution.”
Not just what you want to be when you grow up. That question has lost its purpose.
Contact Rick Vacek at (602) 639-8203 or [email protected].
