Carry the Torch: George Bernard Shaw On Purpose.
How an Irish Playwright’ Purpose Can Help You Build a More Meaningful Life
and a More Powerful Brand
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Carry the Torch: What George Bernard Shaw Teaches Us About Purpose
How an Irish Playwright Can Help You Build a More Meaningful Life and a More Powerful Brand
George Bernard Shaw believed purpose was the engine of a meaningful life. Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, and social thinker. He wrote more than 60 plays, won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was known for challenging people to rethink how they lived and worked. Shaw saw life as an opportunity to contribute something larger than the self. He wanted his life to serve a purpose that mattered. He believed we have to burn brightly while we can.
But first, a story:
Years ago, I was asked to help a leadership team prepare for a critical shareholder’s meeting. When I was leaving for the airport, the CEO walked me out to the parking lot to say goodbye. Before we shook hands, he stopped and said something I have never forgotten.
“I want to know that when I leave, I leave this place better than when I found it.”
I wasn’t sure if he was talking about his company or the earth. Maybe he meant both.
Shaw’s Invitation to Live a Mighty Life With Purpose
Why Shaw’s Words Still Matter Today
There are moments when a single idea really moves you. Sometimes it even reaches across time and taps you on the shoulder. That happened to me this week after rereading a passage by George Bernard Shaw. His words reminded me that the work we do is about more than our output. It is about purpose. It is about service. It is about carrying something meaningful forward.
The quote below comes from a short essay Shaw wrote near the end of his life. It has been reprinted in collections of his writings and widely shared because it captures the way he believed a person should move through the world.
Shaw wrote:
“This is the true joy in life. The being used for a purpose considered by yourself as mighty. The being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community. And while I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.
I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch that I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
There is something unusually refreshing about this directness, especially in today’s environment of self-absorbed influencers and narcissistic politicians filling our bandwidth with their self-serving drivel. There’s no hedging and no hesitation in Shaw’s words. He believed the value of life comes from the meaning you bring to it. He also believed that meaning comes from what you contribute, not what you accumulate.
How George Bernard Shaw’s Purpose Shapes Your Brand
Purpose Creates the Energy Your Audience Feels
What you contribute is the heart of purpose. It is also the heart of branding.
A brand is not the thing you sell. A brand is the heat of a torch people feel when they are around you. It is what you stand for. It is what you light up in others. It is the part of your work that lives beyond the transaction.
When you think about your own work, ask yourself what torch you’re carrying. Ask yourself how brightly it can glow. Ask yourself who or what it burns for. An honest answer will tell you more about your brand than any marketing plan or SWOT analysis ever could.
Your Torch and Your Legacy
Shaw’s writing is a reminder that purpose is not something abstract. It is the energy you bring to your work. It is the commitment behind your actions. It is the voice your audience hears when you walk on stage or walk into a room.
As for me, I plan to keep carrying my torch as long as people find it valuable and I find it meaningful.
A Quick Note About 2026 Speaking Opportunities
And speaking of my torch, if you are planning your 2026 conferences or annual meetings and are looking for a keynote speaker who helps audiences explore purpose, presence, and the torch they carry, I would be thrilled to talk with you. I still have a few open dates and would be happy to save one to help your torch burn even brighter.
Will Rogers mentioned George Bernard Shaw more than a dozen times in his syndicated newspaper columns. Here is a tribute to him on Shaw’s first visit to the U.S. in March 1933:
“Bernard Shaw, you let me come to your home in London, talk to you for a long time. I always said I never met a man I didn’t like. You would all like Shaw if you met him, that is everybody that is fair and honest with themselves.
You won’t be able to figure him out, and that makes the smart fellows sore. He is one crossword puzzle that has never been worked. Writers’ animosity to Shaw is that they didn’t think of saying what he had already said. He is away ahead of ’em. England in all these years don’t know if he’s for ’em or against ’em.
Now when a guy can do all that and put it over, give him credit. He does no harm.
Sir James Barrie told me that Shaw was a very charitable, human man. He does much good, amuses and instructs multitudes, so as ‘wisecracking’ is our national pastime and we have a foreigner come here who can make a sucker out of us doing it, let’s be good sports and admit it. For, as far as knowing the ‘real’ Bernard Shaw, we haven’t got a man in America that can see past his whiskers.
So, viva Bernard, look us over, and don’t let our hospitality stand in the way of you telling us about what cage in the zoo we belong. It’s bound to do us some good.”
Also, similar to the CEO you quoted, most of our farmers say they want to leave their farm better than they found it.
Thanks for the deep dive, Randall!
Inspired! thank you!
Thank you Sam. Good to hear from you!! It’s been a LONG time.
My two all-time favorite quotes are both by Shaw:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.”
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
Shaw was a fascinating man. I’ve been looking for a biography about him but have not yet found one. I hope I don’t have to write it myself, but someone should.
Here’s the link the classic Shaw biography, David. It’s a big investment in time and money but a very deep dive into your favorite.
https://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Shaw-One-Michael-Holroyd/dp/0375500499/ref=sr_1_1?crid=30FKV8UW01WZS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AgHrwTsAl2wkpVV9G-OQcGKKc2xMZHMRh-kEfbukE5o5UevI8wL-vQNGLBY7ZFEOYRsz5uzuBtsAeAA5l-9gvObEAwbe1EyWCHYsmDH45Hcy1q4LLdTey-cxp6TcrErLZqQp9R8ZvgfR-Qoq3vovrEai-Vfge9tQ4xbKjNdyrAGAusZ8mul4AEOZ2HI-AwBwJqcT0ZyHwoJ2mU6fNiEOlPjoY6a6MVq9dPyimGD8l5o.Syi9wt6CIgK3rcYXR_2D3BcV3r8KdtoSR7Npr4vlH3o&dib_tag=se&keywords=george+bernard+shaw+biography&qid=1764877352&sprefix=george+bernard+shaw+bio%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1bruceturkel-20
Bruce, I agree with Max. This really a great read. Thank you for the inspiring post!
Thank you, Tim.
“Brilliant” as ever Bruce! You have inspired me and many with your stories and passion, may the torch keep burning brilliantly!
Thank you, Henry.
Bruce – this is one of the most important and critical concepts you have ever shared with your audience, clients, friends and the public. You clearly made a decision long ago to leave the world a better place!
THATS very generous of you Max. Thank you for your kind words.
Thank you, Max. Considering I’ve written this blog every single week since 2007, that’s a real compliment for this particular post. Thanks!!