The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

foot must remain fixed, but the other foot can freely move
about, allowing you to easily spin around and find a
teammate to whom you can pass the ball. You can even
pivot before dribbling the ball, allowing you to change
direction before moving down the court. Although you are
confined to where you are and how many steps you can
take, at no point are you locked into any direction. That’s
the beauty of the move. Even when all other opportunities
are exhausted, you can always pivot.
In 2006, Andrew Mason was about to attempt something
big. A graduate student pursuing a public policy degree at
the University of Chicago, he was doing some contract work
on the side, building databases at a company founded by an
entrepreneur named Eric Lefkofsky. In 2007, backed by
Lefkofsky, Mason launched a company called The Point, a
website intended to bring groups of people together to solve
problems. The idea was that a person could use social media
to get people to rally together around a specific cause and
then motivate them to act. Nobody cared much about
making money; it was about making a difference.
The start-up, in spite of its good intentions, didn’t take
off. To make matters worse, when the recession hit in 2008,
they needed money, and without a business model The
Point was in trouble. Normally the team would use the
website to organize people around a cause, but this time
they wanted to try something new, at the prodding of
Lefkofsky. What if their cause this time was to save money?
The new idea, born out of financial distress, was to get