Lynda Holt created Way Ahead for business owners who want to make a bigger difference

I believe we all have a unique purpose, it doesn’t matter what it is – just that you live it. The more people that live their purpose the more empowered the world becomes; I want to be part of that process.

As a young girl, although I didn’t realise it at the time, I’d found my passion – I instinctively knew my purpose in life. Back then it was easy to live by my values, to challenge injustices and to influence others to discover their greatness. I’ve been helping people get out of their own way since I was a little girl.

We had a big white rock in our front garden, just the right shape for sitting on – and this is where my friends came to discuss their latest dilemma. I loved this, I loved seeing the realisation, their AHA moments as we chatted and they realised they had the answer, they knew what needed to happen next, they’d just lost sight of it for a bit.

Most of us do instinctively know our purpose at some level, I also think it is easy to ignore this instinct. Life, logic, other people’s expectations all get in the way, and before we know what’s happened we can lose touch with that intuitive knowing. That’s certainly true for me, by the time I’d been to uni, got a career, a mortgage, become a mum, although outwardly very successful, with a high profile NHS career and doing exactly what I’d logically aimed for, I’d lost a part of me.

When my son was a toddler, I knew there had to be a different way, being on call, working long hours, not seeing my little boy was totally at odds with my values. So I quit. I set up my development consultancy – still working in the health sector initially, still helping people to be the best they could be, challenging the status quo, and helping organisations to grow, but doing it my way, on my terms.

14 years on, I’ve worked with some amazing businesses, large and small in several different countries, we now have three businesses from the original consultancy – of which Way Ahead is my real passion, I’m really privileged to do the stuff I love every day, and even better my son is now in sixth form, and I haven’t missed out on school holidays, plays, concerts or sports days.

All of these businesses exist because I work from a place of purpose, my difference in the world, which is to enable others, to challenge what they accept for themselves and to help them shine that bit brighter; the grown up version of my big white rock, I guess.

If I can do this so can you, we can all have the business we want, the adventure – but to get it we have to be brave enough to start, resilient enough to keep going and prepared to put in the effort up front. Too many people settle for what all they think they can acheive, what they think they deserve, or what others expect of them. Don’t be one of these people, don’t play a small game, or hide in the shadows. Get out there, chase your dreams and light the way with your brilliance.