The Mission Generation: Reclaim Your Purpose, Rewrite Success, and Rebuild Our Future
Arun Gupta and Thomas Fewer
Wiley (May 2026)
Financial success and social purpose are NOT mutuallly exclusive; they’re interdependent.
In a previously published book, Venture Meets Mission (January 2024), Arun Gupta, and Thomas Fewer explore “how entrepreneurs, investors, and public leaders could align innovation with public purpose, expecting modest interest from policy and innovation circles.”
(Note: Gerard George was a third co-author of that volume.)
As you may already know, most of the companies annually ranked among those most highly regarded and best to work for are also annually ranked among those most profitable, with the greatest cap value in their industry segment. That is NOT a coincidence. Moreover, in all of the major surveys that ask employees to rank what is of greatest importance to them, a substantial majority ranked feeling appreciated either first or second.
These are among the personal and professional objectives that Gupta and Fewer can help you to achieve, each preceded on this list by HOW TO:
o Create a new “compass” when old “maps” fail
o Transition from a crisis to a calling
o Respond when an initiative encounters pushback
o Get financial capital and mission capital in proper alignment
o Locate hidden capitals that provide direction “when no one is watching”
o Invest the compass capitals in order to compound their impact
o Derive full value from your big breakthrough, one that consists of a thousand small ones (i.e. “The Mission Flywheel”)
o Summon the courage to be wrong
o Initiate the “Mid-Career Pivot” when success is insufficient
o Transition to the next and (thus far) most impactful chapter with the mindset of a beginner
Gupta and Fewer devote a separate chapter to each when explaining HOW to do WHAT must be done.
They and I are convinced that you can achieve these objectives if (HUGE “if”) you make a total commitment to (a) claiming or re-claiming that sense of purpose, (b) re-writing your (NOT someone else’s) definition of its success, and (c) and repair/rebuild a shared future with other missionaries.
These are among the passages in The Mission Generation (PARTs I-III) of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Gupta and Fewer’s coverage:
o Building Your Own Compass (Pages 7-9)
o Finding Meaning Through Experimentation, Reflection, and Contribution (11-13)
o Compass: A New Currency for a Meaningful Career (13-14)
o Welc ome to Pedrpetual Disruption (18-22)
o Mission Becomes the Compass (30-33)
o Why Mission Feels Unnatural (39-41)
o Psychological Resistance: The Saboteur in the Mirror (41-44)
o CulturalResistance: The Career Track You Didn’t Know You Were Trapped In (46-50)
o The Myth of the Either/Or Career (59-62)
o Financial Capital: The Engine of Autonomy (62-65)
o Why Purpose and Profit Belong in the Same Room (68-74)
o Trust Capital: the Most Valuable Asset You’ll Never Own (79-81)
o Learning Capital: The Behavior that Outlasts Every Disruption (84-86)
o Integration in Action: How the Six Capitals Reinforce Each Other (98-100)
o Recognize Your Mission: Find Calling in Chaos (113-115)
o Recruit Allies: Find the People Who Will Hold the Rope While You Jump (120-122)
o The Loneliness of Being Early (133-134)
o The Frontier Often Has No Signposts (138-140)
o The First Moves of the Mission Flywheel (142-144)
o The Two-Way Street of Mentorship: A Bridge Back into Relevance (176-180)
I realize that I have probably given you more information than you need in order to decide whether or not to check out The Mission Generation. I commend Arun Gupta and Thomas Fewer on a contribution to knowledge leadership that can be of incalculable value to leaders who urgently need cutting-edge thinking about how to “reclaim their purpose, rewrite success, and help rebuild our world’s future.”
The next move is yours.
I wish you well.
And so do Arun Gupta and Thomas Fewer.