This is the challenge for the whole field of management — how to balance an instrumental focus on utility (What do I want? How do I get it?) with the great existential questions about identity (Who are we? Why do we matter?). See https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/management-needs-return-reason-david-k-hurst-frsa/ What we call ‘purpose’ is actually a spectrum of concepts that ranges from high-level ultimate, existential ends e.g. ‘happiness’ to low-level proximate, instrumental means e.g. doing my taxes. The top end is fundamentally collective (hence the concern for others) while the bottom end is individual. We need a ‘both…and’ approach to embrace and contain the mainstream ‘either/or’.