Finding one’s conative takes experience, reflection, and also courage. Joseph Mocanu’s story shows how each element builds on one another, and how targeted, intense inquiry by a skilled mentor can catalyze the breakthrough. As his story shows, finding one’s conative is hard; choosing to live according to it is even harder. We come across many high-potential leaders who come so close to crystallizing their conative, only to move away from it because they fear the unknown, don’t want to leave their comfort zone, or get absorbed by life’s challenges and disruptions. As former Medtronic CEO and author Bill George talked about in his book True North, it is essential and so hard to find one’s compass.
“LIFE2 completely changed my career. Getting clarity of purpose was essential. It was a huge weight off my chest. Having the courage to do something was the medium-term impact: I went ahead and did it.”
Across 120+ LIFE2 alumni, Joseph Mocanu had his breakthrough the fastest, before the three-day intensive part of the program started. “Tsun-yan and Andy (Andrew Clay, LIFE2 faculty) triggered the process during my deepstructured interview… it was 90% done by the time I started the three days. After that, it was more refinement and iteration.” This was a surprise. Ahead of the deep-structured interview, Huijin had informed Tsun-yan that Joseph was fairly confused, with too many good choices. This made Joseph’s breakthrough and his lightning-fast and sustained actions post-LIFE2 amazing.
When they met for the first time in the basement of a Robinsons department store café, Joseph struck Huijin as highly talented, energetic, and scattered. She sensed immediately that he was different from the usual consultant. He had a PhD in medical biophysics, invested in early-stage technology companies on the side, and exuded positive though nervous energy. He was close to making full partner at his consulting firm but seemed unclear whether it was something he truly wanted. He seemed like a scientist at heart. Joseph said he wanted to improve his presence and capacity to influence senior client executives. “LIFE2,” Huijin said, “can definitely help you, and maybe you can also use the opportunity to reflect on your path before going further down the consulting partner track.” What Huijin didn’t say (but thought) was that there was an awkwardness in Joseph that
might inhibit him from becoming a great consultant. Huijin hoped LIFE2 would help Joseph work through that and allow him to own his true and whole self.
In the two-hour deep-structured interview, and then confirmed in the three-day program, Joseph realized that his purpose was to help radically extend the human health span.
“Tsun-yan helped me realize that I was burning the candle on both ends — spending a lot of time on start-ups while pushing for partner [in the consulting firm]. It was clear that I was more passionate about the start-ups than my job. Hanging onto the job to make money to support the startups was inefficient and might risk me doing both poorly. I started thinking about focusing on the start-ups full time and started to hear the inner voice saying I guess I could.“
With that emerging clarity, it became obvious to Joseph that he should change from the consulting path to doing health care technology investing. He quit his job a few months after LIFE2 and started preparing to launch his own early-stage health care technology venture fund.
This was not an easy path. First-time funds are fraught with risk, and early-stage funds even more so. Nonetheless, Joseph knew it was the right thing for him — an expression of his true self — and set off on this adventure. “Two years later, I have never been happier. I consciously did it and made a decision. I was really happy I made a decision.”
A few years later, when Huijin saw Joseph at the 2019 LIFE retreat, the awkwardness was gone. His true and whole self shone through with comfort, confidence, and conviction in what and who he was. “Before LIFE2, I thought I needed to improve my presence, persuasion, superficial stuff. What it ended up being is having all those things through clarity of purpose and creative energy, with which everything just falls in place naturally.”
Joseph closed his first fund during the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, over two years after he had embarked on the journey. Tsun-yan and Huijin are amazed at his perseverance hundreds of investor meetings later. With his conative clear and pursued vigorously, his natural talent and joy in finding health care technology entrepreneurs, especially those with deep technology backgrounds like Joseph, came into full bloom. In 2022, he started raising his second fund, together with heavyweights he had attracted to his team.
When asked how he keeps himself going, especially when the going gets tough: “I am grounded by purpose. Once you find it, life is too short and too precious not to realize it.”
Joseph also keeps learning, a hallmark of LIFE2 alumni:
“For the people I meet for the first time, I would like to improve
my efficiency in discerning if there is a synergy of purpose and
if and how I can meaningfully help the other person advance
their vision or agenda.”
Note: This story is from chapter 10, page 167, of Positive Influence: First and Last Mile of Leadership by Tsun-yan Hsieh and Huijin Kong.
