05/15/2026
I sat down with Andy Barnes executive, military veteran, and entrepreneur and asked him one question:
“What drives you?”
He didn’t say money.
He didn’t say a title.
He didn’t say success.
He said:
Passion.
That answer hit different coming from someone who has served, built businesses, and now leads at one of the biggest financial institutions in the country.
So I asked the follow-up question:
“What if someone doesn’t know what their passion is yet?”
His answer reminded me that passion is not always something you discover overnight.
Sometimes it is the thing you keep coming back to.
The thing you still care about when nobody is watching.
The thing you naturally bring into every room you walk into.
That is where purpose starts.
And maybe that is the part people miss.
You do not have to quit your job to be purpose-driven.
You do not have to own a business to be entrepreneurial.
Some people build companies.
Some people build inside companies.
They build culture.
They build teams.
They build opportunities.
They make people better.
That is leadership.
This is why I started Driven Conversations.
Not just to talk about success.
But to understand what drives the people behind it.
So let me ask you the same question:
What drives you?