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#18 Letting Go - John Purkiss

 November 24th, 2020

"I realised, okay, so I've done all this left-brain clever stuff, you know, like accounting, finance, languages, strategy, marketing, dah, dah, dah. I feel suicidal. So clearly I am missing something.  My father was in sales, my brother is in sales and I realised there were people who were far less academic than me who were leading much happier lives and were not trying to kill themselves." John Purkiss.

John finds himself drawn to anything that helps change the world in a positive way including in business, photography and writing books. Working as a headhunter John uses his training in banking and finance every day and shares the value of going beyond that to be far more effective.  We talk about being present, the power of letting go and how letting go does not mean giving up but helps you become more powerful.  Work-life balance John believes is a misnomer - how can you balance one thing that is part of the other?


John Purkiss studied economics at Cambridge University and has an MBA from INSEAD. He began his career with The First National Bank of Chicago, Mercury Asset Management and OC&C Strategy Consultants. John then co-founded a software company and worked in sales and marketing, in the UK, Belgium and France. He joined Heidrick & Struggles, where he set up and ran the CFO Practice in the London office and was promoted to partner. John is now a partner with August Leadership. He is the author of How To Be Headhunted, Brand You and The Power of Letting Go. www.johnpurkiss.com


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