“Challenging, inspiring and practical.”
Bear Grylls
“I can’t think of anyone more qualified to write about the significance of knowing your purpose than my friend Ken Costa… His new book, Know Your Why, is absolutely foundational to living a purpose driven life.”
Rick Warren
“Among the crush and the rush of life, there's no better guide in the pursuit of getting it right than my friend Ken Costa… I highly recommend Know Your Why, and am confident you will see more clearly and live more purposefully after absorbing the wisdom in its pages.”
Louie Giglio, Pastor, Passion City Church, Passion Conferences
“This is an important and timely book. In a world of seemingly endless options, discerning the voice of God can be an increasingly difficult task. Ken draws on decades of experience to help Christians cut through the confusion and distractions and live lives in tune with God.”
Andy Stanley, Senior Pastor, North Point Ministries
“There are few people on this planet that I find more fascinating than Ken Costa. His capacity for business is only outweighed by his affection for the local church; and he has beautifully modelled to a generation what it means to live out your calling and build the Kingdom.”
Brian Houston, Global Founder and Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church
Are you working for cash, a career, a cause—or a calling? “Why do you do what you do?”
People work for a variety of reasons.
For many, the primary purpose of their work is cash. Their principal motivation is the paycheck that funds their everyday needs. Their work is a means to an end. Others are motivated by ambitions for a career, to move up the professional ladder and expand their experience, becoming more skilled in a particular area. Still others work for a cause, believing in the wider purpose of their work, attempting to make a difference in the world—to leave a mark in some way.
All of these are legitimate motivations. However, missing from all three is any sense of the value of work itself. The focus is on the output of the workplace, rather than valuing the input.
What we need is calling. Those who see their work as a calling experience a rich integration in their lives. They sense a purpose, a direction to their activities. Work has intrinsic meaning, rather than being simply a means to an end. In many ways this is precisely what the Spirit of God does in our lives. When we are in the flow of the Spirit, we are cooperating fully in our God-given callings. When people embrace their callings, they love their work, can manage inevitable tensions that arise, and are welcomed by their colleagues, who sense that there is something beyond the cash or career objectives. But how do we get there?
Know Your Why is written with one objective: to help you find your life’s calling so that you can be more satisfied, fulfilled, and happier at work.
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”
—John 15:16 NIV
Ken Costa was born in South Africa and studied philosophy and law at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he became president of the students union and was active in the student protest movements against apartheid. He went on to study law and theology at the University of Cambridge. Following university, he went to work for an investment bank in the City of London, where he has worked for more than thirty years. After serving as vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank, a global financial institution, where he advised international corporations, Mr. Costa was named as the chairman of Lazard International, joining the bank in October 2007. Ken Costa is the chairman of Alpha International, which promotes the Alpha Course, an introduction to the Christian faith attended by more than two million people in the UK and ten million worldwide. He also serves as church warden of Holy Trinity Brompton. He is chairman of the Tick Tock Club appeal on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hospital; a member of the advisory council of the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trustee of the UK arm of the Nelson Mandela Children s Fund. He and his wife, Fi, live in London. They have two sons and two daughters.
