“A year ago, I was lost.

At 24 years old, I kept wrestling with this question: what is the point of life?

It consumed my every waking moment, and I couldn’t shake the idea that I was wasting my youth with tedious tasks meant nothing.

So one day, I threw caution to the wind and set out on a journey to find the meaning of life for myself.

My travels took me from the mountains of the Patagonia, to the Greek ruins in Athens, to the winding alleyways of Prague and the castles of Scotland.

I saw the gas chambers in Auschwitz, and the Colosseum in Rome. I broke bread with Argentines in Buenos Aires and Swedes in Stockholm.

But still, I yearned for answers.

One dreary night in a Hungarian dive bar, I shared my woes with a local sitting next to me.

He looked me in the eye and said, “Brother, you must head North. North of the Arctic Circle, where the Vikings reigned. There, and only there, will you find your answer.”

My mysterious friend could only be referring to one city: Tromsø, Norway.

In late November, when the sun no longer rose, I made my way North. I set off into the wilderness, where I saw the Aurora Borealis. I took it as a sign that I was on the right path.

I headed into town, where I encountered a massive, blonde-haired man with a long, untrimmed beard.

“This must be the man I was looking for,” I thought.

I walked up to him and said, “Excuse me friend, but I have been looking for you for months. I have traveled 5,000 miles to ask you one question: What is the meaning of life?”

His eyes narrowed as he took a deep breath, grabbed my shoulder, and whispered four profound words…

“To create shareholder value.”

A wave of joy overcamd my soul. Finally, my search for knowledge had reached its end. I could return home at peace, knowing I had found my life’s purpose.

That’s how I ended up in business school, where I plan to land an associate role at a PE firm to drive immense value creation for the next 40 years.

My life’s purpose.”