Our latest release by Justin Jones Fosu explores the crucial difference between chasing meaning and creating it and guides professionals to shift from extrinsic motivation, which relies on external rewards and recognition, to an intrinsic model of purpose and contribution. Here are six legends who made the shift:
1. Leo Tolstoy
By his early fifties, Tolstoy had everything most people dream of: immense wealth, literary fame, aristocratic status, a large family, and worldwide recognition from works like War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
Yet he descended into a profound existential crisis. He wrote that he would hide ropes lest he hang himself and avoid carrying a gun for fear of suicide. His realization was devastatingly simple: success had answered none of the important questions.
He abandoned much of his aristocratic lifestyle, dressed as a peasant, renounced many possessions, and emphasized service, compassion, and spiritual growth.
2. Maya Angelou
Angelou often distinguished between achievement and contribution. She strove to make a name for herself while juggling multiple jobs, including working as a streetcar conductor here in San Francisco, a nightclub singer, and both a cook and a waitress. She was almost forty when “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” made her a literary titan in 1969.
Though always active in the civil rights movement and related causes, she argued that your legacy isn't what people think about you but how you make them feel. Late in life, she repeatedly emphasized service, dignity, and helping others discover their worth.
Her last book, Mom & Me & Mom, focused on how her relationship with her mother evolved from abandonment and estrangement to reconciliation and love.
3. Jim Carrey
Carrey achieved almost unimaginable celebrity during the 1990s. Multiple blockbuster films, an extraordinary string of hit performances, and a level of fame comparable to Eddie Murphy's in the 1980s ensured that, within the span of a decade, he was worth more than $100 million.
He has repeatedly said, "I wish everyone could get rich and famous... so they can see that's not the answer." Following depression and personal struggles, his interviews increasingly focused on identity, compassion, creativity, and detachment from ego.
His message today is far less about becoming successful than becoming authentic. He has acted in only three films over the past decade, and before returning in 2020, his previous film role had been in 2016.
4. Steve Jobs
Jobs always cared deeply about excellence and perfection and was known to be ruthless and demanding. A Berrett-Koehler author (BJ Gallagher) recounts how, years ago, she was consulting with Apple when Jobs called her into his office and bluntly told her she was doing nothing of any value and dismissed her abruptly.
When he was diagnosed with cancer, and his perspective changed. His famous Stanford Commencement Address in 2005 (after his diagnosis) emphasized: "Your time is limited..." He urged graduates not to live according to others' expectations.
He had come to realize that recognition was secondary to building something deeply aligned with one's convictions.
5. Sheryl Sandberg
Sandberg was at the peak of her career as one of the most influential women in business, serving as the COO of Facebook (now Meta). Prior to that, she had spent several years as a vice president at Google. Her bestselling book Lean In (published while she was at Facebook) has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.
After the sudden death of her husband, Dave Goldberg, Sandberg wrote openly that career accomplishment suddenly felt insufficient. All the rewards she had enjoyed seemed shallow and lacking.
The shift is clear in her second book. While Lean In is largely about ambition, leadership, and career advancement, Option B emerged directly from a life-altering personal tragedy and explores resilience, relationships, and purpose in the face of adversity.
6. C.S. Lewis
Lewis enjoyed academic prestige early in his career. At the age of twenty-six, he was already a Fellow in English at Oxford, and over the following decades built an impressive scholarly reputation, establishing himself as one of the leading medieval and Renaissance literary scholars of his generation before becoming Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge.
Though initially an atheist, he converted to Christianity in 1931, and following his religious conversion, his writing increasingly aimed to help ordinary people wrestle with profound questions rather than impress academic peers.
Though not as clear-cut a shift as the others on this list, it was still a movement from external validation toward internal faith and values, redirecting his writing and life's work for the rest of his career.
