Juan Bartra biography
Good Morning! I am Juan Bartra, founder of Purpose and Engagement. History defines us and makes us who we are. That is why I would like to explain my story.
I was born in Barcelona and I belong to the baby-boomer generation. Like most of those born at that time, I was educated in the values of effort, sacrifice, loyalty, respect for authority and the promise that by doing the right thing we could always expect to move up the professional career and make a better living. As you can see, it is obvious that many things and beliefs have changed in recent years.
For 27 years I was very fortunate to work for family-owned small and medium-sized businesses and also for multinational companies and what I call multinational-family businesses, in a variety of positions and geographical areas. Like many of us at that time, I did not have the opportunity to travel in my teens and the working world offered me an incredible opportunity to go and live in Mexico as a General Manager at the age of 29 and then in Austria, Germany and Eastern Europe. This allowed me to discover a lot of things, such as my passion for dealing with other cultures, which I am good at and that satisfies my indomitable curiosity and enriches me greatly.
I am also very grateful to the corporate world that has allowed me to experience many periods in which professional life may not be a tight compartment but have a Purpose and values that make it a communicating vessel with other areas of one’s personal life, which it enriches.
That is when one’s talent emerges, one’s commitment, trust, responsibility, creativity, intuition and many more benefits for the person and for the company.
About five years ago I felt that my vocation had changed.
It really started setting in some time before when, during a long process the ownership of the company ceased to be interested in the business area I managed and we started not receiving any internal support, resources or financing. It was very subtle at first, but little by little we began feeling abandoned and ignored. Today, this would probably be defined as cyber-bullying.
I believe there are few things that can cause more ongoing stress and restlessness than working hard for something that you know matters little to anyone and makes no sense.
Meanwhile I had the great fortune that life put some people in my path with experience and knowledge of emotional intelligence, personal growth; spiritual people who had achieved important professional success and radiated well-being. I was attracted to this life and wanted to to be a little like them. These learning experiences allowed me to start coming out of my comfort zone –until then I had had no idea how to do this– and to let go of the victim mindset.
I could not change the circumstances, but I could change the way in which I managed these circumstances, and that ultimately turned my life situation around and improved my professional efficiency.
With a generational change in the company I was fired without any reason or explanation except that I did not fit into their new plans. I felt disoriented for a few days, but the work I had been doing on personal self-knowledge and leaving the comfort zone began to yield its results. I soon connected with my new vital Purpose.
My main motivation in founding Purpose & Engagement has been to create a methodology and tools to help people and organizations be connected and linked by this commitment, which has a lot to do with the heart and the soul. I am overwhelmed with joy at helping companies and teams to make sense of their work because it adds to our existence, creates a fuller existence, generates well-being in our circle of influence (friends, family, collaborators) and more and better results for the company. The opposite is one of the great sources of stress which leaves a great emptiness and unease. This is reason enough to take action with a bulletproof conviction.