Jacket Notes: Thami Nkadimeng on writing 'Finding Purpose'

I have heard that writing a book is a long process and although it was indeed a process for me, it certainly was neither long nor burdensome. It was like putting together a series of puzzle pieces which, once placed in their rights spaces, revealed the story of my life and the ultimate purpose of my journey. It was raining on the day I finally put pen to paper and I just knew that this was going to be a blessing with lots of lessons which filled me with so much gratitude.

I wrote the spine of the book within two weeks. This means I had written 20 chapters of something that had no title — just my thoughts, memories and lessons learnt over the years. This was the easiest part. What followed were weeks of reading it over and over, editing on the road, on flights, in hotel rooms and in transit. I now know that all my experiences were not in vain, but in order for me to use my life’s journey to serve society. 

While I was writing I struggled with allowing myself to be vulnerable. I questioned whether the world needed to know so much about me and I had to remind myself why I became “The Message Architect” in the first place. Leaning on the notion “To be the change I want to see in the world” was my comfort. I had to be brave and tell my story without sugar coating it. Being in the public eye is no simple feat so I decided to own my honest and unvarnished story. I could go to bed each night knowing that I had taken my own skeletons out of the closet and buried them.

Finding Purpose is a walk through all my trials, all my wins and culminating in the reason why I was created. I hope that readers will think about their own experiences and realise that we are all on the road to self-discovery and that nobody actually gets a manual for how to live here on this earth. The best we can do is just try our best, continue to pursue and ultimately create our own purposeful legacy.

Finding Purpose by Thami Nkadimeng is published by Kwela