By Jessy Plante
Remember Your Why
I needed to take a break from writing this to lie on the floor and just breathe for a while. As I lay there, I had the thought: I need money, but what can I give for it? This is a thought that has been perstering me since I became self-employed in April of 2025. I quit my job with a newborn at home and a half-finished house to follow my dream.
My wife trusted me to create something that would provide for the family before we ran out of reserves. I trusted that my family would take care of us if we ran out of reserves before I managed to create something that would support us, and I trusted myself to create something meaningful.
The first thing I created was the Life Juggler game. I had 1040 copies printed, and they have been sitting in my closet ever since. Eventually, I just started giving them away because I wanted people to experience what it feels like when someone asks you a question about who you are without needing to negotiate the value of those conversations. We all need more of them.
Next, I wrote my Mom’s book. It was an emotionally gruelling journey as we wrote her story from the time she decided she wanted a divorce to how she is grieving the woman she lost to terminal cancer. As a perpetual optimist, it was a challenge to shine light into such a dark book, but our beta readers are enjoying the results, and the book is due to be released in October.
Along the way here, I have had many ideas. In December 2025, while most people were settling into the holiday routine, I was feeling stuck. The only idea I could come up with to kickstart BeeFun Academy, my venture at the time, was to go on a road trip to Amsterdam on a 100 € budget to distribute 10,000 gamified coasters. We succeeded in our mission, had a lot of great conversations, but that’s all we got out of it.
Two months later, I left the academy to return to Life Jugglers. I had spent six months and most of my income trying to build something that turned out to be a compromise. The reason I became self-employed was to spend more time with my family, but I became so blinded by the mission that I abandoned them during the holidays when they needed me the most.
By the time I returned to Life Jugglers, we had spent most of our reserves on me starting this business, the house was still unfinished, and I had nothing to show for it. No measurable income, just passion for collaborative communication and no plan for how to turn that passion into something I could offer the world.
I started spending a lot more time alone on walks and in my office with a clipboard. I had had enough conversations with people and books. I needed to start having them with me. Asking myself the hard questions. I needed to activate the type of creativity that only comes when you have dug yourself a hole so deep you forget which way is up.
This is what I came up with:
A Purple Burger.
This Purple Burger is the book I have been writing for the past few years about my time as a travelling winemaker. It’s a book about making plans, having those plans blow up in your face, and adapting to new situations over and over again. It is what I want to offer the world.
Here’s the story it will contain:
There was a Canadian winemaker travelling the world. He spent his years cycling between working crazy hours and watching the days while waiting for the next vintage to start. One day, he met a girl from the Czech Republic at a party in New Zealand. When she needed to return to her village near the Austrian border, he found work in Vienna so he could be close to her. When their daughter was due, he moved to her village so he could be home every night. Recognizing that his Czech salary would not be enough to support the family, he started a business. Now, he’s writing this book to illustrate that the end of one plan is the beginning of another.
I came here to be with the woman I love, and I will do everything in my power to give her the life she deserves. I am here because of love. Love is the best motivator I have ever found.
What motivates you?
