What happens when a successful career is no longer the biggest opportunity in front of you?

For Terence Chatmon, one of the most difficult decisions of his career was ultimately about purpose, impact, and what he wanted his leadership to accomplish.

After building a senior career in corporate America—including leadership experience with Johnson & Johnson, Citibank, and Coca-Cola—Terence made the decision to leave a highly successful corporate path and devote himself to a very different mission: helping families flourish by equipping parents to raise and disciple their children.

In this episode of Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams, Terence shares the leadership decisions and experiences that shaped that journey.

One of his earliest lessons came when he had multiple job offers after graduating from the University of Illinois. Johnson & Johnson was one of the lower-paying opportunities, but Terence chose it because he was looking beyond his immediate compensation. He wanted an organization that would train him, develop him, build his capabilities, and prepare him for the future.

That decision became an important principle throughout his career:

Don't make decisions only for where you are today. Make them for where you are trying to go.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬:

• How to make career decisions with the future in mind
• Why development can sometimes be more valuable than immediate compensation
• How past experiences shape better leadership decisions
• When leaders should look beyond money, status, and position
• The challenge of leaving a successful career for a larger mission
• How purpose can change the direction of a leader's life
• Why leaders need to consider the impact of their decisions on others
• The connection between leadership, parenting, and generational impact
• How investing in people can create influence that lasts far beyond your own career

Terence also shares a powerful perspective on parenting. A question from his wife—“What are you going to do about it?”—forced him to think differently about his responsibility as a father and ultimately helped put him on a path toward the work he does today.

His message to parents and leaders is remarkably simple:

Love well.

For Terence, leadership is ultimately about investing in people and creating an impact that extends beyond yourself.

This is a conversation about difficult decisions, career transitions, leadership, purpose, family, and the kind of impact we leave behind.

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𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐌𝐎𝐍:

Terence Chatmon is President & CEO of Victorious Family, a nonprofit organization focused on equipping parents to help their children flourish.

His career includes senior leadership experience in corporate America, including Johnson & Johnson, Citibank, and Coca-Cola. Across that career, he developed a leadership philosophy centered on investing in people, developing leaders, understanding organizational culture, and creating lasting impact.

Today, Terence applies those experiences to his work with families, helping parents understand the privilege and responsibility of raising the next generation and creating multi-generational impact.

𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐒 & 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓:

Create the Future Podcast with Rick Williams is a leadership podcast for executives, entrepreneurs and leaders who face difficult decisions that shape their organizations, careers and lives.

Host Rick Williams explores the real-world decisions behind leadership, growth, innovation, culture, risk, purpose and organizational change.

Each episode features leaders who have faced consequential choices and shares the experiences and lessons that can help other leaders become better decision makers.

Because the future isn't something we simply wait for.

We create the future by the decisions we make today.

Learn more about Rick Williams and the Create the Future podcast at RickWilliamsLeadership.com