How I found my Purpose - the J33 story
- Jaron Lim
- Aug 22
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 29
Hi, I am Jaron, the founder of J33. I believe my purpose is to help every person I encounter on their journey of self-discovery so that they can live purposeful, fulfilled lives and walk in their destiny.
My own journey of finding and walking in my purpose began at the age of 21, just before entering university. I was fresh off national service, having gone through the first 20 years of my life on auto-pilot, just going through the motions and getting to that next stage in my education and life.
That is until I attended a talk by Pastor Benny Ho about ‘Destiny’, and he talked about how there are many people who had forgotten or given up on their childhood dreams as they grew up and got caught in this rat-race that many Singaporeans are familiar with. I was only 20 at the time so this was my warning from falling into the same trap.
However, I realised that I didn’t even have a childhood dream!
It was at that moment that I decided to ‘create my own dream’. I recalled in my teenage years of attending church, I had always felt drawn to the speaker on stage and imagined what it would be like to be an overseas missionary. So here was my dream: I will travel the world and create social impact, but not as a missionary in the traditional sense, but with a job. Since I had already enrolled in the Bachelor of Environmental Studies at NUS, I found the nexus of environment and social impact to be in the area of water, especially in the surrounding Southeast Asia region where so many people lack access to safe drinking water.
During my second year of university, I was on an overseas field-study trip to Thailand and I was one of two people, selected from 60, to carry out a study on the water quality in a rural village in Ban Non Sa At. I collected water samples from wells, taps, rainwater collection jars, and talked to various villagers about their water consumption habits. Many times, the villagers would ask me ‘is my water safe to drink?’. That experience marked me and I had this feeling that I had just gotten a glimpse into my future job.
After I graduated, through divine circumstances, I found myself employed at a young local startup called ‘Wateroam’. Wateroam is a social enterprise that develops simple, portable drinking water solutions for disaster relief and rural applications. This company was just under three years old when I had joined, and it was a pivotal time as Wateroam had only just started manufacturing its now-flagship product: The ROAMfilter Plus community water filter.
As Wateroam’s primary salesperson, I travelled around the world, especially within Southeast Asia, to work with various stakeholders to implement our technology to provide safe drinking water and create lasting social impact. I've been to rural villages, refugee camps, areas of conflict and disaster recovery sites.
Apart from that, I also enjoyed the other parts of the job like building up the sales department from scratch; developing sales plans, processes, standard operating procedures, methodologies and incorporating business solutions software to solve daily business problems.
What a dream job where I could travel to nations, explore new places, work with like-hearted brilliant colleagues and partners, have the leeway to experiment and create, and contribute to a greater good. I happily did this for seven years, though knowing at the back of my mind that I would not be doing this forever and that one day I would start my own business.
I would say that most of major decisions in life have been guided by a sense of ‘knowing’ the season that I’m in and what’s going to happen. This knowledge is a combination of corroborative experiences: things I feel in my gut, messages from trusted advisors, words I read in books, scenes I watch in movies, gifts I unexpectedly receive, appointments that I’m entrusted with. All which lead me to a conclusion of what my current season is about and what is next.
This too happened for the starting of J33. I had this sense that 2024 would be the start of the end of my time at Wateroam, and indeed it would show itself through a literal dream I had in September, which symbolically meant that I was on the dawn of a new season; a new journey.
At the start of 2025, I chanced into a meeting with a business coach, and he told me that he could see me starting a business. That began in me a passion as I started having divine moments of inspiration for the company name, J33, the vision and mission, the logo, and the services to provide.
One of the exciting things I had the opportunity to do in 2024 was being involved as a facilitator at the Teshuvah Workshop, which is an immersive and experiential learning self-discovery program. After receiving positive reviews from participants for my role as a facilitator, I realised that throughout my life I have always been excited to hear other people share about their dreams and I would find ways to help them - especially entrepreneurs and missionaries.
There is a particular expression that people have when they start to connect the dots in their lives and recognize their own purpose and calling. It is the beautiful ‘aha’ moment that sets their life on track. While I love seeing that expression, I do believe that many people are left to figure out their way on their own. Unfortunately, some will give up before they even start trying.
Therefore, one of my main goals in life is to reveal insights to bring about these ‘aha’ moments, and also deliver clarity on how to overcome specific challenges in every individual's journey. I believe that every person that I encounter is part of a grander vision I see of a generation that knows who they are and dares to dream.
That is the mission of J33: To facilitate the fulfilment of destiny by reviving hearts, giving directive counsel and providing practical support.
The name J33 is inspired by a few key sources:
A Bible passage, Jeremiah 33:3
‘Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.’
There is a divine wisdom and insight that is readily available for those who are ready to ask, and that is what I bring to every person that I work with.
Jesus 33. Also known as the ‘Jesus Year' in popular culture, it marks a point of personal transformation, rebirth, or a period of significant change and reflection. It is called the Jesus Year as Jesus completed his mission, died and resurrected when he was 33, and that single event changed the world forever.
Jaron 33. I'm 33 in 2025, and what better way to kick off my own ‘Jesus’ Year than by starting my own company to help other people discover themselves and walk in their destinies.
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