Purpose Coaching

The First Purpose Coach in Sri Lanka

From the words of Angelo Pullenayegam

Everyone dreams of it, the entrepreneurial life. The luxury car, the beautiful wife, the billions, the freedom to wake up in a different city every morning. My journey began exactly the same way. With a dream. An unrealistic dream. One that became true.

I come from a distinguished lineage, the Pullenayegams, the cream of the Colombo Chetty community. But by the time that legacy reached my father’s generation, the accumulated wealth had quietly disappeared. Wasted, given away, forgotten. By the time it reached my family, we were barely surviving. My mother raised three children alone, navigating an economic environment that showed no mercy.

Growing up in poverty alongside toxic adults, shapes you in ways that take years to unlearn. These were people who proved their strength by breaking a child, I was beaten violently from the age of three. It shattered my confidence. Their words dismantled my self-worth, stripped away my ability to express myself, and taught me to bottle everything inside until it eventually exploded outward onto others.

At twenty, I was thrown out of the house. Honestly, Part of me was relieved to escape. But relief doesn’t pay rent. I had no job, no savings, nowhere to go. I ended up living in a shanty with an outdoor bathroom that had no door. I was grateful for the roof, genuinely. I was angry, rejected, and quietly suicidal. The world didn’t feel like it was built for someone like me.

Still, I held onto hope.

I started looking for work and landed the only job available, a restaurant. I washed bathrooms. I scrubbed dishes. I served meals and cleared other people’s leftovers. On my days off, a cigarette and a cup of tea was all I could afford. My shoes had holes in them, and I was so broke my bank cards were worthless, so I slid one into my shoe to stop the sole from cutting into my foot.

Sleepless nights. Countless tears. Silent prayers.

Then one day, something shifted. I found my purpose, not ambition, not hustle, PURPOSE. To restore dignity to my family. To reclaim the wealth that had slipped away. To make my father and mother known. To see the Pullenayegam name stand tall in Colombo once again. It was a redemptive desire, a hunger to restore honour, and I believe that hunger is something God places in every human’s heart.

From there, I completed my degree, moved through corporate roles, met thousands of people, and eventually built my own business. I trained young people in business and leadership. I developed a formula rooted in the Chetty trading legacy for small businesses, and I authored The Chetty Code. All of it became possible because of one word – Empathy.

Empathy isn’t complicated. It’s simply the curiosity to understand what another person is feeling. I thought, if I feel invisible and unsupported, perhaps my parents felt the same. Perhaps thousands of others do too. What if I became the solution? That question is where my entrepreneurial journey truly began. Wealth followed, but it was never the destination. It was a by-product of purpose.

Today, I give my time to spreading the beauty of Purpose and Empathy, so that others can rise, not just for themselves, but to lift the communities and companies they belong to.