Seth Godin knows his why.
Peter Shankman does, too.
Simon Sinek? Dude wrote a book on it.
But do you know your why? Do you know why your business does what it does?
No, the answer isn’t to make a lot of money. That’s a happy result, not a main one. As Sinek will tell you, Apple’s why is to help people think different. InfusionSoft’s why is to help small businesses succeed. Our why is to allow presenters to look good without a ton of technical skill and effort.
For this to work, businesses cannot be solely focused on the bottom line. While profit is what keeps all of us in business, chasing dollars without worrying about how you’re getting them isn’t going to help long term.
Remember the Dust Bowl in the midwest that helped make the Great Depression? Farmers became too focused on cash crop, instead of thinking about everything that went in to the process. They started farm to feed their families and communities, but because of poor long-term planning, they became focused on making money and ended up losing everything.
Start with why. It works.
