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In 2009 Simon Sinek gave what turned out to be one of the most popular TED talks ever, “Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action.” His message was “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.” He gave Apple as an example, a company who believed they could do things differently, always innovatively, and who employed people who believed the same and wanted to work for Apple because working on their own projects challenged and inspired them, not because it made Apple more money. Sinek’s diagrammatic ‘Golden Circle’ had ‘What you do’ in the outer circle (make computers and money), ‘How you do it’ in the middle circle (employ clever computer nerds), and ‘Why you do it’ (because we share a passion to innovate and do it differently) in the center circle. He also gave the example of Martin Luther King who drew people to hear him without the benefit of publicity and marketing but because he believed in something that others believed in too. People went to hear him for themselves, not for King. It is, Sinek says, not about the analytical plan-driven ‘What’ a company is doing, or ‘How’ it is doing it that convinces us to support them and trust and buy their products, or to listen to the oratory of a leader, but because they begin with the Why and not with the What, and it is this Why that shines and persuades in their marketing and speeches.
(Sinek even likened his Golden Circle to the brain, with the outer ‘What you are doing’ circle equated to the neocortex, particularly the higher language/planning parts of the brain, and the Why equated to the primitive limbic system, and our ‘gut’ feelings. I’m not so sure I agree with his idea that our passions and values come entirely from the limbic system; more likely the whole brain, including our neocortex, can usefully be involved with the Why. His reasoning, I think, is that the ‘Why’ is not analytical and able to be easily explained by language, but is emotion-based and ‘instinctive,’ both primitive limbic functions.)
The Why is never about making money, a secondary reinforcer, but about a primary reinforcer or drive, something that is inbuilt, and of itself necessary for our survival or makes us feel good. Food, water, and pleasure are seen as biological primary drives. Pleasure includes sexual intercourse which is essential for the survival of our genes and the species. We could conceptualize the ‘Why’ as a primary ‘pleasure’ reinforcer, because our Why can be equated to our beliefs, our values, our passions. If we can indulge these, we will feel happier, more fulfilled, more complete. Whether we are at work, at play, or in our retirement, it is the Why that makes our lives fulfilling and worth the effort of leaping out of bed every morning (unless one of our passions is to have a lie in with a good book!)
(The downside of Why is that when we imagine what the Why of some world leaders are we can rightly feel fear, because their Why, if based on their deep beliefs, may be a long way from our Why.)
Many of us know our Whys: what makes us happy, what enthuses us, what makes us feel good. But perhaps this knowledge has become squashed beneath the necessities of life, or depression, or poverty, but it is there somewhere, likely formed during childhood. If you had a happy childhood you were probably gifted with values and beliefs and perhaps even passions you continued to develop and expand as you experienced life. If your childhood was miserable, your Why is likely to be a dream to be different, to be happy and feel fulfilled.
Finding ways to ‘begin with Why’, as Simon Senik wisely suggests we should all do, may not be an easy task, especially for younger people as they try and find a job that they love, or an after-work passion that fulfills them. Sinek’s latest book, “Find Your Why: A practical guide for discovering purpose for you and your team” has just been published and I haven’t yet read it. It is focused on the workplace, but I’m guessing that his ideas will also give you ideas for finding your Why in other areas of your life as well. So be innovative (as Why companies and individuals are) when thinking about your Whys and how you can make them central to your life. Of course this also means that you need to find the courage to choose the Why job over the one that makes more money or gives you more power—or appears to do in the short term. In the long term who knows? We know there are Why companies that in the end do so much better financially than the What companies. (And then there are the companies that started off as ‘Why’ companies and became ‘What’ companies, like Amazon perhaps…. )
