Start With Why

How a product or service is created?

What is the reason people use them?

And more importantly, Why does people chose one of them as the leader?

Just consider,

Why is Apple more successful than HP or Dell? Is it they make a better product or people compare the performance of the CPU as per the configuration and they select?

Why did Wright brothers succeed rather not Samuel Langley? Both had the same dream but Wright brothers succeeded without having any financial or institutional support. Not only that, they were highly under qualified to take up the task.

Still Apple is a brand and Will and Orville Wright took the sky for the first time.

The reasons can be found in the book: Start With Why

A world that Doesn’t Start with Why

We make assumptions. We make assumptions about the world around us with incomplete information. We make decisions based on what we think we know. It was not a long time ago we thought the world is flat. This perceived information affected our decision. People we afraid to go into explorations thinking they might fall off the edge.

But once this minute information was revealed that the world is round. The world changed extraordinarily. Explorations started throughout the world, multiple trade routes were established. Knowledge was shared between civilizations at faster rate and the world flourished.

Only after one minute information was revealed.

This is the same for the organizations. Do we really know why some organizations succeed and others do not. Or we just assume.

No matter of your definition of success - how we about go about achieving our goals are very similar.

Consider the example of Wright brothers and Mr. Langley - they had the same path but different outputs. They had one thing worth a lot more than any of that, inspiration. They were scientists at heart and they were determined to make it work.

They knew if they succeeded, it would change the world. This WHY inspired them but Langley was inspired by Money, fame and success. That is why Langley failed and they QUIT after Will and Orville Wright were successful.

Leaders Need a Following

So what is the why, and why start with it?

To put it simply, why is what motivated you to get out of bed in the morning. It is the central core belief that drives you forward. And most of the leaders we admire started their journey with a very strong why.

Once inspired, they mobilize other people by giving them the sense of purpose and belonging to a community. In fact, all businesses need to motivate customers and employees to do something, whether it is buying a product or just performing a job. And there is generally two ways to achieve it.

One is called manipulation, and the other one is inspiration.

1. Manipulation or outside influences, such as prize, promotion, fear, aspiration, or peer pressure. And while these might work and produce short-term gains, they do not create long-term loyalty.
2. On the other hand, inspiration makes a person act from internal world, not from the outside influence. People inspired by the company why will buy more, recommend your service to family and friends, and forgive you if you ever make a mistake, which, of course you are bound to make at some point.

All right, that's all great, but how do you start with a why?

The Golden Circle

Let me introduce you to The Golden Circle.

The Golden Circle is a visual depiction of an organization's structure, and it looks like this.

It looks like a bullseye target with three rings: the why, the how and the what.

The core idea is that whenever you make a decision, you always start in the center with the why. Then you move on to the how, and finally you move on tot he what.

Let's take Apple, for example.

Their why is, "We think differently." How? "We do this by making products that are east to use, elegant, and well-designed." The what; "We just happen to make computers as products."

Apple's products are a result of their profound why.

The iPhone, for instance is a physical representation of the company's core beliefs. And if you are connected to their core belief, you buy an iPhone, you buy a Mac, you buy an iPad, and so on.

And that happens because people don't just buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

So why does The Golden Circle work?

The Alternate Perspective

It works because it is rooted in human biology.

Humans want to belong. The need is so powerful that we often put incredible effort and money into achieving that feeling.

And when the belief of a company aligns with your own, it creates a sense of belonging and kinship. Buying their product make us feel like we belong in the same group as other people who buy the same things or believe the same ideas.

The sense of belonging is a powerful driver that can even overcome minor differences in quality.

Just think of all the people that are bound by following the same sports team or following the same performer or wearing the same type of clothes or same type of brand. It all stems from the same need to belong to a bigger group.

And The Golden Circle is a powerful tool, but it only works if all three elements; the why, the how, and the what are in balance and used in the right order.

So let’s dig deeper into all these three elements.

The Biggest Challenge is Success

Element one is, of course, the why.

When you start with a why you choose inspiration over manipulation as a tool to motivate other people.

And to inspire others, your why needs to be absolutely clear to yourself first. If someone wakes you up in the middle of the night and ask you about your why, you can describe it in one sentence? Or do you need a cup of coffee, a cold shower, and then minutes of thinking to figure it out.

Clarity in the why.

Element two; discipline in how.

How you work will be crucial for your success and of your why.

For instance, this could be hiring the right people to work alongside you, or finding a partner who shares the same value and principle. To achieve your goals, you need to work hard on your how and discipline is critical.

Element number three; consistency in what.

If why is a belied and how is the action, what is the product.

It’s what you produce and everything you say and do including your marketing and your hiring practices. To maintain the public’s belief in your why, your what needs to be consistent with how you live your why.

Suppose you say your company’s why is to question the status quo like Apple, for example, but you put out me-too products indistinguishable from the rest of the market, you sound inauthentic. Ensuring authenticity is essential and will lead to long term results.

Now we know what the Golden Circle is and why it works, let’s dig a little bit deeper.

Stronger charismatic leadership that starts with why is crucial, but most whys need a practical how to help translate their vision and passion.

Many people are the whys and many other people are the hows.

Why live in the future while the how lives in the present. Why are the dreamers and hows are the practical. They both are capable enough to run a very successful business without the other one, but to achieve a world changing movement, both need to exist.

It requires humility to admit your weakness and to find the other half of the equation, but if you do, magic happens.

Just as it happened with Steve Jobs, the why and Steve Wozniak, the how or Walt Disney, the why and Roy Disney, the how. You combine the why and the how, magic is bound to happen.

Understanding the elements of the Golden Circle is absolutely crucial to the long-term success of the company. But this is very big picture item.

How do you make short and medium term decisions based on the why?

Let’s talk about what the author calls the Celery Test.

Discover Why

And here’s how the Celery Test works; imagine that you’re starting a new health food store. Your why is to sell foods that improve people’s wellbeing. So you go to a dinner party where people give you advice about your new store, of course, like any other dinner party. Someone approaches you and tells you that you need more M&Ms and another person says add in celery instead.

And both of these people are successful and give your good advice. So it’s tempting to go right to the supermarket and buy exactly what they recommend but that will. of course, result in purchasing an armful of mismatch products.

The better tactic is to go into the store knowing your why. If your why is to make sure people have access to healthy food, then the answer is obvious; you don’t need M&Ms. You need to buy the celery.

So in the essence, the Celery Test acts as a filter to whittle down all the possible options into a few that support your why. And of course, you may be thinking that the celery seemed the obvious answer to when you first heard the scenarios, and that is the magic of the test.

It makes decision-making easy. Because if your why is clear, you know exactly what decisions align and which ones don’t.

So remember, the why is the belied, the how is the action and the what is the product.

Go out there, find your why, and inspire others around you and let yourself be inspired by them as well.

Conclusion

When the Wright brothers built the first airplane, Samuel Langley could have been inspired and optimize the machine, but instead he gave up. And in the author's words, there are leaders, and there is the one who leads.

Leaders hold a position of power, but those who lead inspire us. And if we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to; and we do it, not for them, but for ourselves. And those who start with why have the ability to inspire not only themselves, but the rest of the world.

I know this is very big picture items, so next job is to … how can you put this in practice for yourself and business?

When discussing about companies like Apple and the start of flying machines and all these big picture items might seem a little disconnected from everyday life. So how can people like you and me implement all this great information into our lives?

Well, the easiest way that I figured out and the way I’ve done it for myself is to get all your products, from you personal life, from organizing your closet to your professional life, create a new product and put it on a piece of paper, each project. And then across, write down the why, why are you doing it? And only you know your why.

So I want to plug this in; there is no bad why, there is no good why, you don’t need to be changing the world. Organizing your closet can be creating more space. It can be you want to get rid of some old clothes. You can buy new ones, maybe you want to sell the old clothes so you can make money. There is no bad why.

You are not saving the world with your projects.

On the professional side you want to create a product. Is it to make more money, to catch up to the competition because this is your passion, whatever it is write down a single line, why are you doing it? And then as things come your way, as decisions need to be made, you just need to think; is this getting me closer to that goal or further away?

Because as you know, we have limited resources, we have limited time, limited finances, and as things go your way, you need to make decisions. Do you go this way or this way?

So using that why, using that Celery Test essentially is going to make it much easy.