Find your "CAUSE"

Have you ever had an experience where after meeting someone you feel like “well this guy is just miserable”. I have had this experience plenty of times and I am sure all of you have had similar experiences at times. But at that point of time if somebody would have asked me or you “Why don’t you like that guy?”, I doubt I or you, would have been able to explain in words as to why I or you didn’t like that guy. This is a feeling thing. This is something like if somebody asks you, “Why do you love your children?”. Can there be any logical or data driven answer to such a questions? Some people will probably try to put forward answers like “They are my children, I brought them into the world” or “I just care for them and that’s why I love them” or “They are part of me and my family”. Not enough of an answer to justify, or should we say these are just lame answers? Well actually not.

The fact of the matter is this is how we are built, every human machine is built. There is one portion of us in the brain which goes by logic and data which can be expressed in words or language and another portion of us in the brain which goes by feelings and emotions and has no capacity for words or language. Trust me it is in that portion of your brain the “CAUSE” lies. Your and my “CAUSE” of existence.

It is that “CAUSE” that makes us take “ACTION” and through that “ACTION” some tangible “OUTPUT” is generated. It’s kind of fuzzy, isn’t it? It’s fuzzy because most of us start from the “OUTPUT” and travel towards the “CAUSE”, or sometimes cannot even reach the “CAUSE” because we are so obsessed with the “OUTPUT”. This futile try to travel from “OUTPUT” to “CAUSE” is called manipulation in business and adjustment in life.

Let’s look at this “Circle of Success” bit closely. We start with a “CAUSE” which is the inner most circle. This “CAUSE” drives us to take “ACTION” the middle circle, and the “ACTION” produces “OUTPUT” the outermost circle. So it is very important for us to find our “CAUSE” of existence, the “CAUSE” of running or starting a “BUSINESS”. Some might say “My “CAUSE” is to earn lots of money”, some might say “My “CAUSE” is to live a good life” and so on. Honestly these are not and cannot be the true “CAUSE” of your existence or your business’s existence. These are the by-products of your “CAUSE”, “ACTION” and “OUTPUT”. Let’s take an example and get a bit deeper.

Let’s say we compare two companies. One is Apple and another is Samsung.

Samsung markets their products by saying, “Our mobile has 4GB RAM, 32GB Storage, 14 Mega Pixel camera and so on and so forth”. This is the “OUTPUT” part. They also say “We produce World class products”. That is the “ACTION” part. Now coming to the “CAUSE” of why Samsung exists, no one really knows and no one really cares.

Whereas Apple says “In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status-quo”. This is the “CAUSE” why Apply exists. They also say “We produce products which have great features, user friendly in nature and easy to use”. This is how they have put their “CAUSE” into “ACTION”. Lastly they would say “Incidentally, we make mobile phones, want to buy one?” This is the “OUTPUT” of their “CAUSE” and “ACTION”.

Now tell me which company would we buy our phone from? The obvious choice would be Apple. The reason being we can connect ourselves or identify ourselves easily with Apple. Somewhere down in our mind we know we also believe in challenging the status quo. So we identify ourselves with their “CAUSE” and make it our “CAUSE” too. Suddenly Apple’s “CAUSE” becomes the “CAUSE” of millions of people around the world, because it tells people around us “WHO WE ARE”. We are the one’s who believes in challenging the status quo. An iphone in our hand makes a statement on our behalf.

Now the challenge for us is to find that real “CAUSE” as to why we exist and turn that “CAUSE” into “ACTION” and subsequently into a tangible “OUTPUT”. If we can really find our true “CAUSE”, then it can become the “CAUSE” of millions of others, because that is how the human machine is built. Many people around the world like to get associated with a true “CAUSE”. That is why people donate to charities and that is why people run to distant lands to take care of the underprivileged. That is a way of making a statement as to who we believe we are. Believe me, our “CAUSE” of existence or of doing business is the “CAUSE” of millions of others around the world, it is just that they are not able to identify it and put it in words. It is just a matter for us to identify our true “CAUSE” and put it in words, so that the similar minded people get dragged towards our “CAUSE”; which in turn will be their “CAUSE” aswell.

Remember the example of miserable feeling we had after meeting some guy at the beginning of the article? Well the reason we felt miserable is because, somewhere down inside us, we had a feeling that our “CAUSE” and his “CAUSE” is different and that is why we had a miserable feeling about that guy. It is often said that we only attract towards us the kind of people we ourselves are. Same is true for businesses aswell. A business will attract customers and the customers will remain their long term and loyal customer if they can identify themselves with the “CAUSE” of the business. People do not buy what you do, people buy why you do it. Otherwise we wouldn’t have bought from Apple.