How I discovered my Why

I have been hesitant to read this book for so many years because I made the assumption, based on the title, that I already understood its prevailing message. I felt that the message I listened to from Simon’s Ted presentation was enough. After a recommendation from my friend Omer Qadri, I decided to grab a copy to read. I realized that I made a biased error by delaying the reading of this book. The book might feel repetitive, but I believe that is on purpose to emphasize the author’s point. And here is what this book is all about. 

Most people know what they do. Some know how they do it. But very few know why they do what they do. Simon has created a concept he calls the Golden Circle which states that  organizations, people and leaders who begin their journey, their brand messaging, their presentations, their communications and everything they do in life from inner circle (the why) to the outer circle (the what) are more successful and are able to inspire more followers than the organizations and leaders who focus on the what instead of the why. 

Simon gives real examples of successful organizations such as Apple and Southwest Airlines that executed everything from building products to marketing and messaging by starting with their why. The leaders of these organizations didn’t just know their purpose, but were able to clearly articulate their purpose, vision, belief - their why - to their employees and customers to build trust. These organizations  were successful not because of how much better their products were in terms of features compared to the competition, but because these organizations struck the emotional cord of human psychology by having a clear vision (the why). And people who did business with them knew exactly why these companies existed.

Having a direction (the why) instead of being manipulated by shiny new product features (the what) is important. The default human state is to start with the what, then figure out the how, and if there is time and energy left in the tank, then articulate the why. Otherwise, the why never really exists. As a result, we constantly jump ship as employees and customers. Whereas, when you start with your why, you can build trust and loyalty with your employees and customers: 2 important ingredients for your 2 most important stakeholders. Trust and loyalty is what creates the stickiness, retention, repeat orders and long term success. 

Perhaps, this idea isn’t new to you. In fact, it was not new to me either, which is the reason why initially I didn’t feel compelled to read this book. Before reading this book, I was very clear on what I did and how I did it: 

I am a Financial Accountant (my what) and I use my customer-centric mindset and strong work ethics (my how) to get the job done for the organizations I work with. However, I was never able to understand and articulate why I do what I do. Even though I have achieved adequate success in my life so far, who knows how much further I could have gone had I read this book years ago and discovered my why. 

Now that I have read the book, I’ve started to put my learnings into practice. Whenever a task was assigned to the old Amin, a hardworking employee who goes above and beyond to ensure tasks are done on time, he would immediately get into problem-solving mode and figure out how to do it without understanding why this task needs to be done in the first place. Now, empowered with new knowledge, the new Amin is able to improve performance by using the why lens before the how and what lenses. When tasks get assigned to me now, I always ask the assignor why this task is important. How is it benefiting our customer? How is it benefiting our employees? Based on the response I am able to better manage and prioritize the tasks for better results.  

Simon Sinek proves his theory of the Golden Circle using evolution and biology. From the perspective of human evolution, he states that from the beginning of time, we, humans, have a need to belong to a tribe or community. That is how we survived the harsh savannas 10,000 years ago. And that desire to belong still exists in our psyche and it attracts us towards people & organizations that demonstrate the same why as ours. 

From a biology perspective: There are two parts of the brain. (1) The Neocortex (outer part of the brain) that corresponds with the what: It is the part of the brain that is responsible for rational analytical thought and language. (2) The Limbic brain (inner) corresponds to why and how: It is responsible for all our emotions, feelings and things like trust and loyalty. And guess what part of the brain is responsible for our decision making? It is the Limbic system. Thus, the part of our brain that is responsible for our decision making is also responsible for our emotions & feelings (but not for language). That’s why sometimes it is extremely difficult to articulate our decisions such as “why would you buy a Mac Book for $2,000 that can do the same job as an Asus laptop that costs $500”. 

At the workplace, just recall those moments when you get a meeting invite with no agenda and you have no idea about what’s going to happen. How engaged are you in those meetings? Not much is my guess. Now, recall the rare times when the agenda and purpose (why) for the meeting was clearly articulated upfront in the meeting invite itself. Now, weren’t you a lot more prepared and wasn’t it a lot easier for you to focus on the task at hand and contribute? I bet it was! 

While this book inspired many thoughts in my brain, the one cliche thought it rekindled in my brain was to “follow your passion”. However, this book took this thought one step further and helped me clearly articulate why I am so passionate about Financial Accounting:

As a young boy, I had saved some money that I invested in a friends business with the hope of getting a high ROI. Unfortunately, I lost all my money and when I examined the cause of the venture failure, I found that it was due to poor money management and accounting practices. I can still feel the pain of losing all my money and the worst part was that this could have been avoided with better financial management. That was the defining moment when I became extremely passionate about Financial Accounting because I don’t want other business owners and entrepreneurs to ever feel the same pain as I did. 

This is my why. This is why I do what I do and this is why I wake up every morning feeling energized about my work. Thank you Simon and my coach, Omer Qadri, for reigniting me with my why.