Getting to Why

Here’s a list of a few famous people I admire (in random order)…

Martin Luther King

Barack Obama

Elizabeth Warren

Ghandi

Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Tony Robbins

Jacqueline Novogratz

Seth Godin

Bill Clinton

Shane Claiborne

Al Gore

Robert Redford

Malala Yousafzai

Nelson Mandela

Magic Johnson

Aung San Suu Kyi

Paul David Hewson (aka, Bono)

Bob Dylan

Jerry Garcia

Billy Graham (the evangelist, not the concert promoter)

Abraham Lincoln

The Apostle Paul

King David (of the Old Testament)

Jesus Christ

Quite an eclectic list, no? I could go on. What’s the point, you ask?

Well it dawned on me that by making such a list and then asking myself why I admire them, I might be able to get at what really is important to me, or my why.

So, this post is about getting to why…the why of Scott Bowers.

I believe, as Simon Sinek proclaimed in the very popular Ted Talk entitled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” (see video below), that getting to why is considerably more important than either the how, or the what.

Knowing why is considerably more important than knowing how, or even what.

So what’s the why that weaves a common thread across the names on the above list?

Each on the list achieved fame or notoriety for doing something, be it Jerry Garcia’s guitar playing, or “Che” Guevara’s dictator overthrowing.

I once saw an interview where Garcia describes an acid trip before a concert. He hallucinated that there were mafia members in the packed concert hall who were there to kill him.  So he decided he would have to “play for his life.” His metaphor for playing for the rest of his career became just that…he played for his life.

I believe the common why is that each person on the above list poured their heart and soul into the “what” and the “how”, but not so much for the results (the fame, fortune, and historical notoriety), but in order to make a difference in the lives of other people. And many of them to give the less fortunate some measure of equal opportunity.

I guess if that’s what I admire about them, I would hope to provoke some measure of similar admiration in myself.

My own why thus becomes clearer. That is, to be a person who cares, who wants to do something with his life to make a difference. More specifically, to help others less fortunate than myself have equal opportunity.

Another question you might ask yourself in discovering your why is to name something you really detest more than anything.

In my case that answer is simple…exclusion.

Be it in the form of racism, nationalism, or just mean-spirited pretty girls treating the “fat” one poorly.

It’s the antithesis of the collective whys of those I admire.

Does that make any sense?

So, what’s your why?

Getting to why is an important exercise to undertake.

Watch the video below and maybe you’ll see…why…

photo credit:ruk777 via Compfight cc