simon sinek Archives - Revolutionary Misfit

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.

They cared and that resonated with other people. Made people want to buy from them, watch or listen to them, or follow them to the fiery depths of hell.

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

Just finished Simon Sinek’s Start with Why. Great book by the way and highly recommended for anyone who can read (and if you can’t, there’s an audible version too!). However, I will have to admit that now that I have read the book, I am more confused than ever. But as Tony Robins used to say in his seminars, if you feel confused, rejoice, you’re close to a breakthrough. Sinek even tells us straight up that answering “the why” question is extremely difficult. It is difficult because the answer is buried deep within our limbic brains. That is the part of the brain that governs motivation and emotion, but has no capacity for language. It is where the why resides, but it does not provide the capacity of putting the why into words.

Yet, we need to put it into words. So Sinek’s book has sparked a struggle to do just that. Actually, I have struggled in the past with things like mission and vision statements, or statements of life’s purpose. I actually have one that I created during the Anthony Robbins, Date with Destiny seminar in Miami, Florida back in, what, I believe 2000? But the problem with those “statements” is that I believe they rarely ever get at the true why. They are usually more in line with the hows and whats, but not the whys.

What was particularly thought provoking towards the end of the book was the chapter on the Origins of Why, where Sinek compares metaphorically the process of getting to why with the English longbow, which must be pulled back in order to have the momentum to do the damage needed going forward. In other words, our whys are buried in the past. Yea Yea, I know I have been fond of using the phrase in this blog that “the past does not equal the future.” And it doesn’t. We certainly shouldn’t allow whatever has occurred in the past to limit our futures. But what we are talking about here is something that is buried in our brains and the reason it got there in the first place has everything to do with our past.

So this morning as I closed the book (or shut down the IPad), I began the process of thinking through how the past events of my life have shaped my why. Because, as I sit here this morning I still really can’t seem to find the capacity to rationally express, in cogent fashion, what the hell my why is. And it is frustrating. Why have I taken the actions over the course of my life that I have taken? More often than not, those actions have been driven by how or what. Such as how do I use this law degree to provide for my family and what job offer will I take to provide a practical platform to do just that. But leading with hows and whats generally means settling for something that is just not in line with why.

Leading with hows and whats generally means settling for something that is just not in line with why.

And that is where dissatisfaction and disillusionment usually begin to set in. Or, even worse, despair and depression, which ultimately lead to poorer decisions in the vain attempt to get those “monkeys” off our backs (so we just end up replacing them with others). When all the while, if we just knew why and could actually communicate it to ourselves and others, our lives could finally make sense. We could finally achieve the momentum to do some real damage (in the positive sense).

So I encourage you (as well as me) to (1) read the book and then (2) spend some serious soul searching time putting why into words. It may make all the difference in finally getting the ladder leaning on the right wall.

Getting to Why

Putting Why into Words

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