The #1 Question that leads to Massive Success

I am reading through Start with Why by Simon Sinek, it is truly an eye opening read. But instead of just putting it on my reading list and hoping some of you will pick it up I am going to sum up some of the best parts and explain why WHY is the single best question that will lead to massive success.

In Sinek’s book he explains his concept of ‘The Golden Circle’ which is key to understanding the importance of presenting your businesses WHY even before it’s WHAT or HOW. Look closely at the below and take in this entrepreneurial advice because it may radically change the way you do business and make you vastly more successful and happy then you are now.

Think of it this way, what do most people normally ask at mixers? The famed So… what do you do? this is answered with: I’m a doctor, I’m a line cook or I work at Microsoft. You can only learn so much from someone by asking them ‘what they do’ instead I am starting to adopt another approach: Why do  you do whatever it is you do? This is probably far more off putting than a simple what do you do but can also dig far deeper into the reason said person lives and works.

So now imagine this scenario

1st example:

Person: “What do you do Maren?”

Maren: “I have a social media marketing business… oh and we build websites”

2nd example (with an emphasis on my WHY):

Person: “What do you do Maren?”

Maren: “Well, I run a company where we believe the only way to succeed in business is to innovate, adapt and stay abreast of cutting edge technology. We believe in serving the 20% of entrepreneur’s who embrace innovation as much as we do and helping them explode their success in the online world through truly connecting with their customer base on a personal and profound level. If you fit into that 20% of free thinking, early adapters then we can definitely work well together.”

Now some of the people I respond to are going to think “hmm… weird chick” and move on to another table, others are going to be like “Oh my gosh, I’ve been looking for someone like you for years, I need help marketing and believe in your passion and philosophy. Here is my card, call me on Monday and we’ll set up a meeting.” I’ll take my chances on being labeled a freak with 80% of the people I meet if the 20% that matter fall in love with my mantra because I put my WHY at the forefront.

How this applies to you

1. Ask yourself what you do, how you do it and then finally WHY your business (or potential business) exists. If you can’t find a good why then you need to scrap your business model and innovate into something that will appeal wildly to a few and possibly turn the rest off.
2. Reformat your business and marketing strategies to put your WHY at the forefront. I am in the middle of re-doing my businesses website, for a while it has been plain Jane, but now I want to revamp it keeping my WHY in mind all the way. I want to have a site that will welcome those who connect with Oracle Launch’s reason for being and who resonate deeply with our mission. The rest, well they can go to some boring suit and tie marketing firm.
3. Become an evangelist of your WHY. If you don’t believe in your reason for being 100,000% no one else will. You must be quite literally over the top, in love with your businesses mission statement. If you aren’t or can’t muster up all that excitement for what you are doing in your entrepreneurial journey, maybe it is time to take a different path or dramatically change the direction your business is coming from.

Hope this helps, I strongly suggest picking up Sinek’s book and giving it a good read. Or do what I do and download the audio to listen to while you multi-task!

P.S. Applying the golden circle and the why principle to your blog works wonders too, I’m in the midst of doing that myself!