What Moves Your "Why" Forward?
People don’t buy what you do…
They buy why you do it. -Simon Sinek (Author, Start with Why)
Let me Introduce Myself
In my entire career, I have been asked by people of all walks of life ,”What do I do next?” I’ve never been a counselor, I’ve never pushed my ideas on others, and I certainly don’t know everything. I would often wonder why I would end up with individuals in my office telling me their deepest fears and their biggest setbacks. Where was this sign on my door that everyone was seeing?
What I have finally discovered, however, is that what I’ve been able to bring to the table for colleagues, friends, and family is the ability to problem solve a situation and help them move forward after something got in their way or after they’ve gotten in their own way. I don’t know all of the answers, but I will learn how to help them best and give them the best direction that I can.
My passion in creating this series, which I will later turn into a book (keep an eye out for my future book entitled,"Help! I'm an Entrepreneur"), is that it's my passion to help people succeed. For this series, I want to focus on the challenges that I have faced that I have long wished to write about, but had other goals and initiatives in play that competed for my time. I want to give practical and real examples of my struggles and overcoming them.
For this series, I want to focus on the challenges that I have faced that I have long wished to write about, but had other goals and initiatives in play that competed for my time.
That said, I believe with the influx of entrepreneurs and the volatility of the role itself, now is the best time to make the most impact on those who need that advice the greatly. My knowledge and success will always be a combination of what I’ve learned from both of my parents that have created my empathy and work ethic, the many professors at The University of Texas at Arlington School of Business who gave me gold nuggets of learning lessons that would carry me through my career, and my close friends and family who have supported me along the way.
The combination of experiences I have had with all of the people who I have crossed paths with have helped this come to fruition, and for that, I am thankful to each and every one of you. And thus concludes my little diddy... so let's move forward with your why.
What Moves Your Why Forward?
Simon Sinek says your why is what drives you. But, after you find out the why, how do you put that into action? I’ve found that the answer is a combination of mindfulness about the action and the initiative to execute it.
One of the acronyms that has had the most impact on goal setting both personally and professionally for myself is the principle that originally comes from the book Winning Every Day by Loue Holtz. This famous football coach’s acronym, W.I.N., has made its way into business books and the minds of leaders alike. What it stands for will be the kick off to a cycle of decisions you will continue to make for your entrepreneurial life.
‘What’s Important Now?’ has become the go-to question on a daily, sometimes even hourly basis that I ask myself as an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you’ll face a barrage of decision making scenarios, like “What type of website do I build” to “Should I invest in this digital partnership?”. Along with those larger decisions that can dig deep into your pocketbook, you’ll have the daily menial tasks that will demand that you refocus and concentrate on the most simple way to achieve your goals. “I need to write this blog”, “I need to do more research for sales”, and “I need to send that invoice” will compete with each other for your time. You can get overwhelmed easily as these questions throw themselves at you each and every day - but it does not have to be that way.
Between prioritizing your tasks and refocusing your attention, I hope to give to you the gift that it gave to me all those years ago when I first stumbled upon W.I.N. As you read on throughout my posts in this blog series called "The CEO's Corner", remember that the way you choose to use this question is just as important as the question itself.
If you'd like to snag Simon's book and get deeper insight on this for your own leadership journey, you can purchase it here:
Read the next post in this series: