What vs Why: The Startup Version
Successful start-up leaders begin by investing a substantial amount of time and energy into why–not what. The what question, over a certain profitable period of time, tends to cultivate bloated egos, nourish greedy arrogance and decimate clear, passionate vision. The why question, on the other hand, continuously feeds and focuses us on a deeper passion–something bigger than our own selves. The why question builds channels instead of corporate ladders; promotes humility instead of hubris; reinforces ardent vision instead of blurring lines and weaving doubt.
The why question is crucial to the start. You have to know why you are going to begin, to change, to move, to quit, to revolt, to organize or to lead before you ever take that first step of action; ask for that first team member’s commitment or pitch that first venture capitalist. You must know and deeply understand why.
In the end, when our lives are drawing to a close, it will matter what we did, but, even more importantly, it will matter why we did it. This simple insight levels the playing field. When the question takes into consideration why and not just what, it creates an opportunity for every man, woman, child and organization to have an impact, to be successful, to lead, to authentically serve another. Success is no longer based solely upon what it is that you do; rather, success is also based in large part upon why you passionately and fervently do what you do.
Of course, it’s crucial to comprehend that the why does not eliminate the need for a well planned and well executed what. You still have to work extremely hard, but the better you understand and the more often you remember the why, the stronger more resilient your what will be.
The most successful leaders understand that in order to maintain success and continually grow, they must always go back to their founding principals of why. Once we start to focus only on what it is that we do–instead of why–arrogance and selfishness have chance to brew and fester. Jim Collins in his latest book How The Mighty Fall says it well
Like an artist who pursues both enduring excellence and shocking creativity, great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change. On the one hand, they adhere to the principles that produced success in the first place, yet on the other hand, they continually evolve, modifying their approach with creative improvements and intelligent adaption…Every organization must ask themselves: Why were we successful in the first place? Not the specific practices and strategies that worked in the past, but the fundamental reasons for success.
The question of why you do what you do is vital to everything else–it’s the groundwork, the foundation, the heart, the inner-most-core reason for you waking up tomorrow morning. Why do you_____, _______, ______(fill in the blanks)? Once you understand why, then you can passionately and full-heartedly chase after what it is that is going to allow you to demonstrate that why, every single day.
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Great thoughts, Parke!
In addition to asking why?, our team also invested a good amount of time early in our startup asking “Who?” If you know who you are and what you stand for, then decisions become much easier in the “Why?” and “What?” categories.
Why is so very important because What is an output that can eventually be comepleted or runout. Why, on the other hand, is almost always a limitless, uncompletable ideal. And when your inner fuel is a Why, then you are running on unlimited fuel. That, my friend, is when you starting finding a real stride.
Great thoughts guys! Thanks for your input and for helping me learn more as well.
Great post Park!
Just a thought on the \what\ for start-ups. It is the second most important item determining a start-up’s success. The second is how. Ultimately, the idea, product, solution is what will lay the groundwork for success. An extremely successful start-up only happens because the what is significant enough to lay a foundation for success. What ensures that success though, is how the what is executed. Part of this is driven by why it is executed, but in most cases, the why question is answered and known long before the start-up is formed. In the case of any for profit company, they why is pretty simple at a core level – become profitable. Or become profitable at a gross margin level. Then it gets interesting. Ultimately, though, there is no greater motivation in a for-profit other than – profit. There can be many social and charitable sub reasons, but in the end, money is the driver. That is all different, I’m sure, in a non for profit, but from my experience at a large start-up, it is nothing unless it can become profitable. All the other why’s fade if money can’t be made.
I hate to be terribly practical, but I see it ever day as ChaCha works to become a successful start up. We ask ourselves every day HOW we can do WHAT we need to do so that we achieve our goal. In the present, that goal is profitability.
I love the world of start-ups and I would love to hear more about what your perspective is. Hope all is well!
Brian
Trust me, I believe profitability is crucial to the start. But, I also believe that there has to be something deeper than dollar signs. Being cash-flow positive is a goal and accomplishment which can and hopefully will lead to a greater good, but if you don’t build yourself and your company on that greater good from the start and stay fully invested in the pursuit of that greater good throughout, than you are bound to lose site of what is truly important and worth doing. Customers, of course, can see right through fake help and companies only looking out for their own self-interests. Sometimes they will continue to use those companies regardless. Many times, however,(especially today) they choose to ignore them, and that is the danger of a company founded upon nothing other than the pursuit of profitability. Figure out how you can use what you do or make or sell for the greater good and service of man, put that on your bottom line, and then go out and drive towards it. Positive cash flow must happen, but in itself it is not worth pursuing or dedicating one’s life too. In my humble opinion, I would rather pursue accomplishing the greater good and never be profitable, rather than spending my life pursuing the cash flow and never attempting to serve a greater good
Who is ChaCha and why does it exist?
Great points Parke.
I guess I am taking a pretty utilitarian view of the purpose of a start-up.
I must defend my point though. It is the primary foundation of everything I know about business and economics.
Currently, in our system of markets, there is no other greater motivator than profit. It is what creates great customer service, drives down prices, and establishes exceptional products. It could be argued, and has been many times, that utility is not simply defined by money. Utility is the economic term for the satisfaction that a consuming entity takes from consumption of goods and services. There are “other” factors than just profit/money, but ultimately in our system we have a beautiful measure of greater good.
This is not necessarily true of all kinds of start-ups. In the case of some, their purpose is to not earn money. They are not attempting to go public, or expand internationally, or be bought out. Their intention is to pursue a passion in a formal way with ardent supporters and financial assistance that is not necessarily tied to performance, because typically the tasks that are accomplished are not highly rewarded actions. This selflessness is what allows for such generosity from the giving parties.
There are also companies that start out as purely motivated by the greater good, but quickly find that their solutions can make them a lot of money. Their passions then blend into a mix of profit and charity. Once this type of business is showing signs of profitability, there is no looking back. It is difficult at best to walk the line of for profit corporation vs. not for profit charity. There is a reason for the tax laws being the way they are.
The final type of company is one that is like I posted in my first comment. This bring us to chacha. While chacha started as an idea in one man’s head over 20 years ago, it will never come to fruition unless we become profitable. That is the nature of the business. It is an idea, that could be a billion dollar idea. So, to answer your question, chacha is the best mobile answers service in the world, and it exists to become the most profitable mobile answers service in the world. I know that is terribly antagonistic. I could say something like “it is the best mobile answers service in the world and strives to help provide instant answers to any question anywhere anytime”. That could be the “why”, but to be totally honest with you, it is not. The simple why, is to make a bunch of people (or a few), a ton of money BY building the best mobile answers service and mobile advertising platform in the world. The “why” as you might think of it, is really the “what” for us. It defines what we are going to do to be successful, and the why is defined by our metrics for success. In this case they are high revenue, low cost, and positive cash flow.
Now for my more reasoned approach to your response. Ultimately, I agree with your premise Parke. I think the more broad point you are trying to make is that our lives must mean something more than profit and money. I couldn’t agree more, and I think the wisdom in understanding the purpose for human existences is far more valuable than the profit gained by such a sort time on earth. I just want to make sure that we recognize reality. ultimately my argument is very pragmatic. I am just presenting what I see as the reality of this world. If you were to ask me who I am, and why I exsist, my answer would be so far from what chacha is or what I do with chacha. The potential for profit at chacha is simply a “what” for me. For the company, it is the focus. For me, in my job, I have to maintain that focus. But for me as a person and follower of Christ, my focus at chacha is only to serve the greater good. In my case, that is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Currently chacha is one of the many means by which I am able to do that. It is my “tentmaking”.
My main contention, and the reason for my overtly opposing view is this – I feel like I know what you are trying to accomplish with the post, your blog, and your life. And I love it! What I always hope to do, though, is challenge anything that could distort and distract from the purpose as laid out in your bio. Your intention is excellent, but the reality of our buisnes world today is that once profitability is achieved, working with excellence in the for-profit world, is defined by profit. It has to be. Those that are not excellent, will fail. Then any of the sub reasons fail as well. Granted, profitability, must come within the moral boundaries of the law and the virtues. But, it is not an ignoble pursuit in and of itself and in many cases is still the greatest “why”.
Thanks for the reply. I hope the best with your site. I will continue to read every post!
Brian,
Thanks for your excellent thoughts! I’m sure that people will learn more from reading your replies than they would from reading just the original post! That’s the beauty of adding to the conversation, I suppose.
Overall, we are on the same page. I completely agree, the pursuit of profitability is not an ignoble pursuit by any means, and, of course, if profitability is never achieved, then all other efforts will fall by the way side as well. Those companies which are not defined by excellence, will eventually fail and be replaced by one which is willing to be a consistent pursuer of excellence.
My intentions were never to distort or call into question the underlying foundation of profitability or economics. My intentions were, however, to challenge readers to see beyond the underlying foundations of both business as we know it as well as life in general. Your faith, Brian, is what drives you to live, work and interact with people in the manner which you do. Thus, your faith is a deeper driving motivator than even profitability in both your life outside of work and your career. Regardless of whether profitability is ever achieved, your faith is what you live for and nothing will ever be of higher regard to you or myself than that. It is the ultimate “why”. Jesus is the ultimate answer to every why, and that is the underlying concept that I was trying to challenge the reader to draw upon. Is there something greater? Is there a deeper reason for why I do what I do? Well, for you and I, there is, and we already understand this. But, for many people, start-up business leaders included, they have yet to realize a deeper why, and that’s what I long for them to start thinking about. It is impossible to separate Christ from any aspect of my life. Therefore, he must be the deeper answer to why I work, why I treat my wife the way I do, why I interact with people the way that I do, why I write the way that I do, why I am who I am. It’s all because of Christ, even the underlying drive for me to be profitable in any business start-up is due to Christ being the answer to my “why”. He is the initiative in everything that I do whether profitability is involved or not.
I think we are together on this, but if not, please let me know. I am learning a lot from your replies, and I truly appreciate your time invested.
Agreed! We are together.
I Look forward to the next post. Excellent conversation, I hope others benefited from it as I have.