WHY

I think I’ll avoid all the “are super angels colluding “, “no they aren’t “, “go fuck yourself and stop talking horseshit “, and “guys, quit being narcissistic and do something productive” blog chatter today and focus on something that came up yesterday. I was on a call when someone asked a straightforward question that had a binary answer (yes or no). The person responded with a five minute explanation with a lot of details, all factually correct and contextually relevant, but at the end still didn’t answer the question. ...

Simon Sinek’s TED Talk from TedxPuget Sound (Sept 2009) has been posted and is just awesome. He starts out with the question “Why is Apple so innovative,“ Why is it that Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement,” and “Why is it that the Wright Brothers were able to figure out controlled power manned flight?” He answers this by describing something he calls the Golden Circle: Every single organization knows WHAT they do. Some know HOW they do it. Very few people and organizations know WHY they do what they do, where WHY is “what’s your purpose, your cause, your belief; why do you get out of bed in the morning; why should anyone care.” ...