Why “Why?” Is the Most Important Question You Can Ask As A Creative Business Owner
Because profiting from your purpose is good business.
There are so many steps to building a thriving business. If you’re a creative entrepreneur, you know as well as I do that your time and energy are the most valuable assets you have. So investing time, focus, energy and money doing something you don’t believe in is a massive waste of your resources.
Which means every step you take should be deliberate. Every move and every decision you make should be infused with purpose.
As a purpose-driven entrepreneur, you are the backbone of your business.
Your business relies on you and your perspective. That means you’re the one inspiring everything to go forward. So you have to know why you’re putting everything together!
Even when your business is up and running, you have to be extra selective about every decision you make that is associated with it. Why make that course? Why hire that person for a partnership? WHY?
“Why” is a scary question. But it’s the most important one.
Take a second and think about how you felt when I asked you “why.”
Did you feel introspective? Did it make you think? Did you feel like I was interrogating you? (Sorry if that’s so!)
Asking why is scary. But every why informs the big “WHY” — your reason for being. WHY are you here? That’s the “why” that should always be at the forefront of your mind!
Get ready to get inquisitive — we’ll cover why is “WHY” so important to your personal and professional success and how can you discover your own “WHY.”
1) When you know WHY, it’s harder to burn out
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love and Big Magic and keen observer of the creative mind declared the following: ‘Everything in life comes with its own version of a sh*t sandwich.’
Translation: It doesn’t matter what you do with your life — become a concert pianist, a calligraphy artist, an office worker, a real estate mogul or a hot dog vendor — everything has its own flavor of pain-in-the-butt stuff you have to deal with. The question is, what are you perfectly willing to endure in order to do what you love? And…here we go again…why?
If you’re going to make a business that sticks around, you have to be thinking out what you can sustain. Pay attention to the energy you’re giving toward everything.
I ask “why” all the time about my copywriting business. Because frankly, I don’t have time to give my attention to every single webinar, podcast episode, or article that comes around. I’m just a human. I have clients to serve! And I want everything to lead to the dream end result: An agency where I work with great people, make good work, and everyone feels like they’re working with good humans. Anything that doesn’t serve that end goal is not worth my time.
Also, you have to avoid the b-word: Burnout. It’s NOT unproductive or selfish to think about what is the best use of your time for your business. If you’re the “idea person” behind everything, you gotta protect yourself as a resource for the business!
2) Being connected to your underlying purpose will connect you to the right customers.
When’s the last time you made the decision to buy something from a company “just because”?
Probably never. Even those impulse purchases you make in line at Target have a decision making process behind them. You don’t typically see just one brand of breath mints or energy drinks sitting in the display. When you decide to buy Altoids instead of Tic Tacs, they did something to negatively or positively influence you.
Now think about this: when you make a buying decision, how often is it influenced by what that company stands for? I’m not just talking about if they’re environmentally or socially responsible. I’m talking about their brand identity and how you relate to what they have to say.
I’m betting you’ve done the second one much more recently! It’s true, though: Companies that are connected to their “why” and let is drive them can be up to 12 times more successful than companies that aren’t.
“If you let your “why” guide your actions, you won’t just attract customers. You’ll have fans. And aren’t those the best kinds of customers?”
Having an underlying “why” can shine through the noise of competition. Companies with a purpose (that they actually work toward) often grow faster than those that don’t have one, and usually make better decisions about innovating in the future. People want to buy from people who have purpose.
I’m a huge Modcloth fan. Not just because their Halloween store is the bomb — it’s because they’ve acted in step with their “fashion for every body” mantra ever since they rolled it out. They’ve featured a variety of models in product shots. They’ve featured Instagrammers of all shapes and sizes in their campaigns. Even after they got bought out by Walmart!
ModCloth has a clear WHY: “we believe fashion is for every body.” Their purpose resonates with it’s huge fan-base who have stayed loyal even after being bought out by Walmart.
Because ModCloth is connected to their “why,” I’m inspired to continue searching through their online racks. Their enthusiasm leaps off the page. If you let your “why” guide your actions, you won’t just attract customers. You’ll have fans. And aren’t those the best kinds of customers?
3) Your “Why” helps you to navigate through tough setbacks.
Once you determine your underlying “why” you have to keep checking in on it. You can’t lose sight of your business’s underlying purpose. That means asking why all the time!
It’s easy to lose your “why” in the day-to-day running of your business. There are so many details and moving parts to keep track of on any given day. Especially if you’re worried about the bills — I can’t tell you how many imperfect jobs I’ve taken on in periods where I lost my “why.” It’s important to keep the lights on, of course! But you want to do any work when you’re angry about what you’re doing.
Worst of all: When you lose touch with your “why” it becomes even harder to make the big decisions that will eventually impact all the smaller actions you make all the rest of the time.
Simon Sinek, whose inspiring TEDx Talk on Starting With Why sparked a why-volution, compares your purpose to the foundation of a house:
“A ‘why’ is not something we change when it suits us. It is not something we adapt from time to time. We can pivot product offerings. We can pivot marketing approach. We can pivot a business strategy. It is the ‘why’ that provides solidity and continuity. It is like the foundation of a house. Renovate the house as you see fit — but the foundation remains fixed.”
4) Your “Why” will inspire others to seek their own purpose and make change.
Keeping your “why” close is essentially thinking about the end (or what you’d like to see in the end) in every decision. Dave Ulrich says it well:
“When organizations become purpose-driven, they are not only more likely to succeed in the marketplace, but they create societal good.”
A great example of a business that has never lost sight of its purpose is Patagonia, who recently got media attention for taking a stand against the Trump administration’s decision to remove several million acres of public land from federal protections.
Their campaign, featuring a super-powerful call to action and a video tour of Bear’s Ears National Monument, was completely in line with their purpose — to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
Regardless of the possible controversy surrounding Patagonia’s message, they got people talking about an issue that, until they created their ad, very few people were even aware of. But because Patagonia stuck to their “WHY,” they helped create awareness and no doubt helped thousands of people to take a stand to protect some of America’s most remote lands.
What impact do you want your business to have in the future? What’s the future you’d like to see? That’s what your “why” should tell you, and why keeping it in mind is so important. It adds significance to everything you’re doing right now.
One big thing to keep in mind: discovering your “WHY” can be an ever evolving process.
Although it’s the foundation of your business should be built upon, sometimes it takes a while to fully unearth the purpose behind our actions. But doing the work of discovering that purpose is essential to your growth as a business and change maker.
You don’t have to save the world. You just have to be intentional about what you’re doing here and now. And when more people realize their purpose, that’s what really changes the world!
