Your Business WHY: Business with Greater Purpose Achieve Greater Success

Here at The Hidden Why I address topics on how to go about living life with greater passion and purpose by first starting with your why. The greater our why the more purposefully we proceed within this grand experience – that is the journey of life.

Without knowing the true answer, I suggest with all my heart that the ultimate purpose of life is happiness. Deep happiness! Not to be confused with this superficial-surface level happiness society has become so caught up in. How we each define happiness and what that feels like is unique to each of us and for that we have to own. For thoughts on defining happiness read this post.

As this relates to life so it does to business and the success there within. The same principles & practices when applied to a business will assist any business to create a more purposeful journey towards its ultimate goal – happiness!

A business, much like an individual life, does not exist simply for the sake existing. It exists for a reason. It exists to achieve a particular purpose/goal and that is happiness. How a business defines happiness is as important as knowing why it exists.

The reason why many business struggle to exist and many more continue to fail is because they don’t have a strong enough WHY nor do they clearly understand their future vision or definition of happiness.

People can live life without ever connecting with their why, without striving towards greater meaning and happiness in life. While this kind of existence may cause levels of pain and suffering the human body is resilient enough to handle this punishment.

A business is not so privileged. Its survival relies on too many external factors. A business without a strong Why or future vision will not survive. Even if a business started out with a clear Why this doesn’t guarantee longevity and success. A business must develop practices to keep their Why in awareness and ever evolving to meet the changing demands that come with time.

Here is an excerpt taken from Simon Sinek’s bestselling book “Start with Why.”

“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief – WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.

All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year.”

I want to encourage you to mediate on one thought – “People don’t buy what you do: they buy why you do it.” Life will not reward you for what you do but why you do it.

In his book Simon Sinek answers his own question around why some people and organisations seem to have greater success than others. Success in whatever is pursued. This not to be confused only with material possessions, massive wealth or prosperity.

I will define success here as, “the ability to consciously and fearlessly move towards your desired state of being and achieving the milestones along the journey despite the changing nature of life.”

If you are in business or thinking of starting one and wish to know what drives you purposefully towards greater success you must first start with Why. It will become clearer to you when you know and can easily define your business happiness. What does the future of your business look and feel like? What do you hope to achieve?

Great visionaries, innovators, leaders, business people of the past and present dream BIG. They use this vision as the inspiration to build the foundations of their Why. This then becomes their navigational tool to guide them with exceedingly high levels of purpose towards achieving their greatness.