Have you ever asked yourself why you get out of bed in the morning? Why are you in business? More specifically, why do you do what you do? What drives you? Is it because of the money? What is your why?

Spoiler alert: if you do it only for money, then prepare to be disappointed. Because your customers will see that you’re only about the bottom line, and you’ll only end up losing them.

Remember that profit is merely a result of why we do things.

Unlike animals, which rely only on their instinct to survive, people search for purpose. Without it, we become disillusioned and aimless. When we encounter difficulty, we lose the will to push forward and inevitably fail.

Others could succeed somehow, but the achievement that follows isn’t fulfilling.

The Story of Viktor Frankl

In the 1940s, Austrian psychologist Viktor Frankl was held in Nazi concentration camps where he suffered gruelling conditions for months on end. Frankl was eventually separated from his family, who were sent into other camps.

What kept Frankl going was the idea of his seeing his wife again. He thought of her throughout his entire ordeal, and this became his purpose for surviving. It’s also this thinking that he used as inspiration for his world-famous book titled Man’s Search for Meaning.

Once you’ve found you why the how and what becomes easier. With purpose, you can maintain your focus and keep going forward.

The Golden Circle

Interestingly, this applies to life and business (including remote teams). Your business needs to find a why to create a product or service that people would want to pay for so that it can do much more than just fail in a decade or so.

According to the author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek, every career and organisation runs on three levels:

What they do. How they do it. Why they do it.

Sinek illustrates these levels in what he calls the Golden Circle:

Every person and organisation knows what they do. There are companies that specialise in accounting, design or digital marketing; other individuals build houses or roads.

Some know how they do it. They have a unique selling proposition or a proprietary process, which differentiates them from the rest.

But only few know why they do what they do. Why does your company exist? Why do you work long hours? Why should anyone care? Heck, why should you care?

Find your why – a tale of doohickeys

This matters because finding your why affects the way you communicate and how you make your decisions. Consider this example: let’s say you have a website that sells doohickeys and employs two people.

Situation A – You haven’t found your why

You started the website only because you saw that the term “doohickey” had a high search volume, but you’re not really interested in doohickeys and don’t even own one.

So when you hired your remote assistants, you chose them because of their salaries. Your customer service representative replies promptly enough but your back-end developer makes quite a bit of mistake. You reason they’re affordable so it’s okay.

Your remote assistants don’t own or love doohickeys either. Plus, you’ve never talked to them about the startup’s goals and purpose. They presume you just want to earn a living, and they’re right.

Situation B – You’ve found your why

You started the website because you’re a hardcore doohickey fan. Incidentally, “doohickey” was also such a hot topic in search engines. You live and breathe doohickeys; so much so that you have an entire room in your house dedicated to them.

When you hired your remote assistants, you looked at:

Their skills (because you’re passionate about doohickeys and want employees to do a good job). Their love for doohickeys.

Since your customer service rep is a huge doohickey fan, the way he communicates with your customers is more personal and empathetic. He’s also more patient with customers and finds it easy to establish rapport with them. The result? Your customers love him.

Your developer is also error-prone but because she’s obsessed with doohickeys, she keeps finding ways to improve the website – even without your say-so – like improving the back end and regularly posting blog articles (about doohickeys, naturally).

The result? The steady back end enables better service, while the good SEO brings in more leads and sales.

The difference-maker

So what’s the difference between these two situations? In Situation A, it was all about what was popular at that moment. Once the fad goes away, or if someone else starts a better website with a better product, your business will eventually die.

Your employees are there for the salary, nothing more. There’s no loyalty, so once a better opportunity arises, they’ll jump ship in a heartbeat.

In Situation B, you and your employees are passionate about what you do, so everyone has a compelling reason to get out of bed in the morning. This love and purpose make enable your representatives to give customers better answers.

When you or your employees make big decisions, you usually choose correctly because you’re also customers and fans. You know the market. You ARE the market.

Conclusion

Once you’ve found your why, you’ll be able to determine what makes you feel fulfilled. You’ll also know what motivates you to do your best, and this will enable you to make better choices in whatever path you take, whether it’s business, a career, or simply life in general.

Our parting tip? Watch Sinek’s 18-minute TED talk about finding one’s why, which talks about how leaders inspire action. The video is time well spent.