If you are only thinking of starting a business then you may not have heard of this. If you have started already you have probably heard of it but may not really know what its about. We tend to have reasons why we do most things in life but when you are starting a business or working for yourself, technically the same I suppose, then you NEED a very good WHY!
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So what is a Business Why?
From Entrepreneur.com in 2015
- “He who has a why can endure any how.” — Frederick Nietzsche
- There are many reasons why people become entrepreneurs: personal satisfaction, creative independence or financial autonomy — the list goes on. Yet all of these have one thing in common. At the core, they all are about freedom.
- What is it that drives you? The reason probably isn’t money — at least it shouldn’t be. There’s a reason that career counselors across the country ask the same time-old question: “If money were no object, what would you do?”
Why You Need A Strong Reason WHY
As you can see above, it should not be about money. Yes an ultimate aim is to earn more for the freedom that it brings but the core reason has to be something important to you.
If you have a winning mindset then you will always be looking to set new goals for yourself to improve your life. You know that setting challenging goals will move you out of your comfort zone and help you to grow as a person. Achieving the goals that you set will reaffirm the belief in your subconscious mind that you can do anything.
More about mindset HERE!
The problem is that when you set challenging goals for yourself they will not be easy to achieve. They wouldn’t be challenging if you could achieve them without breaking a sweat, would they? This means that you are in for some tough times ahead in the pursuit of your goals.
So you can see why you need a very good strong reason to start a business. A WHY that will keep you going through thick and thin, the lows of exhaustion as well as the highs when it goes well.
You need a strong WHY
Before you start working on your challenging goals you need a strong WHY. This is the real reason (or reasons) why you are pursuing the goal in the first place. Nobody wants to lose weight because they want to fit into their old clothes, They want to lose weight because they will look so much better and attract a lot of attention.
So when you are writing your WHY statement and YES you do really need to write it down, it is essential that you are completely honest with yourself.
The best way to find out the real reason why you want to achieve a goal is to ask yourself why you really want to achieve it.
Your subconscious will not lie to you. It will tell you that you want to earn an additional $50,000 over the next year because you want to impress your partner, your family or your friends for example. The money itself is not that important. It is the power that the money will give you that is the driving force. You need to write this in your WHY statement.
Not Just for Power!
Does that make your heart leap? The thought of the power? It is a nice idea, something many do want but is it the real reason? There needs to be a deeper and better why.
I told myself at first that it was for my family. That it was for more money. To even impress others perhaps by having the money to help them or do nice things, take them on holiday etc.
I kept digging down and asking myself Why and every new reason wasn’t it.
The WHY is not to impress!
When you are writing your WHY statement ask yourself how you will feel when you have achieved your goal. Visualise that you already have the extra money or that you have already lost the weight. How do you feel about this? Make these feelings strong by imagining yourself walking into a room with your pockets stuffed with money.
What will be the reaction of your family and friends or whoever it is that you want to impress? Write down all of the emotions that you experience in your WHY statement. This is very important and will go a long way to help you to achieve your goal.
Note the “help you achieve your goal”.
Just to impress someone is not an ultimate goal.
What should it be?
Something deep down you really believe in. Something beyond money, beyond impressing people, both of those will come and go.
You need a reason that will have you leaping out of bed in the morning, however tired you are and however little sleep you have had. The right reason will pull you onwards, will keep you going when others say “Give up”. Will keep you at your desk when those same others try to lure you away.
You will have a dream, that will include freedom, more money, maybe a bit of impressing others but what else?
Mine?
I realised that yes, I wanted to help others to reach their dream of a better life, to have the freedom that more cash can bring but deep down it was the challenge more than anything else. I love to learn, I think it’s a very important part of life to keep pushing yourself, to expand your knowledge.
So my WHY I do this, is the CHALLENGE! I am not comparing myself to others. Not competing with others, I am challenging myself to be better every day, to learn more to make my business a success. To reach my goals and then make new ones.
I Love a CHALLENGE!
What is your WHY?
Now we have asked the question ‘what is a business WHY’ you can look for yours. This of course, is my opinion on what it is and others may disagree. Whatever anyone thinks, it is something we are hearing about more and more. That you need to have a WHY statement, to dig down deep to find your ultimate Why and then write it down.
Have I written it down? NO! I don’t feel the need as it is there in front of me every day as I challenge myself on a daily basis. To learn more every day to take my business up a level.
There is so much to learn and the daily challenge is to keep focused on what I need to learn and not go off at a tangent and learn stuff I don’t need right now.
So what is YOUR Why? Is it strong, will it stand the test of time and get you through the foundation stage, the hardest stage, of building a business?
Refer to your WHY statement regularly
Some need to read or think about their ‘WHY’ when they get out of bed in the morning. Not everyone feels the need to do it every day. If it is very strong then it will inspire you for the day or days ahead. It is essential that you start each day off in the right frame of mind and a strong WHY statement will certainly do this for you. Getting into the right mindset is very important.
It is important that your statement inspires you and evokes strong emotion so that you will be eager to get started.
As you pursue your challenging goals, there will be obstacles at times, that you have to overcome to keep moving forwards. Some of these obstacles are likely to be major ones that you have never encountered before.
If these things overwhelm you it will be easy for you to lose your motivation.
That’s when you get out your WHY statement and inspire yourself to carry on.
Where l learnt this and more!
There are early posts on this site about how I started in business. How a craft business created a burning desire to move up a notch. How I built my first WordPress website and then joined Wealthy Affiliate because I was so impressed with what they had to offer, especially the vast amount of training. I was also impressed with the diverse community, knowledge and age wise, who are always ready to help and answer questions to help others onwards and upwards.
I always advise people to join for free, no credit or debit card required. To have a look around, to use the training to build your first website, interact with the community, read blogs, ask questions and get an idea of whether its what you want.
No Commitment!
If like me you wanted to look further without committing too much just in case, then you can join Premium for a month at half price, if you upgrade within 7 days. I did it because I wanted to see how good the further training was inside. It took me a whole 2 days to decide this was for me and I was going to upgrade to yearly payments because it was so much more cost effective.
It is hard work and can take a long time to start seeing a return, it all depends upon how much time you can commit. Plus we are all different and learn at different speeds. No one pushes you to go faster or work harder, that is up to you. This is a long term plan a marathon to reach your goals rather than a sprint.
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If you enjoyed the post, please share. Comments and questions welcome.
When one start a new business, the energy is always very high. We don’t even anticipate any form of obstacle or struggle. We mostly expect smoothness which is very rare. If we could remember to put our WHY down in the initial days of our business, then we are more likely to survive the not so good days. Our WHY will be our fuel when we don’t feel like going..
Exactly, that is spot on. There are always ups and downs in business at the start, so yes it does keep us going through thick and thin. if it isn’t strong enough then it is easier to give up.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
It is indeed very important to have a Why, when you start or have a business. A Why gives you direction and focus, and without a Why, you do not have a reason and might just end up drifting. Having a Why will also help you to formulate and write down your goals. Having a strong Why, will also motivate you to get up each morning and work on your business.
Very true Line. It’s that why that keeps you going when you feel like giving up.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
This is a very interesting post and really makes me think.
As someone with ASD, I have floated through life. I have never planned anything. Everything that I have done has just been spur of the moment as it seemed a good idea at that exact moment. As a result I have moved from one thing to the next and one disaster to the next.
As a result, I never ask why about anything. The only time I ever ask why is when something falls apart. I therefore think this is a very important issue.
I encourage everyone to stop and follow your suggestions. It is essential that we ask why before we start. That way we might not only do things better and be more dedicated, but also stop us going down wrong routes to begin with.
You are not alone, many do the same, not planning just reacting to anything after the event.
I don’t plan the fine details but need to have a goal and a bigger idea of where I am going and what I am doing.
The WHY is often trotted as the need to make more money. That does work as a long term goal but you need more and better reasons for the short term.
It can make the difference between success and failure.
Thank you for reading and commenting Geoff.