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The World Is Flat,
but it's the optimists who change the
world. Bill Gates imagined a world in which the computer could
help us all reach our greatest potential. And it happened. Now he
imagines a world in which malaria does not exist. And it will hap-
STATUS BUT WHY, BUT KNOW HOW
155
pen. The Wright brothers imagined a world in which we'd all take
to the skies as easily as we catch the bus. And it happened. WHY-
types have the power to change the course of industries or even the
world ... if only they knew HOW.
WHY-types are the visionaries, the ones with the overactive
imaginations. They tend to be optimists who believe that all the
things they imagine can actually be accomplished. HOW-types live
more in the here and now. They are the realists and have a clearer
sense of all things practical. WHY-types are focused on the things
most people can't see, like the future. HOW-types are focused on
things most people can see and tend to be better at building
structures and processes and getting things done. One is not better
than the other, they are just different ways people naturally see and
experience the world. Gates is a WHY-type. So were the Wright
brothers. And Steve Jobs. And Herb Kelleher. But they didn't do it
alone. They couldn't. They needed those who knew HOW.
"If it hadn't been for my big brother, I'd have been in jail several
times for checks bouncing," said Walt Disney, only half joking, to a
Los Angeles audience in 1957. "I never knew what was in the bank.
He kept me on the straight and narrow." Walt Disney was a WHY-
type, a dreamer whose dream came true thanks to the help of his
more sensible older brother Roy, a HOW-type.
Walt Disney began his career creating cartoon drawings for ad-
vertisements, but moved quickly to making animated movies. It was
1923 and Hollywood was emerging as the heart of the movie
business, and Walt wanted to be part of it. Roy, who was eight years
older, had been working at a bank. Roy was always in awe of his
brother's talent and imagination, but he also knew that Walt was
prone to taking risks and to neglecting business affairs. Like all
WHY guys, Walt was busy thinking about what the future looked
like and often forget he was living in the present. "Walt Disney
dreamed, drew and imagined, Roy stayed in the shadow, forming
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156
an empire," wrote Bob Thomas, a Disney biographer. "A brilliant
financier and businessman, Roy helped turn Walt Disney's dreams
into reality, building the company that bears his brother's name." It
was Roy who founded the Buena Vista Distribution Company that
made Disney films a central part of American childhood. It was Roy
who created the merchandising business that transformed Disney
characters into household names. And, like almost every HOW-
type, Roy never wanted to be the front man, he preferred to stay in
the background and focus on HOW to build his brother's vision.
Most people in the world are HOW-types. Most people are quite
functional in the real world and can do their jobs and do very well.
Some may be very successful and even make millions of dollars, but
they will never build billion-dollar businesses or change the world.
HOW-types don't need WHY-types to do well. But WHY-guys, for
all their vision and imagination, often get the short end of the stick.
Without someone inspired by their vision and the knowledge to
make it a reality, most WHY-types end up as starving visionaries,
people with all the answers but never accomplishing much
themselves.
Although so many of them fancy themselves visionaries, in real-
ity most successful entrepreneurs are HOW-types. Ask an entre-
preneur what they love about being an entrepreneur and most will
tell you they love to build things. That they talk about building is a
sure clue that they know HOW to get things done. A business is a
structure—systems and processes that need to be assembled. It is the
HOW-types who are more adept at building those processes and
systems. But most companies, no matter how well built, do not
become billion-dollar businesses or change the course of industries.
To reach the billion-dollar status, to alter the course of an industry,
requires a very special and rare partnership between one who
knows WHY and those who know HOW.
STATUS BUT WHY, BUT KNOW HOW
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In nearly every case of a person or an organization that has gone
on to inspire people and do great things, there exists this special
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