Start With Why

partnership between WHY and HOW. Bill Gates, for example, may 
have been the visionary who imagined a world with a PC on every 
desk, but Paul Allen built the company. Herb Kelleher was able to 
personify and preach the cause of freedom, but it was Rollin King 
who came up with the idea for Southwest Airlines. Steve Jobs is the 
rebel's evangelist, but Steve Wozniak is the engineer who made the 
Apple work. Jobs had the vision, Woz had the goods. It is the 
partnership of a vision of the future and the talent to get it done that 
makes an organization great.
This relationship starts to clarify the difference between a vision 
statement and a mission statement in an organization. The vision is 
the public statement of the founder's intent, WHY the company 
exists. It is literally the vision of a future that does not yet exist. The 
mission statement is a description of the route, the guiding 
principles—HOW the company intends to create that future. When 
both of those things are stated clearly, the WHY-type and the HOW-
type are both certain about their roles in the partnership. Both are 
working together with clarity of purpose and a plan to get there. For 
it to work, however, it requires more than a set of skills, it requires 
trust.
As discussed at length in part 3, trusting relationships are in-
valuable for us to feel safe. Our ability to trust people or organiza-
tions allows us to take risks and feel supported in our efforts. And 
perhaps the most trusting relationship that exists is between the 
visionary and the builder, the WHY-guy and the HOW-guy. In or-
ganizations able to inspire, the best chief executives are WHY- 
types—people who wake up every day to lead a cause and not just 
run a company. In these organizations, the best chief financial of-
ficers and chief operating officers are high-performing HOW-types, 
those with the strength of ego to admit they are not visionaries 

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START WITH WHY 
158 
themselves but are inspired by the leader's vision and know how to 
build the structure that can bring it to life. The best HOW-types 
generally do not want to be out front preaching the vision; they 
prefer to work behind the scenes to build the systems that can make 
the vision a reality. It takes the combined skill and effort of both for 
great things to happen.
It's not an accident that these unions of WHY and HOW so often 
come from families or old friendships. A shared upbringing and life 
experience increases the probability of a shared set of values and 
beliefs. In the case of family or childhood friends, upbringing and 
common experiences are nearly exactly the same. That's not to say 
you can't find a good partner somewhere else. It's just that growing 
up with somebody and having a common life experience increases 
the likelihood of a shared common worldview.
Walt Disney and Roy Disney were brothers. Bill Gates and Paul 
Allen went to high school together in Seattle. Herb Kelleher was 
Rollin King's divorce attorney and old friend. Martin Luther King Jr. 
and Ralph Abernathy both preached in Birmingham, long before 
the civil rights movement took form. And Steve Jobs and Steve 
Wozniak were best friends in high school. The list goes on.
To Run or To Lead
For all the talented HOW-types running today's organizations, they 
can achieve success that will last their lifetimes, but they will spend 
their lifetimes running their companies. There are many ways to be 
successful and drive profits. Any number of manipulations, only 
some of which I've touched upon in this book, work quite well. 
Even the ability to create a tipping point is possible without creating 
lasting change. It's called a fad. But great organizations function 
exactly like any social movement. They inspire people to talk about 
a product or idea, include that product in the context of their 
lifestyle, share the idea or even find ways to advance the prosperity 

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STATUS BUT WHY, BUT KNOW HOW 
159 
of the organization itself. Great organizations not only excite the 
human spirit, they inspire people to take part in helping to advance 
the cause without needing to pay them or incentivize them in any