Start with why

Those Who Know WHY Need Those Who Know HOW
The pessimists are usually right, to paraphrase Thomas Friedman, author of 
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 happen. 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 advertisements,
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 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

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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 reality most
successful entrepreneurs are HOW-types. Ask an entrepreneur 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.
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 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

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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 invaluable for us to
feel safe. Our ability to trust people or organizations 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 organizations 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 officers and chief operating
officers are high-performing HOW-types, those with the strength of ego to admit
they are not visionaries 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.

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