Start with why

The WHY Comes from Looking Back
Conservative estimates put the numbers at three to one. But some historians have
said the English army was outnumbered by six to one. Regardless of which
estimates you choose to believe, the prospects for Henry V, king of England, did
not look good. It was late October in the year 1415 and the English army stood
ready to do battle against a much bigger French force at Agincourt in northern
France. But the numbers were just one of Henry’s problems.
The English army had marched over 250 miles, taking them nearly three
weeks, and had lost nearly 40 percent of their original numbers to sickness. The
French, in stark contrast, were better rested and in much better spirits. The
better-trained and more experienced French were also excited at the prospect of
exacting their revenge on the English to make up for the humiliation of previous
defeats. And to top it all off, the French were vastly better equipped. The English
were lightly armored, but whatever protection they did have was no match for
the superior weight of the French armor. But anyone who knows their medieval
European history already knows the outcome of the battle of Agincourt. Despite
the overwhelming odds, the English won.
The English had one vital piece of technology that was able to confound the
French and start a chain of events that would ultimately result in a French defeat.
The English had the longbow, a weapon with astounding range for its time.
Standing far from the battlefield, far enough away that heavy armor was not
needed, the English could look down into the valley and shower the French with
arrows. But technology and range aren’t what give an arrow its power. By itself,
an arrow is a flimsy stick of wood with a sharpened tip and some feathers. By
itself, an arrow cannot stand up to a sword or penetrate armor. What gives an
arrow the ability to take on experience, training, numbers and armor is
momentum. That flimsy stick of wood, when hurtling through the air, becomes a
force only when it is moving fast in one direction. But what does the battle of
Agincourt have to do with finding your WHY?
Before it can gain any power or achieve any impact, an arrow must be pulled
backward, 180 degrees away from the target. And that’s also where a WHY
derives its power. The WHY does not come from looking ahead at what you
want to achieve and figuring out an appropriate strategy to get there. It is not
born out of any market research. It does not come from extensive interviews
with customers or even employees. It comes from looking in the completely

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opposite direction from where you are now. Finding WHY is a process of
discovery, not invention.
Just as Apple’s WHY developed during the rebellious 1960s and’70s, the
WHY for every other individual or organization comes from the past. It is born
out of the upbringing and life experience of an individual or small group. Every
single person has a WHY and every single organization has one too. An
organization, don’t forget, is one of the WHATs, one of the tangible things a
founder or group of founders has done in their lives to prove their WHY.
Every company, organization or group with the ability to inspire starts with a
person or small group of people who were inspired to do something bigger than
themselves. Gaining clarity of WHY, ironically, is not the hard part. It is the
discipline to trust one’s gut, to stay true to one’s purpose, cause or beliefs.
Remaining completely in balance and authentic is the most difficult part. The
few that are able to build a megaphone, and not just a company, around their
cause are the ones who earn the ability to inspire. In doing so, they harness a
power to move people that few can even imagine. Learning the WHY of a
company or an organization or understanding the WHY of any social movement
always starts with one thing: you.

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