Start with why

To Inspire People to Do the Things That Inspire Them
Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” He
was a brilliant WHY-guy who changed the way industry works. A man who
embodied all the characteristics of a great leader, who understood the importance
of perspective. I wasn’t any dumber than I was when I started my business,
probably the opposite, in fact. What I had lost was perspective. I knew what I
was doing, but I had forgotten WHY. There is a difference between running with
all your heart with your eyes closed and running with your all your heart with
your eyes wide open. For three years, my heart had pounded but my eyes had
been closed. I had passion and energy, but I lacked focus and direction. I needed
to remember what inspired my passion.
I became obsessed with the concept of WHY. I was consumed by the idea of
it. It was all I talked about. When I looked back to my upbringing, I discovered a
remarkable theme. Whether among friends, at school or professionally, I was
always the eternal optimist. I was the one who inspired everyone to believe they
could do whatever they wanted. This pattern is my WHY. To inspire. It didn’t
matter if I was doing it in marketing or consulting. It didn’t matter what types of
companies I worked with or in which industries I worked. To inspire people to
do the things that inspired them, so that, together, we can change the world.
That’s the path to which my life and my work is now completely devoted. Henry
Ford would have been proud of me. After months of thinking I couldn’t, now I
knew I could.
I made myself a guinea pig for the concept. If the reason I hit rock bottom was
because my Golden Circle was out of balance, then I needed to get it back in
balance. If it was important to start with WHY, then I would start with WHY in
everything I did. There is not a single concept in this book that I don’t practice. I
stand at the mouth of my megaphone and I talk about the WHY to anyone who
will listen. Those early adopters who hear my cause see me as a tool in their
arsenal to achieve their own WHY. And they introduced me to others whom they
believed I could inspire. And so the Law of Diffusion started to do its job.
Though The Golden Circle and the concept of WHY was working for me, I
wanted to show it to others. I had a decision to make: do I try to patent it, protect
it and use it to make lots of money, or do I give it away? This decision was to be
my first Celery Test. My WHY is to inspire people to do the things that inspire
them, and if I am to be authentic to that cause there was only one decision to

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make—to give it away, to talk about it, to share it. There would never be any
secret sauce or special formula for which only I knew the ingredients. The vision
is to have every person and every organization know their WHY and use it to
benefit all they do. So that’s what I’m doing, and I’m relying entirely on the
concept of WHY and the naturally occurring pattern that is The Golden Circle to
help me get there.
The experiment started to work. Prior to starting with WHY, I had been
invited to give one public speech in my life. Now I get between thirty and forty
invitations per year, from all sorts of audiences, all over the world, to speak
about The Golden Circle. I speak to audiences of entrepreneurs, large
corporations, nonprofits, in politics and government. I’ve spoken at the Pentagon
to the chief of staff and the secretary of the Air Force. Prior to The Golden
Circle, I didn’t even know anyone in the military. Prior to starting with WHY, I
had never been on television; in fewer than two years I started getting regular
invitations to appear on MSNBC. I’ve worked with members of Congress,
having never done any government or political work prior to starting with WHY.
I am the same person. I know the same things I did before. The only
difference is, now I start with WHY. Like Gordon Bethune who turned around
Continental with the same people and the same equipment, I was able to turn
things around with the things I already knew and did.
I’m not better connected than everyone else. I don’t have a better work ethic. I
don’t have an Ivy League education and my grades in college were average. The
funniest part is, I still don’t know how to build a business. The only thing that I
do that most people don’t is I learned how to start with WHY.

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