Circular questions

Contemplating why is a very circular question.  When thinking about “why” something should be done, I often end up back at results of the why and not the “why” itself.  Let me give you an example. 

Say you want to start a new business.  The result of starting that business is money.  But that isn’t why you started the business in the first place.  Because money isn’t enough of a motivating factor to keep you going through horrendous times and the growing pains of starting a business.  And, as Simon Sinek said “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.   So if you are just doing it for money, what happens when you lose a lot of money?  Then you quit.  But if your “why” is something greater and grander, then you continue regardless of whether the money is flowing in or flowing out. 

The second reason of the why is to use WHY to figure out HOW.  If you know WHY you should do something, you can then determine the best HOW to accomplish the WHY.  Is the solution or business you have created best equipped to solve your problem?  Very likely it is not if you didn’t start with WHY.

But back to the original idea.  Unless there is a WHY, everything else is pointless.  And finding a good “why” is complicated.  But then, once the why is figured out, everything else falls into place.