More Important Than Money: Understanding your WHY

What do super-successful people and business owners all have in common?

• It's not experience.
• It's not extraordinary skills.
• It's not even a powerful drive.

Although all these things can certainly help you and your business grow, they're optional for success. After all, no one is born with experience or skills, and many successful people lack drive.

The one thing that does make a difference, though, is your "why."

• Why did you decide to become the person you are?
• Why do you spend too many hours working on your dream?
• Why do you stay up too late and get up too early? So that you can work on growing your business!

The "why" ultimately drives us to success, but here's the thing: it's different for everyone. Your why is not my why, and my why is not anyone's why. It's a deeply personal choice that can have significant meaning or not.

For example, a survivor of domestic abuse might happily spend 60 or 70 hours each week mentoring other abuse victims or counseling couples on how to break the cycle. Her big why is a strong desire to prevent other women from suffering the way she did.

A mother of small children may be saddened at the thought of sending her kids to daycare so she can go to work to (barely) pay for it. However, her big why is a drive to spend as much time with her kids as possible while still supporting her family.

A young, fresh-out-of-school entrepreneur might resist taking the same path her parents took, working for a corporation for 40 years. Only to retire and find themselves with barely enough to live on. So instead, she dreams of having the income (and the time) to see the world while she's still young enough to enjoy it.

So what's your big "why"? It might be the freedom to travel, the option to spend time with your family, the ability to take weeks off to care for a sick family member, or even to earn enough money to support a charity close to your heart.

Whatever it is, your "why" is the driving force behind every action you take. For example, when deciding whether to take on a new client, ask yourself if it's aligned with your "why." When setting goals for the year, ask yourself if those goals are moving you closer or further from your big why—thinking of branching out into a new business venture. Make sure it's aligned with your big why, and success is suddenly much more.

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