By Bill Butler, Productivity Coach, RE/MAX Leading Edge
This time of year often serves as a time for reflection, goal-setting and business planning. We assess what we will continue, what we need to improve upon and new strategies we'll try in the new year. My mastermind group had a revealing discussion recently about our own individual "Whys". Why we're in real estate...why we're running our own businesses.
We discovered that many of us have had and continue to struggle with finding our "Why". We found that many of us have a few different "whys"; some more profound and altruistic than others. It got us thinking...is it OK to have a few different whys or should we one have one?
You know what the experts say about football teams with more than one starting quarterback..."If you have two starting quarterbacks, you really have no starting quarterbacks." Meaning if you need to play two different people at the quarterback position, you don't have one that is good enough to play full time like the rest of the teams.
Is it the same with your 'why'? If you don't have one why that's strong enough to be the single rallying point for your purpose in business, do you really have one that's worthy for you?
In The Four Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey, he states you need to have singular rallying point or Wildly Important Goal.
Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, argues all businesses should start with their 'why' when building their business. People don't choose a service or product based merely on features and benefits...it's ultimately whether or not they share a common belief, which stems from a company's 'why'.
Whether it's one or a few 'whys', one can't debate the importance of having a belief or set of beliefs that you and your team (if applicable) can rally around. How can you find what that is? Adam Leipzig in his
Ted Talk, has five questions you can ask yourself about your life purpose and apply to your business:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you love to do? What is the one thing you feel supremely qualified to teach others?
3. Who do you do it for?
4. What do those people want or need who come to you for help?
5. How do they change as a result?
When people ask what you do, answer them with your answer for the question #5.
Knowing your 'why' is a process. Hopefully, the exercise above brings you closer to the realization of your why and your purpose!