The Connection Magazine AIM MUTUAL Spring 2020 | Page 17

The Science Of
WHY
BY: SIMON​ ​SINEK, AUTHOR & MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
THE WORK world is tough: Wake up, go to
work, deal with the boss (or if you are the boss,
deal with everyone), make money (ideally to
make more this year than last year), come
home, manage personal life, go to bed, wake
up, repeat. That’s plenty to deal with every day.
Why get fancy (and waste time) by trying to also
understand why you do what you do? The answer
to that question isn’t fancy; it’s simple.
Discovering the WHY injects passion into our
work. This is not a formula for success. There
are many ways to be successful (by traditional
metrics); however, the Golden Circle is a tool to
help us achieve long-term, fulfilling success.
The Golden Circle
Every organization—and every person’s
career—operates on three levels, as shown in
the illustration on page 18: What we do, how
we do it, and why we do it. We all know what we
do: the products we sell, the services we offer
or the jobs we do. Some of us know how we do
it: the things that we think make us different or
stand out from the crowd. But very few of us can
clearly articulate why we do what we do.
The WHY is the purpose, cause, or belief that
drives every organization and every person’s
individual career. Why does your company exist?
Why did you get out of bed this morning? And
why should anyone care?
Companies that inspire, companies that
command trust and loyalty over the long
term, are the ones that make us feel we’re
accomplishing something bigger than just saving
a buck. That feeling of alliance with something
bigger is the reason we keep wearing the jersey
of our hometown sports team even though
they’ve missed the playoffs for ten years and
counting. It’s why some of us will always buy
Apple products over other brands, even if Apple
isn’t always the most affordable choice. Whether
we like to admit it or not, we are not entirely
rational beings. If we were, no one would ever fall
in love and no one would ever start a business.
Faced with an overwhelming chance of failure, no
rational person would ever take either of those
risks. But we do. Every day. Because how we feel
about something or someone is more powerful
than what we think about it or them.
There’s just one problem with feelings. They
can be tremendously difficult to express in
words. That’s the reason we so often resort to
metaphors and analogies, like “our relationship
17