01/11/2017
Your Why Is More Important Than Your How
by Uvie Ugono Founder and CEO of Solynta Energy
“He who has a why to live for can bear any how” - Friedrich Nietzsche.
Your reason for wanting to do something is far more important than your understanding of exactly how to do it. At first glance, this may seem counter intuitive, but think about it for a second, and you realize that its true. Let’s take the example of weight loss. Most people who want to lose weight know exactly how they can achieve it – clean up your diet, and work out regularly. For the few who don’t know, a quick google search would sort that out. It begs the question therefore, if a person knows what to do, and wants to do it, why are they not doing it?
The answer is simple. Their WHY is not powerful enough. They kind of want to lose weight, it would be great to lose weight, but losing weight is not an absolute must for them. Now suppose that person goes to hospital and is told that if they don’t lose the weight within 6 months, their heart would give out and they’d die. Would that change things, and make them lose the weight? The answer should be self evident.
2016 was a very difficult year for me on a personal level. I lost my father to cancer in April, and in November, I lost my mother to the same dreadful disease. Cancer is hereditary. Both my parents were also diabetic.
For the previous two years, I was acutely aware that I was overweight, and I’d begun to really hate myself. “It’s because I’m so busy running Solynta Energy, too busy to work out, chauffeur driven everywhere, and the food is heavy in Nigeria. No issue though, I’ll lose the weight as soon as I put my mind to it”. I’d been having this conversation with myself for 2 years now, I was still having it. Nothing had changed. I was still overweight, and still deeply unhappy about it. I hadn’t taken action.
And then something terrible happened. I got the call in late October to say that mum’s cancer was terminal, and she didn’t have long left. I rushed back to London the very next day to be by her bedside, and watched with increasing devastation as my mother, once the strongest woman in the world, literally withered away before my eyes. Watching a loved one die is perhaps the most traumatic of all of life’s experiences.
In the midst of the unbearable grief I was going through, there was something else too. I suddenly become very aware of my own mortality. Spending endless long days in a hospice, confronted daily with the grim reality of death, brought home to me the fragility of life, the inevitability of death, and in the midst of it all, the immense gratitude I had for being alive, still here. However bad any situation is, there’s hope to fix it, because I’m still alive. I have a beautiful wife and three young daughters, and I wanted to be around for them, to see them grow. I have a thriving business, and I wanted to be around to see it reach its full potential.
I began feverishly researching the causes of cancer, and found out about the powerful role of sugar in enabling the spread of cancer in the body. I decided then and there that I was going to cut sugar out of my diet immediately. Not gradually, but immediately and totally. It was out. I was going to get back into shape. Immediately. Urgently. I had found my WHY. I’ve since lost 30 pounds, and am back in great shape.
Every successful business is underpinned by a very strong WHY. It’s called a Mission Statement. It’s a statement of the very reason for their existence, what they stand for, what drives them everyday. Here are the mission statements of some of the world’s most well known and successful companies.
“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete” – Nike
“To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one cup and one neighborhood at a time” – Starbucks.
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it more accessible and useful” – Google
“It’s our goal to be the earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” – Amazon
“To be the Ultimate House of Luxury, defining style and creating desire, now and forever” – Chanel
The power and importance of their WHY’s is very striking. They are big, powerful and global. They were conceived and written long before they became the companies we know them as today, but we so clearly recognize their business models in them, their modus operendi, and the way we understand their brands. They have been true to their Mission Statements. Their focus and grounding from day one has underpinned their success, kept them focused through the challenges, and enabled them to continually pivot, innovate, and stay the course. It’s what makes them some of the greatest companies in the world. They have become their WHY.
A powerful WHY pushes you to Take Action. A powerful WHY strengthens your resolve to be consistent in your efforts, even though its hard and you want to give up sometimes. A powerful WHY refocuses and strengthens your resolve when you are going hard for a long time without seeing any results.
Without a powerful WHY, you will likely never start the journey, and if you do, will probably stop the first time you hit a major obstacle. Without a powerful WHY, you will almost certainly never achieve what you set out to.
As people, it’s very important to have strong mission statement, a strong WHY. A reason for getting up in the morning, something we are working towards everyday, something far bigger than ourselves. A strong WHY gives our lives meaning and purpose.
In its most simple terms, the formula for success in any field of human endeavor, and as covered in the 3 previous blogs, is Take Action, Consistently, Over Time. However, the foundation for all of these factors is the strength of your WHY.
