Start with Why — Chapter 13

Although this book has been talking about the WHY of a company, I’ve been applying this concept to my family as well. My kids are 8th and 10th graders, and they are at an age where they need to starting thinking about colleges: what to major in, what colleges they’d like to attend, and what careers they’d like to go into. Similar to discoverying the WHY of a company, I’ve been asking my kids to discover their WHYs. What are they passionate about? What makes them smile? What are they excited about? I believe when someone can answer these fundamental questions, then they can start to investigate WHAT they’d like to do as a profession. If someone chooses a career solely based on what they are good at, and without first honestly answering these questions, it is akin to a company that starts making widgets without first defining WHY they are in business. Sooner or later the person (or the company) is going to lose interest in producing the best widgets possible because they never really knew why they started making widgets.