Blog # 2 - Start with why? Positioning a idea.

Ideas are dime a dozen. Even the brilliant ones. So why do only few are ever implemented and fewer still celebrated? It all boils down to positioning. If we can’t position an idea as the “right” idea in the minds of people, it will forever remain just an idea, failing to inspire people to rally behind it and take it up. And so, while discussing “positioning an idea”, a close friend of mine and I ended up talking about Mr. Simon Sinek. According to Mr. Sinek, the fundamental principle behind extraordinarily successful companies is that they start with “Why”. Accordingly, he has developed something called a golden circle, which has 3 layers –

1.       Why – Why the business exists?

2.       How – How the business fulfills its core belief?

3.       What – What the business does to fulfill the core belief?

Going through an insightful blog on this topic at http://blog.hubspot.com/customers/3-takeaways-from-start-with-why, I realize that not only does it hold good for existing companies, but the same concept can be applied while presenting an idea or a business proposition too.

Why a certain idea needs to be bankrolled and nurtured into a business is the crux of any pitch. And if we can start with a compelling why, I would assume a major battle won. This point is so much more evident in the first 30 seconds of Micheal Pritchard’s TED talk on making filthy water drinkable. He conveys passionately and convincingly his quest for making a world much safer from the likes of diarrhea and other water borne diseases. The link for his video is below -

 http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter#t-7762

The how part is where we present the idea of the product or service. The how is where people see a new hope in solving an existing problem. The how is where people evaluate and buy your idea.  What this implies is that there has to be clarity of thought on how our product or service can logically service the need mentioned in the why part. The idea should genuinely solve a problem and not necessarily be the next big thing. This will bring about trust and conviction in our idea.

The what is where we present our implementation strategy. What our business can do to integrate the new idea into an existing eco system and bring about the necessary solution is the concluding step in the 3 part strategy in achieving success in presenting a business proposition.

To conclude, I leave you with this story on “starting with why” I found inside the article http://life-engineering.com/how-great-leaders-inspire-action-the-golden-circle/

 “Langley was given $50K by the War department to figure out this flying machine. Held seat at Harvard and worked at Smithsonian. He was extremely well connected. He had access to the greatest funds and the greatest minds. He hired the greatest minds available, and the market conditions were fantastic. The NY Times followed him everywhere, everyone was rooting for him. But we’ve never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley.

A few hundred miles away in Dayton Ohio, Orville and Wilber Wright, who had none of this “recipe for success”. They paid for it all from the proceeds of their humble bicycle shop. Not a single person on the Wright Brothers team had a college education. Not even Orville or Wilber. And the NY Times ignored them. But they were driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief. They believed that if they could figure out this flying machine, it would change the course of the world. Samuel Peirpont Langley, on the other hand, was different. He wanted to be rich, and he wanted to be famous.”

In the end, the people who believed in the dream, worked with blood, sweat and tears had won. Most people will know this and expect this, but it is upto us to convince them that we are starting with the right why.