Discovering Your ‘Why’ Is the Most Important Entrepreneur Move


Your mission, your purpose, your passion, your WHY. This is the secret ingredient to entrepreneurial success. Your WHY will be your driving force, the fuel that powers your business and your mission.

Finding your WHY will not totally alleviate your moments of doubt and fear, but it will give you a reason to power through.

How to Find Your WHY

Your purpose for becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business has to be more than wanting to be your own boss or making more money. While those are great goals, they should not have anything to do with your purpose. Your purpose, your mission, your WHY is not your paycheck, it’s your reason for getting up in the morning.

Finding your purpose will take some deep thinking on your part. Think about moments of your life that had the biggest impact on you, and consider why they did. Is there a common theme between these impactful moments?

If this method doesn’t work well for you, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What does success look like to me?
  • What does an ideal day look like to me?
  • What kind of impact do I want to have in the world?
  • What really matters to me?
  • What’s an issue I feel passionate about solving?
  • What makes you happiest?
  • What do you do best?

Take some time to self-reflect and ponder the answers to these questions.

If you find that these answers don’t provide you with much guidance, try this powerful exercise from American self-help author, Steve Pavlina. Pavlina says to ask yourself, “What is my purpose in life?” Write down your answer on a piece of paper. Write down another one and another one, and don’t stop writing down answers until one of them makes you cry. That is your purpose.

Your WHY Fuels Success

As the owner of your company, you’ll be able to set your own goals, targets, and standards. You’ll finally have the freedom to run your business the way you want and put your revolutionary ideas to use! You’ll feel invigorated, powerful, and free. Well, at least at first.

It’s unfortunate, but when your passion turns into your work, you’ll never feel the same way about it again. What used to be a hobby will be forced to clash with the reality of:

  • tracking cash flow
  • filing taxes
  • managing inventory
  • managing employees
  • completing business paperwork

But, that’s okay! It’s completely normal, and in fact, it’s just a part of the entrepreneurial journey.

At least as first, you will need to establish and maintain every single one of your businesses’ systems and processes. This will be exhausting, and it can definitely prove to be demotivating.

That’s the reason your WHY is critical to your success.

If you aren’t 100 percent committed to bringing your dreams to life, it will be nearly impossible to nurture your growing business through its growing pains.

Think about it this way—your initial motivation for becoming an entrepreneur, whether it be creative freedom or financial success, will make up a large part of your commitment, but your WHY will bridge the gap between this initial motivation and the end result of your success, while keeping you grounded in reality.

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