A common question that most young adults encounter is what do you want to choose purpose or passion? This article is excerpted from a chapter of Simon Sinek’s book, Start With the Why. This will give you an understanding of the correlation between purpose and passion, and knowing the importance of communicating your purpose.
There was a man named Ben Comen who suffered from Cerebral Palsy. But his condition didn’t stop him from joining race running. When most people are ahead of him, he did not bother the time he spent running.
With his condition, he struggles to balance and move due to withered muscles and slow reflexes of the motor. While doing the race, he always slips and falls to the ground. Yet, he picks himself and continues running.
While the rest of the runners finished the race in about twenty-five minutes, Ben takes more than forty-five minutes to reach the finish line. Because he trips over often, he feels lonely while running. Whenever he reached the finish line, he is exhausted and in pain.
Interestingly, when everybody else is finished running, runners come back to run with Ben. The story taught us how Ben communicated his purpose despite his condition. He was clear on why he was running. Thus, everyone else followed.
Most importantly, when you know your purpose, everyone else will follow you. It is important to note that when you compete with yourself, others will help you. But if you compete against everyone, no one will ever help you.
When we truly believe with our purpose, we become passionate, and this radiates within us making other people be inspired by what we are doing.
No matter what purpose you have right now, do not belittle it because you will never know who will believe in you. Like Ben, he keeps an eye on his purpose. Therefore, he was not just able to finish the race but he was able to inspire others. This is the utmost importance of communicating your purpose.
Imagine if the companies right now focus on their whys and not on competing who is doing the best. Only a few businesses opt to outdo themselves than achieving to defeat others.
According to Simon, if companies are clear with their why decisions would be simpler and loyalties would be greater.
