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  • The Why was born out of pain.

  • It was never an academic or commercial exercise.

  • It was born out of a time in my life

  • many years ago, 10 years ago,

  • where I had lost my passion for what I was doing.

  • I owned my own small business.

  • I was living the American dream.

  • Superficially, my life was fantastic.

  • And yet, I didn't want to wake up and do it again.

  • And I was embarrassed by that.

  • Who am I to complain about my life?

  • My life seemed perfect.

  • And yet, I hated it.

  • And so, I kept it to myself.

  • Every ounce of my being,

  • all the energy that I had was

  • invested in pretending that I was happier,

  • more successful and more in control

  • than I felt.

  • And it was debilitating, quite frankly.

  • Strange things start to happen

  • when you put yourself in that cycle

  • and the stress starts to build.

  • You start to become paranoid.

  • So, for example, I was convinced

  • that my employees hated me.

  • I didn't go out much.

  • It was really--it was really a bad time.

  • And it wasn't until a friend of mine

  • came to me concerned that I wasn't acting myself

  • and basically, offered me nothing more than moral support,

  • "Whatever you need, I've got your back. I'm worried about you."

  • And it was that simple act that gave me

  • the courage to face my own problem.

  • And it was that simple act that gave me

  • the courage to seek out a solution,

  • to go back to the way I used to feel,

  • to be passionate about something again.

  • There was a confluence of events.

  • And I made this discovery that

  • every single organization on the planet,

  • even our own careers,

  • always function on the same three levels:

  • What we do, How we do it, and Why we do it.

  • It was based on the biology of the human decision-making.

  • It wasn't some highfalutin management theory.

  • It was based on brain stuff.

  • And I realized I knew What I did.

  • I was good at it.

  • And I knew How I did it.

  • I could tell you what was different or special

  • about the way I did things,

  • but I couldn't tell you Why I was doing it.

  • That was the missing piece.

  • You have to have all three.

  • I became obsessed with this thing called the Why.

  • I figured out how to find my Why,

  • and it restored my passion to levels

  • I had never experienced before.

  • And more importantly,

  • I figured out how to help others find theirs.

  • And I did what anyone would do:

  • when you discover something beautiful,

  • you share it with your friends.

  • And my friends started making crazy life changes themselves,

  • and they started finding happiness and passion

  • that they'd never experienced before.

  • It was me solving my own problem,

  • that happened to help others solve it for them, too.

  • And people just kept inviting me,

  • and I just kept saying yes.

  • I was making huge decisions that were really easy to make.

  • Like I shut down my office and started over again,

  • because I realized the business I had built

  • was so inconsistent with my Why.

  • All my friends thought I went out of business

  • and they were worried about me.

  • It was the easiest decision I ever made.

  • In other words,

  • when you know your Why and the filter is clear,

  • it's not like there are options.

  • The option is obvious.

  • There's only one option.

  • Share, give, inspire.

  • And everything that I've achieved,

  • any success that I've enjoyed,

  • has all been 100 percent because of

  • the gracious, just amazing generosity

  • of people around me.

  • My friends, my colleagues,

  • people who just believe what I believe,

  • they are the ones who either

  • introduced me to others or took a risk,

  • or said "Let me try that,"

  • or bought a book, or watched a TED Talk,

  • or more importantly, sent it to somebody else

  • because they thought they would be inspired by it.

  • For all of the things that I've done over the past decade,

  • I still feel like I'm at the beginning.

  • I've been saying it for 10 years,

  • when everybody says to me, you know,

  • "Congratulations on x, y, or z,”

  • my answer's always the same:

  • "Tip of the iceberg."

  • And I think that's what keeps me inspired,

  • which is--for me it's a journey.

  • I'm on the right path.

  • I'm walking past the right mile markers.

  • In other words, I know I'm making progress

  • to the vision that I have to build this world

  • in which the vast majority of people

  • wake up every single morning inspired to go to work,

  • feel safe when they're there,

  • returning home at the end of the day

  • fulfilled by the work they do.

  • When I started the race, I ran by myself.

  • And it's lonely, lonely, lonely.

  • And now I've got like a--

  • I've got like a thousand people to the left,

  • and a thousand people to the right,

  • and a thousand people behind me.

  • And I look around, and I'm like,

  • "Yep, we're going to change the world."

  • We're going to change the world.

  • There you go.

  • Female speaking: "I love you.”

The Why was born out of pain.

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