This clip of Simon Sinek is worth watching (It’s just under 4 minutes long). As I was listening this snippet caught my ear.

I like to think of money as fuel, and the car is the company, and the purpose is the destination.

If money is fuel, it makes the car go. You absolutely have to have money to make the company go. There is no dreaming big if you have no fuel. You can have the most beautiful car in the world, and yet, if you’ve got no fuel, it’s pointless.

But we don’t own a car to buy fuel. We don’t own companies simply for the money.

It’s the destination. You wanna be able to go somewhere.

The passengers are the employees and are not excited about the fuel in the car. How much fuel do we have? We get excited about where we’re going. We’re going to Alaska, are we near?

~ Simon Sinek

Whatever we’re doing, in business or in life, we need to keep our purpose our why (as Simon would say) in front of us.

• When I set goals, why is this the goal I’m setting? Accomplishing it gets me closer to what?
• When I try to establish a new habit, what is that habit in service of?
• When I make an assignment to a team member, what will their success at this assignment mean to us? How is it moving us closer to our purpose?

But we don’t own a car to buy fuel. We don’t own companies simply for the money.

What’s your company for? Does everyone know that?