Entrepreneurship requires immense amounts of time and energy – more than you may sometimes feel you can give.
David Kale, University of Utah alum and owner of OutsideBox Marketing, said what’s kept him afloat is remembering why he got started in the first place. He led a recent Lassonde for Life workshop, “Find Your ‘Why’ as an Entrepreneur,” to help other entrepreneurs get to their “root why.”
Determine your root “why”
While you might think you already know your motivations, Kale said many founders don’t go deep enough. When your entrepreneurial foundation is superficial, you’re more easily swayed by burnout.
“Think of what you’re doing, whether it be a product or service, and keep asking yourself why you’re doing it until you get to the root,” he said.
Kale shared an example of a children’s toy manufacturer.
“They may start with ‘I want to create educational toys for kids’,” he said. “But I challenge you to ask, ‘Why? Why do you want to do that?’”
By continuing to poke and prod at your motivation, you’ll get to your core.
“After a few more ‘why’ questions, you’ll end up somewhere like ‘I want to set not only my child but a generation of children up for success long-term,’” he said. “Now that is something that will keep you motivated.”
Kale cautions that the goal of digging deep is not necessarily to be poetic.
“Your why does not have to be inspiring – it just has to be truthful,” he said. “The only way you’ll get your root why work is if it’s truthful to you.”
Understand your root “why”
Once you’ve determined your root “why,” you have to understand its pieces. The “why” itself isn’t the only useful part of the exercise.
Kale again referenced the educational toys example, illustrating the five responses to the “why” questions that ultimately led to the root:
- I want to create educational toys for kids
- There’s a current gap in the market
- Children need better toys than the ones they have
- I have a child of my own
- I want to set not only my child but a generation of children up for long-term success
“Initially, your response will just be the thing you’re doing, what action you’re taking,” he said. “The third and fourth responses are what drives you – here, acknowledging children like your own’s need for better toys.”
The final response is what Kale calls the “consequence of your drive.”
He counseled to think of the above as a pathway – as you map out your own root “why,” consider each piece individually.
Embracing your root “why”
With an identified and understood root “why,” you’re nearly done fighting the battle. Now, you need to know how to put your knowledge to use.
1. Protection from burn out
First, embracing your “why” can protect you from burnout.
“When you utilize your ‘why’ to your advantage, you get something called ‘motivated monotony’,” Kale said. “I would argue most people don’t have a passion for repetitive tasks like admin or something otherwise overwhelming, but remembering your ‘why’ helps you understand why you need to do something, why it’s important to your goals.”
To keep yourself in the game, Kale recommends putting your “why” on a wall or somewhere where you can see it all the time.
“This will give you a reason to push through,” he said.
2. Don’t get lost in the details
Second, embracing your “why” helps you see the larger picture.
“Once you’ve gotten to the root of your motivation, you can better understand the big picture of your venture,” he said.
Having this point of view will serve you when you’re inevitably tempted to get bogged down by the little things.
“Say, for example, you want to redo your entire kitchen,” Kale said. “If you go in and start installing cabinets, picking furniture, obsessing over the individual pieces, when you start working on it, you’ll realize it’s about to be a complete nightmare.”
In contrast, visualizing the end product of your finalized kitchen helps you step back and plan each piece, fitting everything where it needs to go.
“It’s a silly example,” he said. “No one will think twice about wanting to sit and plan out a kitchen remodel, but this is the same mentality I want you to have as an entrepreneur. It’s very easy when working on a startup to forget your reason, lose sight of your end goal, and end up in a mess. Taking a second to see the big picture and plan for it will save you from the eventual pitfalls of jumping into something with no larger picture in mind.”
3. A connection to empathy
When you have a solid root “why,” you also have a story to tell.
Kale often counsels Get Seeded founders on their pitch decks, where he said it’s common to leave out personal details.
“I was working with a student who was prototyping gym equipment,” he said. “And his presentation was a bunch of numbers. This, of course, is great – you should definitely have the math in your decks. But what it was missing – what I knew he had – was a way for the audience to connect.”
Kale had the founder go through the process of finding his root “why,” which eventually produced a story about developing his product.
“He had been struggling at the gym,” Kale said. “He saw other people using a tool that he’d never seen before. Once he started using it, though, he realized it wasn’t as intuitive as it could have been – and he knew he could make a better one.”
Adding even this short story to his pitch gave it new life.
“Humans are very empathetic and social creatures,” Kale said. “Every dollar figure or fact you mention about your product should tie back to that ‘why.’ I’ve seen presentations side by side where both have strong data, by the one I’ll pick is the one I can empathize with – where I can hear the story of your root ‘why.’”
