The WHY Gives Us Context - Simon Sinek

 A good example of what a WHY sounds like I'll tell you a story. I did some work with the Disney Imagineers. These are the people who build all the rides, design all the parades, all the shows, the boats, everything like that.

Everything that's not a movie or merchandising, basically the Imagineers invent it, build it, design it.

And I was giving a talk about the WHY and the Golden Circle to the Imagineers, and somebody asked the same question, which is "Can you give us an example of what a WHY looks like or sounds like?" 

So, I picked a random person in the audience and I asked him to give me a specific story that helps me understand, that really captures what he loves about being an Imagineer.

And he told a story you have to appreciate that, he told over the course of seven minutes. Maybe basically how he was the lead engineer on a ride, and he went to. I should preempt with, I should tell you this that he didn't know this and I found out later that his nickname at the office was "ice chips" because he was cold and everything well he's an engineer. 

So, everything was exact, and just sort of not the most emotional guy. So, they called him Ice Chips this was his nickname behind his back.

So, I called on Ice Chips by accident and he told the story, of how there was a new ride that was opening that he was the lead engineer, and he saw a guy in a wheelchair, and his daughter heading towards the ride to try it out for the first time, and one of the things, that occurred to him was that anywhere else, in the world. People see a guy in a wheelchair with his daughter.

Only at Disneyland, the only thing people see is a father and his daughter going to Disneyland. And he says that's what it means to him to work for this organization. 

That it's about parents and children, and family, and brothers, and sisters, and boyfriends, and girlfriends, and husbands, and wives, and every combination of family, that we can come up with and that's all. There are just those relationships. 

And that's why everything was so exact to him. And in an instant, we were all crying and it was a beautiful story. But in an instant, everybody understood why he was always so hard about everything because to him those were the stakes. 

They had to make things that made people feel that they were just a father and a daughter and that nothing else mattered. It was pretty amazing. And it gave everybody context everybody fell in love with him that day.