Why?

I was recently introduced to the work of Simon Sinek and his ever-popular 2010 Ted talk: Start With Why (has over 14 million views).  Simon’s basic premise is that great leaders, great businesses start with why and work their way out to how and then to what.  Not the other way around.  Of course, I screamed “Yes” when I watched and it resonated with all that I am trying to help creative business owners achieve.  People buy the why and pay for the rest.  The what (i.e., the stuff) you create is a mere sub-set of the why.  Simon gives terrific examples of failures (TiVo) and successes (Apple) and I highly recommend you watch Simon’s talk and/or read his book.

Synchronicity is a wonderful thing.  At the same moment I was watching Simon, a Facebook thread was going on with wedding photographers and someone recommended my blog.  So kind.  The response back though was that I was just providing inspiration and my words were not germane to the discussion about how to make more money as a wedding photographer.

First, I was angry and felt slighted.  Hey, I am human.  I even went so far as to advise the person who recommended my blog that she point the thread to my articles on Design Aglow (which I am really proud of) and to my post, ironically enough, “The Why”.  That should show them.  Thank goodness she did not.

Then I stopped.  I realized that my words are out there for those to take any way they want.  My why is to inspire those who create art for a living to be the best version of themselves; to have the creative business behind the art be a direct reflection of the art it creates.  I wish for every creative business to see themselves as the iconoclasts they are.  And act like it.   Start with why.

To be clear though, I do have a very specific position that does run counter to most traditional business models.  Even if you start with the why, you will lose if your pricing is based on the tangible, the objective.  You might be able to extract a premium for your product but it will be capped by what the market might “allow”.  Apple would love to charge $10,000 for an IPhone, but no one would buy it.  Moreover, since the cost of the tangible is forever falling today, so too will be the absolute dollars you can make if all you do is a attach a premium to the tangible.  You have to get paid for the why – specifically.  The why is the subjective and is uncapped.  It is uncapped because, in the subjective, you are a market of one.  You have to get what you need in order to do what you do, no more, no less.  Your clients will pay you the cost of the subjective because they believe in what you and your creative business offer separate and apart from anyone else.  What is between your ears and what drives you is and will be far more important than anything you might do between your hands.

So to those who hear my message as be the best you can be, awesome.  It is just that you have not heard the hard part: being your best means that you are not able to compromise, shade the truth or accept those projects that make it impossible for you to deliver your best.  No short cuts, no trap doors, no traps.  You have to be outrageous with what you need and want.  However, you also have to be able to support your why with far more than, “because that is the way we do it…”  Or worse, because that is the way the industry works.  Every creative business that uses “packages” should take them out back and shoot them in the head.  Then shoot them again just to make sure they are dead.  You have to be able to prove, yes prove, that your way is the best way you know how to do your best today.

Starting with why is mandatory for creative business.  Living your why in every molecule and moment of your art and your creative business, this is the work.