Why should I do business with you?
Sarah Jons 
Why should I do business with you? Why is there something rather than nothing? We inhabit a universe with such things as spiral galaxies
Why should I do business with you? Why is there something rather than nothing? We inhabit a universe with such things as spiral galaxies, the aurora borealis and Justin Bieber. Why? Good question. I love Simon Sinek’s beautifully explained ‘Starting with Why?’ In his book and brilliant Ted Talk, he uses examples such as Apple, Martin Luther King and the Wright brothers to dissect the power of knowing your business purpose. If you haven’t seen his Ted Talk on the Golden Circle, stop right now and watch it. Every business owner needs to understand this simple message:
People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.
I adore this simple paradigm about business success. With that in mind I was excited to sit down and watch the new series ‘Human Universe’, a televisual spectacular on the BBC, presented by the ever-lovely Professor Brian Cox. First broadcast on 21st Oct 2014 he tackles the question that unites the 7 billion people on Earth: Why are we here?
Prof Cox reveals how the wonderful complexity of nature and human life is simply the consequence of chance events constrained by the laws of physics that govern our universe. But this leads him to a deeper question – why does our universe seem to have been set up with just the right rules to create us? I am usually allergic to tales of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and the Ascent of Man, but I thought – and hoped – that we’d outgrown the idea of evolution as a linear narrative leading from primordial soup to astronauts. In a dizzying conclusion he unpacks this question, revealing the very latest understanding of how the universe came to be this way, and in doing so offers a radical new answer to why we are here.
But why is there something rather than nothing? This is one of the harder philosophical and empirical questions to answer. In fact there are two questions here. One question is, within some framework of physical laws that is flexible enough to allow for the possible existence of either ‘stuff’ or ‘no stuff’ (where ‘stuff’ might include space and time itself), why does the actual manifestation of reality seem to feature all this ‘stuff’? The other is, why do we have this particular framework of physical law, or even something called physical law at all?
In Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, the extraordinary Michael Palin is handed an envelope containing ‘the meaning of life’, which he opens and reads out to the audience:
‘Well, it’s nothing very special. Uh, try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.’
Questions about the meaning of life have been expressed in a broad variety of ways through history, including the following:
- What is the meaning of life?
- What’s it all about?
- Who are we?
- Why are we here?
- What are we here for?
- What is the origin of life?
- What is the nature of life?
- What is the nature of reality?
- What is the purpose of life?
- What is the purpose of one’s life?
- What is the significance of life
- What is meaningful and valuable in life?
- What are we living for?
If you were to change those questions to be ones asked about your business or company, would you be clearer about your business ‘Why’?
We are probably unique in the Universe, according to Professor Cox. It also appears that there is a set of fundamental physical constants that are such that had they been very slightly different, the universe would have been void of intelligent life. It’s as if we’re balancing on a knife’s edge. Through our understanding of the Big Bang theory (which was met with much skepticism when first introduced), current physics can describe the early universe from 10−43 seconds after that time (where zero time corresponds to infinite temperature); a theory of quantum gravity would be required to understand events before that time. And the ultimate fate of the universe, and implicitly humanity, is hypothesised as one in which biological life will eventually become unsustainable, such as through a Big Freeze, Big Rip, or Big Crunch. Or maybe, as Cipher said after eating a piece of simulated steak in The Matrix,‘Ignorance is bliss.’
Of course these why questions don’t exist in a vacuum; they only make sense within some explanatory context. If we ask ‘why did the chicken cross the road?’ we understand that there are things called roads with certain properties, and things called chickens with various goals and motivations, and things that might be on the other side of the road, or other beneficial aspects of crossing it.
In Douglas Adams’ book, movie, television, and radio series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is given the numeric solution 42 after seven and a half million years of calculation by a giant supercomputer called Deep Thought. When this answer is met with confusion and anger from its constructors, Deep Thought explains that,
‘I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is’.
So the next time someone asks, ‘Why should I do business with you?’ perhaps you could say with confidence…
- We exude passion in everything we do
- We risk more than is required
- We learn more than is normal
- We speak our truth and live our values
- We laugh, cry, innovate and simplify
- We adore mastery and aim for genius
- We try to stay humble
- We are kinder than expected
- We deliver more than is needed
- We shatter limits and transcend fears
- We inspire others
- We started small and dream bigger
- We will act now and are not stopping
- We will change the world
That’s it.
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