“The key is to figure out the point”

“What’s the point?”

What’s the big why in everything we do, read, buy, choose…?

I’m nearing the end of Essentialism, the book by Greg McKeown, and even though I’ve read it three times by now, I’ll be re-reading it a fourth time.

I learn plenty of things each time, but there’s this one thing that keeps on giving.

The point

Why do we do business? We might think it’s for money, for freedom. But if that’s the only reason we do business, it’d get pretty boring.

No, the point of business is solving problems, to help humans.

So when we think about our products and offering, when we need to find clients and market it, we have to figure out the point of it. And why now?

If, like me, you’re passionate about work motivation, the point is not to offer another personality test that increases a vague context of motivation. There might be business value, but there’s no problem.

Everyone wants more motivation, but no one will make a point of it until it hurts. And it only hurts when there’s burn-out, bore-out, people leaving companies… essentially when it’s ‘too late’, when the urgency can no longer be ignored.

I like to use the following questions to figure out the point. Each question deserves multiple answers, and the best answer across categories wins to create offerings.

1/ Where does it hurt?

• Don’t forget who’s the human hurting

2/ Why does it hurt now, or often?

• ‘Now’ wins the sales conversation

• ‘Recurring’ is for marketing

3/ How can the solution hurt less than the problem?

• Think of existing habits to lock into

• The answer must be so simple you think it hurts you