Leadership Lessons: The Importance of having a big “WHY”

Let’s talk mental health, resilience, and the importance of having a big “why.” 

You may have noticed a theme so far: Entrepreneurship is not an easy journey. It can be long and lonely.

Radical ownership is key to moving forward from mistakes, and managing your mental health is vital to winning the long game. (And it is a long, long game.) 

But what about those moments when you feel defeated or struggle to find the energy to take action?

This is when you come back to your “WHY.” 

Your “why” is your sense of purpose, your motivation, your cause, or whatever drives you to pursue your goals. It’s your core belief or the passion that fuels you. 

Most importantly, your “why” is what propels you forward when you feel lost or stuck. 

When combined with radical ownership, with a big enough "why" I believe you can overcome any challenge.

I believe this because I have lived it over and over. My “why” has lifted me out of my darkest times and helped me forge through my hardest struggles. It still drives me every day.

But finding my “why” was a journey in itself. 

In 2009 and 2010 I faced total financial and economic collapse after multiple businesses had failed. 

I was also grappling with lifelong health struggles. I’ve suffered from recurrent chronic gut health, immunity, and sleep issues since I was young. 

I decided that I was going to rebuild everything in my life by focusing on my passion: health and fitness. Focusing on one thing. How could I help other people take ownership of their own health in pursuit of a healthy, happy spectacular life? 

I had the beginnings of a “why.” Health was my passion project and it would become my life’s work. AG1 as a business was born. 

In those difficult days, I had several massive, overwhelming goals. I had a resolute commitment to pay everyone back, to make AG1 a beautiful do-good business that truly added value to our customer’s lives, to rebuild my health and relationships, and to give purpose to my life. 

But I realized that all of the goals were really about happiness. 

I became extremely focused on that much bigger “why” – to be happy.

I didn’t want to be on my deathbed looking back at my life with regret. 

My “why:” I wanted to live my One Spectacular Life with no regrets, to live a life with joy and purpose and meaning, to be happy! And to help others do the same. 

Having this “why” was incredibly important. It drove me to ownership, action, resilience and a life built on joy and making an impact. 

One Spectacular Life is a key value at AG1 and it has become my ultimate lens and driver. 

In fact, my mantra “100% Focus on Happiness” was so integral to everything I did that for years I had it on our website, on all our products and signing off every email. 

I’ll share more about the foundation of AG1 in a future post, but none of it would have been possible without the “why.”

Of all the decisions I have made in my life, I am most proud of how at the very very bottom, I focused on what I would be most proud to build, and what would make the most difference to people’s lives.

What is your “why”?