"Why" is the key to success. Why dictates the How and the What that will deliver results.
There is a certain something that sets really great organizations apart from everyone else. Something that can turn “good” into “great” simply by recognizing it. It’s not a person or a place or a thing . . . it’s a reason.
Today’s medical marijuana marketplace consists of thousands of vendors and hundreds of thousands of patients. It can be very overwhelming to a new or struggling organization trying to establish itself among all the clamor. There is so much competition that even the most prominent of providers face hurdles maintaining a high level of visibility and interaction among the community. This fierce competition validates the need for a greater understanding of how success works, and the key elements to achieving a notable and lasting presence.
There are a thousand books defining success and at least as many strategies claiming to outline the path to greatness, unfortunately most of them miss the most important element, the element that makes everything else fall into place: Why. Why do you do what you do? It seems like a pretty elementary question, but you’d be surprised just how many people don’t have an answer. For the vast majority of the working public, their job is nothing more than a paycheck, which is ultimately a result and not a reason. Marketing guru turned activist Simon Sinek has made quite a bit of noise preaching the virtues of “Why?” and the natural consequences that follow it. In September of 2009 Simon addressed the TED conference and spoke about the great titans of industry and society such as Apple and Martin Luther King Jr. and made the argument that Why they did what they did is what makes them special. Why something is done will dictate how it is done and ultimately what the end result of that is. And the more a person or organization believes in that why, the more profound the results will be for everything that comes as a result of it.
This truth does not apply only to computer companies and social rights activists, it is every bit as relevant to the medical marijuana industry as any other. People might pay attention to you for a bit if you lure them and plead with them, but it won’t last long and doesn’t leave a lasting impression. The way to really attract the attention of people and convert them into loyal members or consumers is to appeal to their sense of why. When you appeal to a person’s sense of why, you create in that individual the association that they are interacting with you not because you asked them to via advertising or promotions, but because they want to due to a shared interest. If you’re Apple computers the reason you’re in business is because you are passionate about design and technology, and as a result your products reflect that and naturally appeal to hundreds of millions of people who are also passionate about design and technology. If you’re a collective owner, you should be passionate about organic medicine and the many positive ways it can affect peoples lives, as a result your organization will naturally attract people who feel the same and you will create a fundamental loyalty that no advertising campaign on earth can compete with. This is what separates ”the great ones”, what allows people to achieve extraordinary results: Doing something because they believe in it. If you’re doing what you’re doing because you’re passionate and you believe in it, you will achieve results beyond that of others who are simply in it for the results.
Why do you do what you do? It’s the question that inspired us to create 420 Web Pros and has led us to the point we’re at today, the industry’s #1 creative firm for web, print and branding! We started doing this because we felt passionate about the medical cannabis movement and the need for a re-branding of the whole industry. We felt that it was time for the world to take notice and recognize the legitimacy of marijuana as a medicine and an economic opportunity. Part of achieving that goal was recognizing and addressing the desperate need for professional design and branding in order to showcase how far cannabis has come since the days of Woodstock and VW buses. Marijuana producers and collectives have become a vibrant element of our local communities that are respected and embraced, and the branding surrounding these organizations should reflect the hard won legitimacy they have earned. Because we started with this philosophy as the backbone of our organization we’ve had a tremendous response from the medical marijuana industry, meeting people and gaining clients from all walks of life across the country. Even we didn’t anticipate the overwhelmingly positive and inviting nature of the reception we’ve received, which stands as a testament to the power of why! Like minded individuals and organizations have flocked toward our unique approach to medical marijuana marketing and medical marijuana web design and have joined our crusade to elevate the medical cannabis industry.
You can always tell the difference between someone who is involved for the results versus someone who is involved for the cause. A person who believes in what they’re doing will try harder, reach farther and dig deeper than any person who is simply being compensated to achieve, no matter the compensation. It is why grass-roots movements work, it’s how small companies achieve what multi-million dollar corporation are unable to do. It’s why two groups who do the same thing can have vastly different results. At 420 Web Pros, we are driven by why. It’s the reason we got in to this business and it’s the reason we’re #1.
