Why?

The essence of applied laziness can be distilled to one word: "Why?" While the lazy man asks, "Why do I have to do anything?" the Lazy (note the capital "L." Thanks, Fools.) man asks, "Why am I doing this?"

"Why?" separates the wheat from the chaff. It divides the world into Things I Do Because They Make Sense and Things I Do Because I Have To (aka, Things I Will Only Do if You Make Me). When answered, "Why?" gives purpose to a man's actions, direction to his steps. The man who knows why will not only work to the best of his abilities, but will vigorously defend his choices against all doubters. Knowing why gives you purpose, which every person needs in every aspect of their lives to be both happy and successful.

The time spent asking why pays incredible dividends. It keeps you away from the dead ends and false trails that waste so much of our time every day. Those who don't take the time to ask why spend five times the effort delivering things that no one wants, writing papers that no one reads, or scheduling meetings that no one wants to attend. They fill their days with busyness, but never get down to business. They run like madmen toward a perceived goal, thrilled to be making such great time even if it's in the wrong direction. If you don't ask why, you may meet all your commitments only to find that you have failed anyway. You will give people what they asked for, but not what they needed.

"Why?" has received a bad rap in recent years. When everyone is working on "Internet time," the person who asks why is perceived as a slacker, or worse, an obstacle to progress. "Just Do It," is the answer, "We don't have time to talk about it anymore." But if anything exemplifies the dangers of not asking why, it's the Internet boom. Here are some questions that I bet some investors wish they had asked about 4 years ago:

• Why would people pay shipping on a 50-lb. bag of dog food when they can get it from the grocery store?


• Why do you think people will pay you for something they can get for free elsewhere?


• Why is a company with no profits and no prospects worth $1 billion?


• Why do you think that idea will make money?

A few well-answered whys could have saved everyone a lot of trouble.

To be sure, "Why?" can't always be answered right away, and a fanatical search for ever-deeper levels of "Why?" can result in the infamous analysis paralysis. But the fear of paralysis shouldn't completely overshadow the value of analysis.


A man without an organized system of thought will always be at the mercy of the man who has one. -- Edwin Cole


Here's how to ask "Why?" effectively: keep asking until you're satisfied that the answer you receive justifies the effort it implies. If you're trying to decide what you want for dinner, simply knowing that fried yucca plant sounds good is probably enough. If you're about to start a $2 million dollar project, then you better know that it will contribute at least that much to your company's core value in a sustainable fashion.

I have seen companies spend millions of dollars because "our competitors already have it," even when the thing they were building was outside their corporate mission, detracted from their primary source of revenue, and was completely outside their ability to maintain. Someone really should have asked why again.

Properly asking why entails both persistence and discernment. You have to ask the question enough times and in enough different ways that you get real answers every time. Otherwise, it can quickly become a conversation with a three-year-old:

"Why does that happen?"
[long involved answer]
"But why?"
[another long involved answer]
"Why?"
"Because that's the way it is."
"Why?"
"Because I said so. Eat your dinner."

One of these days, I'll talk about some of the kinds of "Why?" questions to ask when you really want to be Lazy.