I have been a proponent for a strong “why” for quite some time but I never really understood how powerful the why can be until I recently spent a week in Guatemala.

I was part of a team of about 200 working with John Maxwell’s non-profit EQUIP organization working with the Guatemalan Government to train their educators, public servants and business professionals in personal growth and leadership skills.

About a year ago I discovered my why and have been living it ever since.  It is based around building up people, making a difference and creating a legacy.  All of which I view as success.

Last week we collectively trained about 24,000 willing and wanting Guatemalan’s.  The difference was that their why was not about success, it was about survival.

Guatemala is a Country that has long suffered from poor, and at sometimes, no leadership.  We saw the difficult living conditions that many of the locals live in and we barely ventured into the “bad” areas.

Fifty percent of Guatemalan children are malnourished.  There are 140,000 residents newly available to the job market each year with only 20,000 jobs available.  Their 360,000 orphans would equate to over 7 million in the United States.

The average age of a Guatemalan is 20.  They simply do not grow old due to health issues and living conditions.  We were told of areas in which open air sewers are within feet of water sources.

I realize that if you are reading this, you probably have an idea of the plight facing third world countries but as I look around in my own Country, I can’t help but be confused as to why most people struggle to identify their why.

There is not an industrialized nation on this planet that does not suffer, but at the end of the day, we have a system that will for the most part, provide for most of our needs.

I wonder if this is why we struggle to know our why.  Maybe it’s because we don’t have to.  We just go through life allowing it to happen to us because we can.  We don’t need a why to survive.  All we need is a where and someone else will figure out the how for us.

Have we taken away the requirement of having a why?  Do we not need a purpose?  I watched lives change before my eyes and grown men cry because they understood that their why could make things better.  Better for their children, their community and their Country.

I have a new understanding of the power of why now.  Our why is not about what we do or what we know, it’s about who we are.  24,000 Guatemalan’s were empowered last week by 200 people from across the globe who had a strong enough why of their own to do something to make a difference.  I believe they now have a strong enough why that the how will take care of itself.

So a simple question that probably has a much more complicated answer.  “What’s your why?”

Tonight at 7:00 pm EST, I will be co-hosting a tweet chat in the #leadwithgiants G+ community titled “Start With Why”.  If you would like to participate, go to www.oneqube.com, log in with your twitter account and enter #leadwtihgiants in the “hashtag to focus on box.”  Hope to see you there!

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Barry Smith    6/24/13   photo by author   © Building What Matters 2013