STUPID QUESTIONS 101: “Who?”

“Who are you?”

The Who liked this question so much, they used it as the title for a whole album back in 1978.

I find this is the essential starting point for starting any new venture. Whether it's commercial, charitable or purely personal, it is critical that you know who you are and who your organization is...or who you want it to be.

Of course there are two parts to this question. The first is “Who do I say that I am?”. The second is “Who do my actions say that I am?” It is critical that we ask and honestly answer both these questions. For too many of us, the answers will be on different ends of the spectrum...who we think we are (or wish or want to be) is nowhere near the reality of who our behavior say we are.

I was halfway around the world leading my first foreign sales effort the first time I faced a situation that offered me a clear choice between putting my morals aside and “going with the flow” or living up to the moral and ethical standards.

I won't give any specific details here, but I will say that (to my eternal shame) I didn't even realize I had made an unethical decision until I offered the same choice to a colleague who had accompanied me. As I was explaining the situation to him, a look of disgust crossed his face and before I could finish he said “What the hell is wrong with you? This company doesn't do that! That's not who we are!”

I can still see his face and still hear the shock in his voice, more than 20 years later. His statement has stuck with me ever since..and, thankfully, has kept me from making similar compromises on many, many occasions.

That one instance made it frighteningly clear to me just how important this question is to each and every one of us...and how easy it is to completely miss the implications of seemingly mundane decisions we face each and every day.

Know who you are....and live the life you profess. It makes the world a much simpler place.


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If you need help figuring out who you are, Let me help. Leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.