Why?

 Why do you do what you do?

Author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek spoke at a TEDx Talk back in 2009 about "How great leaders inspire action". This video has (at the time of writing) been watched 65 and a half million times, and that tells me that man has something noteworthy to say, and we should listen.

I've watched it about 15 of those 65.5 million times, but I need to remind myself every so often that I need to hear it all again. If you haven't seen it yet, go - I'll wait.

Right - 

So I ask again -   Why do you do what you do?

Truth be told - I haven't figured it out yet either. I like to think that I do what I do because I'm making people's lives better in a fairly practical, albeit superficial way. (If you don't know what I do - here you go.) Why, is another story. But then, I say to myself, if I didn't offer insight and specialist knowledge about lighting and light engineering, many people would live, work and socialize in ugly or unfriendly environments. I'm not the only specialist; there are an increasing amount of illumination engineers in the world. Many I know complete the qualification to supplement either an electrical engineering degree or improve their design and architecture skills. Some even do it just to be better salespeople. 

I did it - why?

I'm originally an interior designer by training - a fallback to stage management and set design (which, ironically, I do now anyway as a hobby). The design was easy for me - I wasn't very good at it day-to-day - but I have an affinity for it, no question. Life happened, and I pivoted a little bit off course - office managing and admin, then freelance bookkeeping, then more on-contract office work, but that time for a lighting supplier. You could say this is where the path started to right itself.

I have always been passionate about lighting.  I recall a conversation I had with a new acquaintance sometime around 2006 (it was a friend's 21st birthday) and I remember I talked and talked and talked about how important it was to get the lighting right, but that was a segue from why I was explaining interior design is important. Excellent interior design can look rubbish if you get the lighting wrong. Likewise, a very simple, bare, low-budget space, can have excellent ambiance if you get the lighting right. 

It's both a science and an art. It's an intangible aspect in design that can influence humans on a physiological level, and can alter your mood, your hormones, sleep cycles, and animal and plant life - but no one seems to quite get how important it can be.

I meet clients and professionals alike every month who say they know the lights are important "but we don't have the budget. Just do the basics, we can change it later if we want to." They never change it.

The client seldom knows he can change it - that choosing a warm white lamp compared to a cool white lamp costs nothing extra at the time - that having a light fitting with a replaceable lamp is cheaper and more maintenance friendly over time - but all haste and no money. It's the worst part of any project, and I've actually taken the decision to decline projects when I see that's the course of action. 

Talk about a tangent...  Much like in 2006, I get very impassioned about lighting and its place in our day to day, and I can go on. So - why do I do this?

I run a business to make money, pay my mortgage and feed my dogs. I sell lights and light bulbs because that's the product of my industry. Every so often I do a pure design, and that always feels like a small victory, because that one client gets it.

I suppose this article won't give me my Why. It's helping to figure out why I run my business differently to other lighting suppliers. It's helping me to understand why I focus on new prototypes and always tell clients "yes, of course I can get that for you". It's why I have greater discounts for Community Projects, (education, healthcare and places of faith). It's why I prefer to collaborate with smaller design studios, assisting architects and designers, rather than focussing on the larger, established companies with deep-pocketed clients. 

I don't yet know quite why I do what I do. Do you?