What is the big idea in what you do? In why you do it? In how you do it?

Ask most business people those three questions and you get three answers:

Money
Money
Money

And those answers happen to be:

Wrong
Wrong
Wrong

Money is the sustainer. It allows you to accomplish the big idea, it isn’t THE big idea. People say they know that, but their actions belie their words.
Ask the question again and you’ll probably get three different answers:

What = Product

Why = Profit

How = Position

These are better answers. Yet, I still believe we’re missing the boat. Product, profit and position are important, but when we bury our noses in them and make them the focus… they become distractions from the big ideas.

Is the difficulty of the juggling the focus, or is the big idea in the connection people make?

(hat tip: Seth Godin)