The Why not the What

I recently stumbled on an inspirational speaker who talks about achieving success in leadership by always leading with the why and not with the what.  I realized that he was right, and also that this is something I have done all my life, but have been lost in translation trying to provide the what.  Let me explain.  For as long as I can remember I have loved learning because it expands my perceptions and beautifies this experience called life so much more greatly than any other task we can occupy ourselves with.  I love reading the thoughts of brilliant men and women.  However, when talking education with someone the one thing they ask is not the why but the what.  What is/was your major of study?  What kind of money can you get from that?  What kind of power or prestige can you get from that?  etc.  No one has ever understood that I learn because I have a belief that learning is the largest contributor to beauty in this world.  They have difficulty understanding someone who will research just because they truly want to know something.  I have encountered individuals who have asked me what I hoped to gain from this or that, and the reality was I was gaining vision, sight, beauty.  They were interested in the tangible and I the intangible.  One thing I have not embraced fully is learning through experience.  I would prefer to learn from others experiences and not put myself to far out there where I would be forced to sacrifice the comfort of being able to not commit to something.  Not that I haven't taken on plenty of causes because I have, and I will commit to a person, an employer etc.  No, I am talking about committing to myself that I will try something and allow myself to fail.  That if I were to fail I commit to cleaning up the mess, and then to forgiving myself and moving forward.  Everyone talks about Thomas Edison and his 2000 times of making the light bulb.  I am not someone who could say "O.K. that didn't work, lets try something else"  when it comes to life.  There is evidence of this in the fact that I married at 18, have only ever been with one man, refused to leave a religion that was hurting me and I found hypocritical, allowed a portion of my choices to be dictated by others and secretly wonder if what others believe about me is accurate.  Well, part of becoming sentient is taking responsibility and owning who we are, and committing to invest ourselves in things we believe may be rewarding or may be giant flops.  To be successful we need to know the Why though.  I have several why's that I need to fully address and understand.  They are core beliefs and they dominate my actions so becoming self aware in this manner is key to change and awareness.  This should be a fun process.  What about you?  Do you know WHY you do the things you do?  If not, you should begin searching like me.