Why do we race? (Gaga-fied.)

Silly question, I know. We race to win. Obviously.

It’s like asking why you go to a bar, right? Most people would say the answer is to drink.

But that’s only partially correct. It’s cheaper and easier to drink at home, where you don’t have to tip the bartender or find a taxi.

We drink in bars because we want to interact with people. We choose one bar over another because we want to be associated with the other types of people that chose that same bar.

We don’t drink in bars because we want to drink. We drink in bars for all of the other reasons.

The choices we make go beyond the obvious, logical, need-based reasons.

It’s easy, looking at racing from the outside, to assume why one races. There are so many apparent reasons. But at the core of it all, we could achieve the same things with other activities that didn’t cost as much, weren’t as dangerous and didn’t require a heavy time commitment.

So why do we do it?

At the most basic level, drivers race to win.

But the desire to win comes from a different place in all of us.

For some, it’s for the applause (applause, applause ← there it is! The Lady Gaga moment. Don’t resist.)  For others, it’s the look of pride on their father’s face. The victory lane pictures they can post on Facebook. The kids that ask for their autograph. The feeling of satisfaction when they’ve proven the voice in their head wrong.

The answer is different for everyone.

But why does it matter?

At the end of the day, we need to pay for it all. We need to be able to fund our reason to race. And that happens primarily through winnings and sponsors.

Knowing why you race is one of the first steps in knowing why someone would sponsor you. And knowing why they would sponsor you is one of the fundamental steps in knowing who you should approach and how.

So, why do you race?

xo.

Kristin