Renowned speaker and author Simon Sinek is perhaps best known for inspiring people to focus on the concept of WHY.

The founder of The Optimism Company, Sinek’s website describes him as an “unshakeable optimist” who believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together – a philosophy rooted in finding your “why” – the deep-seated purpose, cause or belief that inspires you and all you do.

This philosophy was evident throughout our recent graduation of our 43rd class of Leadership Overland Park (LOP). Every year I think this is the best class ever as I’m struck by the talent, passion and commitment of the leaders in our community.

The class elected Trent Boultinghouse as its class speaker. He noted that the commonality in each of the 10 sessions was growth, learning how this community was built and why people come here.

With that perspective, he shared this, “While the city modernizes and grows around us, I believe the story of Overland Park is still the story of this state: yes, our GDP helps raise the economic tide westward, far from our boundaries, but as LOP has taught me – this area has opportunities for any flavor one can desire . . . But we must not take this community we worked so hard to build together for granted; the city’s high quality of life we learned about this year requires our continuous action.”

Our keynote speaker was Tom Herzog, COO at Netsmart Technologies. Aside from his day job, Tom is a highly engaged civic leader, and as one of the steering committee members of ForwardOP, lives Overland Park’s vision of being innovative, forward-thinking and welcoming. While I could listen to Tom talk about leadership all day, he challenged us to not just find our why, but to live our why. In doing that, we will be the difference makers we need in our community.