Know Your Why

In January 1994, Smajo Bešo was eight years old, living under siege in Mostar, Bosnia. His family were starving. His father was in a concentration camp. Bombs fell on the city every night. And then, in a single moment, everything he believed about the world collapsed.

“In that moment I lost all faith in humanity. I didn’t believe there was any good left in this world. How could there be, when we were being hunted like this? That moment became the foundation of everything I have spent my life trying to understand.”

Everything can be taken from a human being. Freedom. Dignity. The people they love. The life they knew. Everything, except one thing. The last of the human freedoms. The freedom to choose your attitude in any given set of circumstances. To choose your own way.

This is not a talk about resilience. It is not a talk about surviving. It is a talk about the deepest question every human being faces, especially in moments of pressure, loss, and uncertainty: what is this for?

This talk gives leaders a way of identifying their own why and deciding what it asks of them as a leader.

Why hire Smajo for this

The most extreme test of meaning imaginable.

Smajo’s mother found meaning inside the worst experience a human being can face, not after it, not despite it, but inside it. That is not a metaphor for difficult quarters or organisational change. It is the real thing. And it changes how every person in the room thinks about their own situation.

Purpose as a choice, not a discovery.

Most talks about meaning and purpose position it as something to be found. This talk argues that it is something to be chosen, especially under pressure. Audiences leave with a clear way of making that choice, not just an inspiring story about someone else who did.

Directly relevant to wellbeing and leadership development.

This talk is built for organisations where people are experiencing genuine pressure, loss, or uncertainty, not just looking for motivation. It speaks to NHS teams, leadership development cohorts, and any organisation where the human cost of the work is real and visible.

Trusted by senior audiences.

Smajo doesn’t speak about meaning and purpose theoretically. He found his own why inside the most extreme circumstances a human being can face and has spent two decades helping others find theirs, across NHS leadership teams, government, universities, and national commemorations. Awarded an OBE by King Charles in 2023 for services to genocide and Holocaust education. Speaker at Parliament, the Cabinet Office, and the House of Lords.

Your audience will leave with

• Leaders who can hold their people through loss and uncertainty because they have already chosen what this moment asks of them

• A personal process for choosing what this moment asks of you, rather than waiting for the pressure to pass before you decide what it meant

• Greater resilience and leadership clarity in the face of loss, uncertainty, or organisational change rooted in the human capacity to choose your response, not just manage it

• A named personal why and a clear understanding of what it demands of them as a leader, not just as an individual

Popular topics within this talk

What meaning actually is and where it comes from

Meaning is not something that happens to you. It is something you choose. This talk reframes the entire conversation about purpose from a search into a decision and gives people a clear way of making that decision under the conditions that actually matter.

Resilience rooted in meaning, not management

This talk teaches people to mean something, to themselves and to the people they lead. That is a different kind of durability, and a more honest one.

Why is the question behind every leadership decision

Leaders who know their why make better decisions under pressure, hold their people more securely, and lead with more conviction. This talk gives leaders a structured process for finding and naming that why, not as a slogan but as a working principle.

Leadership in the face of loss and uncertainty

Some of the most important leadership moments happen when an organisation is going through something genuinely hard redundancies, failure, grief, change that costs people something real. This talk gives leaders the tools to hold their people through those moments.

Working with Smajo

Smajo works closely with event organisers to make sure the talk lands in your specific context. This talk is available as a 60-minute keynote or a 90-minute extended format with structured reflection time. It also pairs naturally with a half-day training session.

Get in touch to check availability, discuss fees, or talk through whether this is the right fit.

© 2026 Smajo Beso OBE