Start with Why Book Description
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek is for anyone who wants to inspire others, or to be inspired.
Simon Sinek is a British-American author and motivational speaker. He is the author of five books, including Start With Why (2009) and The Infinite Game (2019).
Start with Why Book Review
The premise of the book is that human behaviours and actions can either be manipulated or inspired.
Behaviours can be manipulated through incentives or punishment. Manipulated behaviours produce short-lived outcomes and make relationships transactional.
Behaviours can also be inspired. When they are inspired, the results are long-lasting and inspire the loyalty of people, who will endure inconvenience and suffering, or pay a premium.
The author uses the concept of Golden Circle and how human brain works to explain how great leaders and organizations inspire action.
Golden Circle
(from the book Start with Why by Simon Sinek)
Most people know WHAT they do, some know HOW to do it, but very few know WHY they do it.
When most organizations or people think, act or communicate they do so from the outside in, from WHAT to WHY.
Inspiring leaders and successful organizations start inside-out – they begin with WHY they do what they do, then tell HOW they do, and then WHAT they do. The author explains this with the example of how Apple applies this in practice.
...message starts with WHY, a purpose, cause or belief that has nothing to do with WHAT they do. WHAT they do—the products they make, from computers to small electronics—no longer serves as the reason to buy, they serve as the tangible proof of their cause.
A communication approach, that puts the purpose, cause, or belief first engages like-minded people who identify themselves with the cause or belief and provides them a reason to stick around through ups and downs.
This has allowed organizations like Apple to continuously redefine WHAT they do and HOW they do it, while ensuring they stay loyal to their WHY.
People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.
Simon Sinek brings all of this to life with great examples of Wright Brothers, Apple, Martin Luther King Jr., Southwest airlines, and the Shackleton expedition to the South Pole.
Human Brain and WHY
Simon ties the Golden Circle with how the human brain works to drive human behaviour. This is the part of the book that makes it brilliant.
Humans, social animals as they are, have behaviours driven by a need for identity, a need to belong, and a need to have a purpose. We trust those with whom we share common values or beliefs.
The neocortex is part of the brain responsible for rational thought and communication. It corresponds with the WHAT.
The limbic brain is responsible for our feelings and emotions; it is the source of our gut-feel. The limbic brain, however, does not come with an ability to communicate well. That explains how we know the right decision or action to take, but cannot fully explain it. The limbic brain, which drives human behaviour and decision-making, corresponds with the WHY and HOW.
To inspire action, communication needs to appeal to the feelings and emotions (the limbic brain/WHY) and not just the rational part (neocortex/WHAT).
Great leaders inspire people by their clarity of WHY, by providing a sense of purpose and belonging to people with similar beliefs, and thus create a loyal group of followers. Loyal followers stick with the leader and organization for as long as their beliefs and purpose match.
Key takeaways from Start with Why
- Absent a WHY, a decision is harder to make. And when in doubt we look to science, to data, to guide decisions.
- A WHY is just a belief.
- Loyalty, real emotional value, exists in the brain of the buyer, not the seller.
- The ability to put a WHY into words provides the emotional context for decisions.
- Trust begins to emerge when we have a sense that another person or organization is driven by things other than their own self-gain.
- Value, by definition, is the transference of trust.
- Achievement comes when you pursue and attain WHAT you want. Success comes when you are clear in pursuit of WHY you want it.
- Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention.
I found the focus on Apple a bit excessive. Don’t get me wrong; the book is useful, and the examples bring it to life, but I just found it too long.
If you need the examples to make sense of the content, then I absolutely recommend reading the book. It is a quick read. If you don’t need examples, then the TED Talk below is more efficient in terms of time.
How Great Leaders Inspire Action – Ted Talk by Simon Sinek
One of the most watched TED Talks of all times with more than 47 million views at the time of writing this article.
The book is based on this TED Talk.
I am a fan of Simon’s talks and how he explains complex topics in a time efficient manner!
Start with Why Book Preview
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