Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

by Simon Sinek

This book is about a naturally occurring pattern, a way of thinking, acting and communicating that gives some leaders the ability to inspire those around them.

Rather, I wrote this book as a guide to focus on and amplify the things that do work.

On December 17, 1903, a small group witnessed a man take flight for the first time in history.

Only the Wright brothers started with Why.

But Martin Luther King Jr. had a gift. He knew how to inspire people.

There are leaders and there are those who lead.

Great leaders, in contrast, are able to inspire people to act. Those who are able to inspire give people a sense of purpose or belonging that has little to do with any external incentive or benefit to be gained. Those who truly lead are able to create a following of people who act not because they were swayed, but because they were inspired. For those who are inspired, the motivation to act is deeply personal. They are less likely to be swayed by incentives. Those who are inspired are willing to pay a premium or endure inconvenience, even personal suffering. Those who are able to inspire will create a following of people—supporters, voters, customers, workers—who act for the good of the whole not because they have to, but because they want to.

What if we could all learn to think, act and communicate like those who inspire?

The point is, we make assumptions. We make assumptions about the world around us based on sometimes incomplete or false information.

This is important because our behavior is affected by our assumptions or our perceived truths. We make decisions based on what we think we know.

Whatever the result, we make decisions based on a perception of the world that may not, in fact, be completely accurate.

Not only bad decisions are made on false assumptions. Sometimes when things go right, we think we know why, but do we really? That the result went the way you wanted does not mean you can repeat it over and over.

In other words, most companies have no clue why their customers are their customers.

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

Fear, real or perceived, is arguably the most powerful manipulation of the lot.

When fear is employed, facts are incidental.

“Quitting smoking is the easiest thing I’ve ever done,” said Mark Twain. “I’ve done it hundreds of times.”

aspirational messages tempt us toward something desirable.

It’s those who don’t have the lifestyle that are most susceptible.

This short-term response to long-term desires is alive and well in the corporate world also.

Just like the habitual dieter, “they never have the time or money to do it right the first time,” she said of her client, “but they always have the time and money to do it again.”

Like so many before it, the company confused innovation with novelty.

Real innovation changes the course of industries or even society.

They are added in an attempt to differentiate, but not reinvent.

I cannot dispute that manipulations work. Every one of them can indeed help influence behavior and every one of them can help a company become quite successful. But there are trade-offs. Not a single one of them breeds loyalty.

For transactions that occur an average of once, carrots and sticks are the best way to elicit the desired behavior.

In any circumstance in which a person or organization wants more than a single transaction, however, if there is a hope for a loyal, lasting relationship, manipulations do not help.

There are a few leaders who choose to inspire rather than manipulate in order to motivate people.

The Golden Circle shows how these leaders were able to inspire action instead of manipulating people to act.

WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. When I say WHY, I don’t mean to make money—that’s a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

This time, the example starts with WHY.

When communicating from the inside out, however, the WHY is offered as the reason to buy and the WHATs serve as the tangible proof of that belief. The things we can point to rationalize or explain the reasons we’re drawn to one product, company or idea over another.

Why, then, does Apple have such a disproportionate level of success?

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. This is the reason Apple has earned a remarkable level of flexibility.

It is WHY they do it. Their products give life to their cause.

Everything they do works to demonstrate their WHY, to challenge the status quo.

What’s more, where most technology companies saw their biggest marketing opportunity among businesses, Apple wanted to give an individual sitting at home the same power as any company. Apple’s WHY, to challenge the status quo and to empower the individual, is a pattern in that it repeats all they say and do. It comes to life in their iPod and even more so in iTunes, a service that challenged the status quo of the music industry’s distribution model and was better suited to how individuals consumed music.

And the mp3 not only changed where we listened to music, it also transformed us from an album-collecting culture to a song-collecting culture.

Apple did not invent the mp3, nor did they invent the technology that became the iPod, yet they are credited with transforming the music industry with it.

Creative was more qualified than Apple to introduce a digital music product. The problem was, they advertised their product as a “5GB mp3 player.” It is exactly the same message as Apple’s “1,000 songs in your pocket.” The difference is Creative told us WHAT their product was and Apple told us WHY we needed it.

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

The same cannot be said for companies with a fuzzy sense of WHY. When an organization defines itself by WHAT it does, that’s all it will ever be able to do.

Apple, unlike its competitors, has defined itself by WHY it does things, not WHAT it does.

Apple even changed its legal name in 2007 from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc. to reflect the fact that they were more than just a computer company.

Apple’s WHY was formed at its founding in the late 1970s and hasn’t changed to this date.

Knowing WHY is essential for lasting success and the ability to avoid being lumped in with others.

The more we treat them like commodities, the more they focus on WHAT and HOW they do it. It’s a vicious cycle.

But only companies that act like commodities are the ones who wake up every day with the challenge of how to differentiate. Companies and organizations with a clear sense of WHY never worry about it. They don’t think of themselves as being like anyone else and they don’t have to “convince” anyone of their value. They don’t need complex systems of carrots and sticks. They are different, and everyone knows it. They start with WHY in everything they say and do.

Apple didn’t invent the lifestyle, nor does it sell a lifestyle. Apple is simply one of the brands that those who live a certain lifestyle are drawn to.

The products they choose become proof of WHY they do the things they do. It is only because Apple’s WHY is so clear that those who believe what they believe are drawn to them.