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

by Simon Sinek

Book Overview

The inspirational bestseller that ignited a movement and asked us to find our WHY

Discover the book that is captivating millions on TikTok and that served as the basis for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time--with more than 56 million views and counting. Over a decade ago, Simon Sinek started a movement that inspired millions to demand purpose at work, to ask what was the WHY of their organization. Since then, millions...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591842808
• ISBN13: 9781591842804
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Portfolio
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

One of the best books I have ever read!

Whether you are going through a personal or professional shift, this book is an excellent resource to begin the conversation of understanding why your why is so important.

You'll be OK with skipping this one

It's a good idea, but I abhor Simon Sinek's style of writing. I also feel as if the book itself suffers from some fundamental flaws that I couldn't ignore. The main idea is to lead with a purpose. Lead with Pathos over Logos, emotion over logic, and people will follow you. An understandable concept, and I enjoyed some of his examples. Yet I felt as if this book was not scientific in its approach at all. Sinek seems to suffer from a strong form of confirmation/survivorship bias. There's several do-good companies that fail because their business model didn't work. We still see these today. Yet, in this book, we don't hear about the people who failed. We hear about the people (or companies) who succeed. With that backward reasoning, he could draw endless fallacious conclusions. I also felt as if Sinek rambled too much. The book is 75% fluff. There's no way around it. And half of that fluff is Sinek beating dead horses. I will go crazy If I had to listen to one more example of why Sinek likes Apple (get a room). Sinek also goes on about the importance of his "golden circle" and the many ways to view it. The book could of cut by more than half and the message would still be clear. This was one of the few books that I thought about quitting early. Thankfully, the book was easy to skim. Why 2/5 instead of 1/5? Well, the ideas and thinking of the book are still somewhat valid. Sinek offers an important idea for leaders to ponder on. But save yourself the time and understand the message. You can skip the book.

Provides the inspiration to build a reputable business with loyal customers and dedicated employees

Simon Sinek's "Start With Why" is a must read for any entrepreneur or leader struggling to create a long-term vision and guiding principles for their company or cause. The book can provide just the inspiration needed to get started in the right direction. You'll learn that the most important thing you can do as a leader is to figure out why your company or organization exists and why that should be meaningful to customers and others in society. Once the answer to this becomes clear and you believe it in your heart, the rest of the decisions about what to do and sell and how to do it become infinitely easier. For those faced with competition, price-war and customer churn, Sinek's book can provide great insights for developing a new long-term strategy to combat these issues once-and-for-all. Sinek explains that while your product's features may be replicated and commoditized, no one can copy the kinship and confidence that your customers feel when doing business with you. This is because those feelings come from intangible values and beliefs that only you share with your customers. How does one create such kinship with customers? The book explains the Golden Circle concept, which shows business leaders how to inspire instead of manipulating customers or employees to act. Sinek explains that trust is built naturally when you target customers that understand and believe in your WHY. So, if getting repeat and word-of-mouth business is important to you, then use inspiration, not manipulation to get the sale. Also, when business leaders properly articulate their company's WHY to employees, it makes it easier for the employees to believe in what they are selling. When sales reps sound authentic, it builds trust and loyalty with customers. It all starts with WHY. In light of the last decade of greed and short-term trading mentality with little regard for future consequences, I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with Sinek's observations that there are no short cuts to long-term success. Manipulation may help achieve short term results, but long-run success is only achievable when leaders are ready to make short run sacrifices/investments and willing to account for long-term impact of their decisions from the start. There is much that our universities and MBA programs can do to teach these principles to the next generation of leaders. All and all, this book left me truly inspired. Beyond the tons of practical business insights, the mental framework that "Start with Why" provides can also make anyone a better communicator as a mother, father, husband, boss or just a decent human being.

Why Start With Why is important.

I love this book. According to Simon Sinek, one simple thing can make your business run better. It can make your employees happier. It can make your customers more loyal. It can even turn your suppliers into partners. Simon reverse engineers the most successful companies in the world to find out why they are successful. The reason is simple - they understand why they exist and they share that reason with everyone. This emotional connection, a relationship based on mutual allegiance to a cause, is part of our biology and is rooted in the part of our minds that controls decision making. As a practical matter, if you understand how people make decisions, you have the opportunity to create alignment and mutual success. Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants to feel like they matter. If you start with why, everyone will win.

More Than Inspiration

As an avid reader of Simon Sinek's blog, I have been eagerly awaiting his book, START WITH WHY. I am a small business owner who had grown tired of the typical marketing advice that spells out how to manipulate people into buying your products. START WITH WHY blows that advice out of the water and, instead, encourages business people to succeed with inspiration and integrity. Every business owner should take the time to read this book and drill down as far as necessary to discover his/her WHY. It does indeed cause you to rethink your business and the message you are sending the world about what you do. HIGHLY recommended!