Start With Why

book: Start With Why
author: Simon Sinek

general overview

the ability to inspire those around you and to achieve remarkable things always starts with why. Simon Sinek has a very captivating way of communicated the principles related to finding your why/purpose.

in this book Sinek talks about your “why”. he says, “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

it’s an incredibly simple statement, but it’s also very effective. Some lessons I learned from reading this book were:

• if you want to inspire others, you must first communicate your “why”. your “why” is your purpose, cause or belief.
  • Apple is a great example of a company that first tells us their why, then the show us how (with easy to use beautifully designed products). Apple customers are drawn to their “why”.
• excited employees are the best resource for any business
• you do not need sleazy sales tactics when you start with “why” because your “why” will sell itself

lightning round: takeaways from Start With Why

• by why, Sinek is referring to your purpose, cause or belief. i.e. why does your company exist? why do you get out of bed each morning and go to work? why should anyone care?
• “loyalty is when people are willing to turn down a better product or a better price to continue doing business with you.”
• “if a company adds too many novel ideas too often, it can have a similar impact on the product or category as the price game. in an attempt to differentiate with more features, the products start to look and feel more like commodities. and, like price, the need to add yet another product to the line to compensate for the commoditization ends in a downward spiral.”
• “knowing your why is essential for lasting success and the ability to avoid being lumped in with others.”
• “knowing your why is not the only way to be successful, but it is the only way to maintain a lasting success and have a greater blend of innovation and flexibility.”
• “when a why goes fuzzy, it becomes much more difficult to maintain the growth, loyalty, and inspiration that helped drive the original success.”
• “no matter where we go, we trust those with whom we are able to perceive common values or beliefs.”
• “companies that fail to communicate a sense of why force us to make decisions with only empirical evidence.”
• “unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you’ll be stuck with whoever’s left.”
• “if a company tries too many times to ‘seize market opportunities’ inconsistent with their why over time, their why will go fuzzy and their ability to inspire and command loyalty will deteriorate.”