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

Simon Sinek (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 29, 2009

Why do you do what you do? Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?

People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with "why." It was their natural ability to start with "why" that enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things.

In studying the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way -- and it's the complete opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea "The Golden Circle," and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with "why."

Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. "Why" is not money or profit-- those are always results.

Why does your organization exist? Why does it do the things it does? Why do customers really buy from one company or another? Why are people loyal to some leaders, but not others?

Starting with "why" works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with "why" never manipulate, they inspire. And the people who follow them don't do so because they have to; they follow because they want to.

Drawing on a wide range of real-life stories, Sinek weaves together a clear vision of what it truly takes to lead and inspire. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others or who wants to find someone to inspire them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the most useful and powerful books I have read in years. Simple and elegant, it shows us how leaders should lead -- William Ury, Co-Author Of Getting To Yes A powerful and penetrating exploration of what separates great companies and great leaders from the rest -- Polly Labarre, Co-Author Of Mavericks At Work --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.He has been invited to talk to top teams at Microsoft, American Express, the UN and the Pentagon. His famous TED talk has been viewed more than 500,000 times. He lives in New York. www.startwithwhy.com --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover; First Edition edition (October 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591842808
• ISBN-13: 978-1591842804
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (238 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Business & Investing > Organizational Behavior > Workplace

More About the Author

Simon Sinek is an optimist. He teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. From members of Congress to foreign ambassadors, from small businesses to corporations like Microsoft and 3M, from Hollywood to the Pentagon, he has presented his ideas about the power of why. He is quoted frequently by national publications and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and BrandWeek. This is his first book.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#80 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#86 in Books > Business & Investing

#80 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#86 in Books > Business & Investing

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

524 of 541 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars At once a brilliant must-read and painfully redundant May 28, 2010

By Morphenius

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really had to struggle with what rating to give this. Simon Sinek's idea is astoundingly insightful, very helpful, and definitely worth the price of this book let alone the Kindle price. I'm inclined to think that the world would be considerably better off if more people lived by Sinek's simple idea.

On the other hand, the book is agonizing in its redundancy, often repeating the same examples many times over to make precisely the same point as the first time the example was used. I'm inclined to think that virtually everything Sinek wrote could have been stated in a 20-page article without leaving out anything important. I daresay it might be possible to do it in five pages. That's part of the beauty of the idea: it's incredibly simple while still being astoundingly powerful. But Sinek doesn't seem to have bothered taking the time to distill the idea down into its essence for straightforward presentation in this book. It reads a little bit like he took articles from his blog, stuck them in a large word-processing document, did some minor editing, and submitted the thing as-is for publication in order to create this book.

So, the idea is worth the cost of the book and the time to read it, but the book itself is, in my humble opinion, very poorly organized and needlessly long.

I would advise those who are interested in Sinek's ideas save themselves a great deal of time and a little expense by first watching his TED Talk:

[...]

This covers virtually all the core ideas involved. The one thing Sinek never does either in this presentation or in his book is spell out what "HOW" is. It's a bit confusing in large part because it's different for each of the two communication structures. In the "WHAT --> HOW" structure, "HOW" is "how we're different"; for instance, Dell has to argue that its computers are somehow better than (say) HP's and therefore specifies HOW they're better in order to compete against HP. On the other hand, in the "WHY --> HOW --> WHAT" structure, "HOW" is "how we enact our purpose (i.e. our 'WHY')".

As far as I can tell, if you're reasonably intelligent you can glean pretty much everything essential to Sinek's idea based on his TED Talk together with this understanding that "HOW" means something different in each of the two contexts he contrasts.

What you WON'T get from that is his rather in-depth, incredibly clear exposé of why the "WHAT --> HOW" communication pattern requires manipulating people to some degree or another and why that is by necessity unsustainable in the long run. That's not core to his point but it's certainly a nice supplement.

So in short, the book is a reasonable buy, certainly at the Kindle price, but do consider benefitting from Sinek's wisdom for free in 20 minutes first by watching his TED Talk. If you want more details, you can get the book, but understand that you're not likely to learn much more than what you could have figured out on your own between the talk and what I mention above.

71 of 78 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Provides the inspiration to build a reputable business with loyal customers and dedicated employees December 9, 2009

By Kal H. Shah

Format:Hardcover

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.

56 of 62 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Just A Self-Help Book January 4, 2010

By Steve Smith

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Fortunately, this book is not one in the long list of books with simplistic and universal formulas to master and follow for success. This book is about knowing yourself and looking within before moving forward in a professional career or at the beginning of some endeavor. What I saw as a weakness in the book, however, was the continual reference to the same companies or personalities, often stating the same point, throughout the book. A reference to other companies would serve as an indicator that Sinek is aware that other companies such as Patagonia, Mountain Hardware, PerotSystems, etc., also began with "Why" and have a loyal following. Sometimes I felt I was reading an extended version of a seminar but again, I still enjoyed reading the book in spite of that feeling. For individuals or companies that have lost their way this is a good book to begin with in order to reestablish your purpose.