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Simon Sinek

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action Paperback – Illustrated, December 27, 2011

by Simon Sinek (Author)

25,568 ratings

Part of: Start with Why Series (3 books)

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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 have been touched by the power of his ideas, and these ideas remain as relevant and timely as ever.

START WITH WHY asks (and answers) the questions: 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 had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it.

START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act and communicate the same way—and it's the 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 led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Portfolio
Publication date

December 27, 2011
Dimensions

5.33 x 0.63 x 7.96 inches
ISBN-10

9781591846444
ISBN-13

978-1591846444
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.
Highlighted by 18,727 Kindle readers
It’s worth repeating: people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.
Highlighted by 15,530 Kindle readers
Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.
Highlighted by 14,188 Kindle readers

From the Publisher


	Find Your Why	Leaders Eat Last	The Infinite Game	Together is Better
	✓	✓	✓	✓

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Start with Why is 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, coauthor of Getting to Yes

“Start with Why fanned the flames inside me. This book can lead you to levels of excellence you never considered attainable.”
-GENERAL CHUCK HORNER, air boss, Desert Storm

“Each story will force you to see things from an entirely different perspective. A perspective that is nothing short of the truth.”
-MOKHTAR LAMANI, former ambassador, special envoy to Iraq

About the Author

SIMON SINEK, the bestselling author of LEADERS EAT LAST and TOGETHER IS BETTER, is an optimist who believes in a brighter future for humanity. He teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people and has presented his ideas around the world, from small startups to Fortune 50 corporations, from Hollywood to Congress to the Pentagon. His TED Talk based on START WITH WHY is the third most popular TED video of all time. Learn more about his work and how you can inspire those around you at StartWithWhy.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1
ASSUME YOU KNOW
On a cold January day, a forty-three-year-old man was
sworn in as the chief executive of his country. By his side
stood his predecessor, a famous general who, fifteen years
earlier, had commanded his nation’s armed forces in a war
that resulted in the defeat of Germany. The young leader
was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. He spent the next
fi ve hours watching parades in his honor and stayed up
celebrating until three o’clock in the morning.
You know who I’m describing, right?

It’s January 30, 1933, and I’m describing Adolf Hitler and not,
as most people would assume, John F. Kennedy.
The point is, we make assumptions. We make assumptions
about the world around us based on sometimes incomplete or false
information. In this case, the information I offered was incomplete.
Many of you were convinced that I was describing John F. Kennedy
until I added one minor little detail: the date.

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. It wasn’t too long ago that the majority of
people believed the world was flat. This perceived truth impacted behavior.
During this period, there was very little exploration. People
feared that if they traveled too far they might fall off the edge
of the earth. So for the most part they stayed put. It wasn’t until
that minor detail was revealed—the world is round—that behaviors
changed on a massive scale. Upon this discovery, societies
began to traverse the planet. Trade routes were established; spices
were traded. New ideas, like mathematics, were shared between societies
which unleashed all kinds of innovations and advancements.
The correction of a simple false assumption moved the human race
forward.

Now consider how organizations are formed and how decisions
are made. Do we really know why some organizations succeed and
why others don’t, or do we just assume? No matter your defi nition
of success—hitting a target stock price, making a certain amount
of money, meeting a revenue or profi t goal, getting a big promotion,
starting your own company, feeding the poor, winning public
office—how we go about achieving our goals is very similar. Some
of us just wing it, but most of us try to at least gather some data so
we can make educated decisions. Sometimes this gathering process
is formal—like conducting polls or market research. And
sometimes it’s informal, like asking our friends and colleagues for
advice or looking back on our own personal experience to provide
some perspective. Regardless of the process or the goals, we all want
to make educated decisions. More importantly, we all want to make
the right decisions.

As we all know, however, not all decisions work out to be the
right ones, regardless of the amount of data we collect. Sometimes
the impact of those wrong decisions is minor, and sometimes it can
be catastrophic. Whatever the result, we make decisions based on a
perception of the world that may not, in fact, be completely accurate.
Just as so many were certain that I was describing John F.
Kennedy at the beginning of this section. You were certain you were
right. You might even have bet money on it—a behavior based on
an assumption. Certain, that is, until I offered that little detail of
the date.

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. I have a friend who invests some of his
own money. Whenever he does well, it’s because of his brains and
ability to pick the right stocks, at least according to him. But when
he loses money, he always blames the market. I have no issue with
either line of logic, but either his success and failure hinge upon his
own prescience and blindness or they hinge upon good and bad
luck. But it can’t be both.

So how can we ensure that all our decisions will yield the best
results for reasons that are fully within our control? Logic dictates
that more information and data are key. And that’s exactly what
we do. We read books, attend conferences, listen to podcasts and
ask friends and colleagues—all with the purpose of finding out
more so we can figure out what to do or how to act. The problem
is, we’ve all been in situations in which we have all the data and get
lots of good advice but things still don’t go quite right. Or maybe
the impact lasted for only a short time, or something happened
that we could not foresee. A quick note to all of you who correctly
guessed Adolf Hitler at the beginning of the section: the details I
gave are the same for both Hitler and John F. Kennedy, it could have
been either. You have to be careful what you think you know. Assumptions,
you see, even when based on sound research, can lead
us astray.

Intuitively we understand this. We understand that even with
mountains of data and good advice, if things don’t go as expected,
it’s probably because we missed one, sometimes small but vital detail.
In these cases, we go back to all our sources, maybe seek out
some new ones, and try to figure out what to do, and the whole
process begins again. More data, however, doesn’t always help, especially
if a flawed assumption set the whole process in motion in
the fi rst place. There are other factors that must be considered, factors
that exist outside of our rational, analytical, informationhungry
brains.

There are times in which we had no data or we chose to ignore
the advice or information at hand and just went with our gut and
things worked out just fine, sometimes even better than expected.
This dance between gut and rational decision-making pretty much
covers how we conduct business and even live our lives. We can
continue to slice and dice all the options in every direction, but at
the end of all the good advice and all the compelling evidence, we’re
left where we started: how to explain or decide a course of action
that yields a desired effect that is repeatable. How can we have 20/20
foresight?

There is a wonderful story of a group of American car executives
who went to Japan to see a Japanese assembly line. At the
end of the line, the doors were put on the hinges, the same as in
America. But something was missing. In the United States, a line
worker would take a rubber mallet and tap the edges of the door to
ensure that it fit perfectly. In Japan, that job didn’t seem to exist.
Confused, the American auto executives asked at what point they
made sure the door fit perfectly. Their Japanese guide looked at
them and smiled sheepishly. “We make sure it fits when we design
it.” In the Japanese auto plant, they didn’t examine the problem
and accumulate data to figure out the best solution—they engineered
the outcome they wanted from the beginning. If they didn’t
achieve their desired outcome, they understood it was because of a
decision they made at the start of the process.

At the end of the day, the doors on the American-made and
Japanese-made cars appeared to fit when each rolled off the assembly
line. Except the Japanese didn’t need to employ someone to
hammer doors, nor did they need to buy any mallets. More importantly,
the Japanese doors are likely to last longer and maybe even
be more structurally sound in an accident. All this for no other
reason than they ensured the pieces fit from the start.

What the American automakers did with their rubber mallets is
a metaphor for how so many people and organizations lead. When
faced with a result that doesn’t go according to plan, a series of
perfectly effective short-term tactics are used until the desired out-
come is achieved. But how structurally sound are those solutions?
So many organizations function in a world of tangible goals and the
mallets to achieve them. The ones that achieve more, the ones that
get more out of fewer people and fewer resources, the ones with an
outsized amount of infl uence, however, build products and companies
and even recruit people that all fit based on the original
intention. Even though the outcome may look the same, great leaders
understand the value in the things we cannot see.

Every instruction we give, every course of action we set, every
result we desire, starts with the same thing: a decision. There are
those who decide to manipulate the door to fit to achieve the desired
result and there are those who start from somewhere very
different. Though both courses of action may yield similar shortterm
results, it is what we can’t see that makes long-term success
more predictable for only one. The one that understood why the
doors need to fit by design and not by default.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1591846447
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; Reprint edition (December 27, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781591846444
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591846444
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.33 x 0.63 x 7.96 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Computers & Technology Industry
- #6 in Entrepreneurship (Books)
- #10 in Leadership & Motivation

Customer Reviews:
25,568 ratings

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Simon Sinek

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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 has written two books, Leaders Eat Last and Start With Why and is quoted frequently by national publications. Sinek also regularly shares 140 characters of inspiration on Twitter (@simonsinek).

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1 star		2%

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B. L. Keller

Learn Why Your WHY Is Important

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

While the subtitle of this book (How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action) suggests that the content is for leaders of large organizations, I believe the book's details can apply to all kinds of leaders and businesses.
The main mantra of the book is:

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

The book includes stories of many different companies. Some were successful, and others were not. The successful ones were led by individuals who strongly believed in something (they had a Why), which was the business's guiding principle. The unsuccessful companies may have started out doing well, but when they lost their focus on their Why, or if the person who had that vision left the organization, the business started to falter.

I agree with the author’s point that having a strong Why for your business can help that business be successful. I highlighted all the successful companies and individuals in the book and want to study them further. Here’s an alphabetical list of who I intend to examine:

- Apple & Steve Jobs
- Bridgeport Financial
- Ernest Shackleton
- Harley Davidson
- Henry Ford
- Ron Bruder — Education for Employment Foundation
- Southwest Airlines
- Thomas Edison
- The Wright Brothers

One key concept from the book that hit home with me was that when you have a strong Why you will naturally attract individuals to your business who share that Why. A strong Why will allow you to market based on these beliefs instead of using manipulative tactics like price, features, and benefits.

That’s what a WHY does. When it is clearly understood, it attracts people who believe the same thing.

Another central point Why is so important relates to hiring (or being hired). It’s essential to have everyone in an organization believe in the same Why to have the best performing team. This requires a leader who knows their Why and knows how to share the details of their Why with others.

While reading the books, I made some other highlights that I think were important concepts:

- “There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.”
- “WHAT companies do are external factors, but WHY they do it is something deeper.”
- “Why the product exists must first be considered and why someone wants it must match.”
- “If a customer feels inspired to buy a product, rather than manipulated, they will be able to verbalize the reasons why they think what they bought is better.”
- “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.”
- “No matter where we go, we trust those with whom we are able to perceive common values or beliefs.”

This book has helped me personally. I’m in the process of trying to start a business, teaching others how to use productivity software (so far just Microsoft Excel, but I have plans to branch out to other applications). My training content is specifically geared towards those who may be intimidated by software and computers in general.

I need to spend more time thinking about my Why, but my initial Why is that I believe anyone can learn to use productivity software; they need to get past any fear of using the software and computers. I think the biggest fear people have when learning new things is the fear of the unknown. I want to show people it’s not hard to learn to use software and computers if they take a little time to learn the basics. I want to help them convert the unknown to a known.

If you’ve thought about starting or are running your own business, do you know your Why? Is your Why evident in everything you do related to that business? If not, I would urge you to take some time to read Start With Why and to get clear on your Why.

9 people found this helpful

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John H. Hwung

A MASTER book of other books!!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 7, 2012

Verified Purchase

THIS IS THE GREATEST BOOK EVER PUBLISHED IN THE LAST 10 YEARS!!!

If I could give this book 10 stars, I would! This book beats many other books. This book is so exciting to read that I read it three times! The beginning of the book said it extremely well -- This book is about an unique kind of leadership that has the natural recurring pattern of inspiring, influencing and affecting people. It is about a very small group of leaders that achieve disproportionate amount of influences in their industries/areas compare to other leaders. The most prominent example is, of course, Steve Jobs who displayed a recurring pattern of changing one industry after another.

(Of all the books that study Steve Jobs, this is probably the best one although it is not a book on Jobs' biography. However, this book offers the best angle to understand his motivation and influence.)

The core of this book is about the kind of WHYs that a special kind of leaders has that enable them to have the natural recurring pattern of inspiring, influencing and changing people and industries. The prime examples of this kind of leaders quoted in this book are Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Wright Brothers.

This book is revolutionary. All the top business schools should reevaluate their curriculum based on this book! All the top business consultants should reconsider their theories and recommendations based on this book! All the writers on leadership should read this book and revise their theories! All political leaders in the world should read this book! All board of directors of corporations should read this book and learn how to select the next CEOs! ...

This book can be considered the MASTER book to be read before reading books like "From Good to Great", "Stall Points", "The Innovator's Dilemma" and the follow-on books, "Crossing the Chasm" ...

The central theme of this book is WHY -- the essence, the core, the purpose of a person's life, of leadership, and the starting point of a corporation. Without the clarity of this WHY, the life of a person, the leadership, and the products and services offered by a corporation are all fuzzy and treated as commodities. This is so very true. Look around us: Though we (persons, organizations and corporations) are special in some ways, yet we are almost all commodities -- except the very few that display the recurring pattern of major changes and influences such as Jobs, Apple and Google. These are the ones that have the clarity of WHY and the discipline of diligently and strictly enforcing their HOWs (principles, methods, criteria) in producing the WHATs (behaviors, products and services).

There are three views of WHY + HOW + WHAT presented in this book:
1. Looking from the top -- the WHY in the center, the HOW in the middle and the WHAT in the outer layer form a GOLDEN CIRCLE.
2. Looking from the side -- the WHY at the top layer, the HOW in the middle layer and the WHAT in the bottom layer form a cone.
3. Viewing in three dimensions -- with the external world attached to the base of WHAT, the whole thing is a megaphone for the leader or corporation to sound out its WHY.

These views are wonderful ways for us to look at leadership, to understand the life cycle of a corporation, and summarily see why companies thrived and why they died. These views can even be applied to our personal lives.

Of course, this book has some blemishes. But these defects do not distract from its greatness.
1. The grammar is terrible. The whole book should be reviewed by a competent editor.
2. The WHYs are not strictly examined and evaluated. This book treats all WHYs from leaders, entrepreneurs and corporations as equal when in fact they are not. Probably most of the WHYs are the rewording of WHATs in disguise. Maybe a lot of WHYs are re-branded HOWs. Perhaps only a small number of WHYs can have the recurring pattern of inspiration and influence. I hope the future editions of this book can elucidate this point.
3. The HOWs gets much less treatment than the WHYs and WHATs in the book. It would be great if this topic is covered in more detail.
4. Maybe 60% of this book is about corporations and not on leadership as claimed in the beginning of the book. I hope the author can focus more on the recurring pattern of inspiration and influence of leadership.
5. Not everything stated in this book is correct. The points discussed in this book about Jobs and Apple are good examples. Please read "Inside Apple" and Jobs biographies for more correct views on Jobs and Apple.

At the first reading, the book seems repetitious. The WHY, HOW and WHAT get repeated over and over. However, on the 2nd and 3rd reading, this apparent repetition disappears and you can see the different points that the author was trying to emphasize.

I would like to recommend some future topics or books for Simon Sinek:
a) Qualify and rank levels of WHYs -- not all WHYs are equal. Probably some are top-notch while most are mediocre. Also, tell us how to construct best kinds of WHYs.
b) Compare the WHYs to big tech companies, the WHYs of big Wall Street firms (if they have any???) and the WHYs of big retail companies.
c) Compare the WHYs of big empires in history
d) Compare the WHYs of nations in WWI and WWII
e) Compare the WHYs of great leaders in history
f) Compare the WHYs of great geniuses
g) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into Teachers' College (Ed College). It is the teachers who educate our future generations. They need to be thoroughly immersed in the understanding of The Golden Circle, The Cone and The Megaphone.
h) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into the K-12 and the college education
g) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into and how HOWs can be enforced in our political systems. We have far too many politicians and not enough true leaders
i) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into our law schools. Our lawyers really need a strong dose of treatment.

In summary, this book is dynamic. It's a dynamite! It's the best book I have read in the last 10 years!

5 people found this helpful

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Rodrigo M Rodrigues

I feel inspired from 1st page to last!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 9, 2022

Verified Purchase

Inspirational, makes you think an what are you doing in this world. It is not a business or leadership book… it is much more

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Dave South UK

A lot of pages for which the message could be contained in five

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I love Sinek's talks and although there is wisdom, points to take away and actions you can use in this book I did find that it was a lot of pages which can be condensed down into about five. I find the same thing with a lot of these books. Really, you can just watch the various YouTube videos to get the major points from this book and learnings. However, he does offer some interesting examples and working case studies. Like I said, it does contain a lot of unnecessary drool to get some simple points across and repetition of messages.

145 people found this helpful

.

Brilliant insights hidden in tedious repetition.

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on September 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

Loved the TED talk. And loved parts of this book. The only problem is - this book would have taken up less than 100 pages to convey its message clearly. WHY did it have to be 225 pages? I have no idea. Some sentences like, "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it" are repeated so many times, I have lost count. If someone were to wake me from my sleep, I'd probably be repeating that sentence.

I find it funny that a book about WHY missed out on mentioning something called, "The theory of 5 Whys"- Look it up, it is something a lot of companies use to brainstorm problems. It also has no comment on Friedrich Nietzsche - "He who has a WHY to live for can bear almost any HOW." I believe what applies to life also eventually applies to business life.

And as it is a business book, its only focus is on the importance of WHY in businesses and large scale social movements. There is no example of how this concept affects and benefits an individual on a more personal scale - i.e. in relationships, health, etc. Chapter 13 - where the author shares his own story of arriving at this concept is the only place where he has touched on it in a lukewarm manner. Though, I believe there is another book follow-up book called 'Find Your Why' for the same purpose. If you are looking for a personal WHY, do read Stephen Covey's - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Should you read the book, if you have watched the TED talk?
- Yes, if you are looking for more detailed examples and studies and researches. Though a lot of it is focused on Apple and Southwest Airlines and Walmart.
- No, if you already have a clear sense of WHY in everything you think, say and do. (i.e. self-awareness)

[I bought a paperback version by Portfolio Penguin, and the fonts, binding and print are all okay]

418 people found this helpful

Jose A

Not very realistic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

Although the book describes certainly positive approaches to leading any enterprise, in the line of having an intrinsic motivation, it fails by extracting them from a posteriori success stories. It is easy to fall in the fallacy that those who came to our days as successful leaders did it, overall, because of their personal traits or attitudes. The book even dismisses randomness or the complexities or real world events as the real cause of some of this success stories. But even figures like Bill Gates recognise how lucky they were with their life circumstances (e.g. having access to the first personal computers at school) in order to get where they were. But of course most people looking for success formulas won’t find so attractive a book that includes something out of their control as part of the education. But the truth is that being realistic is always the closets path to any kind of success. This book it isn’t.

85 people found this helpful

Ted

Over-written and based on half-baked science

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 18, 2019

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This book is average at best. It's rambling at times, and goes off on tangents to the main thesis of the book. Whilst he's a gifted public speaker, this book has a distinct amateurish self-published feel to it. The 'scientific basis' for many of his points is so simplistic as to be comical. Sinek has no scientific training and it shows. He cherry picks from neuroscience, and doesn't seem to understand the subject he's quoting from. It reads as though he read a Wikipedia entry on neuroscience and made some inferences from that. I would not recommend this book, although I do recommend his public speaking, which can be found on YouTube and on TEDTalks.

51 people found this helpful

S. Ahrens

Viel heiße Luft

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on January 15, 2019

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Warum alle diese doch recht einfachen Gedankengang des "Why" so abfeiern, erschließ sich mir nicht. Der Gedankengang, dass Marken sich über andere Faktoren außer dem Preis und vermeintlicher Benefits abgrenzen müssen, ist allgemein klar und wird im Buch etwas zu ausführlich (eigentlich durchgehend) erklärt. Und ein "Why" kann dabei helfen. Seine Thesen stützt er – wie so viele andere Markentheoretiker – im wesentlichen auf den Erfolg von Apple. Wie viele Bücher schon den Erfolg von Apple analysiert haben und ihre eigene These dazu nützen, ist mittlerweile unüberschaubar. Aber nur weil Apple den Kunden ein "Why" bietet, sind sie nicht erfolgreich, das ist zu kurz gedacht und das sollte absolut jedem bekannt sein. Dann könnte ja jeder den einfach Erfolg kopieren.
Ärgerlich ist, dass der Inhalt des Buches auf 20 Seiten gepasst hätte und dass es keinerlei Anleitung gibt, wie der Leser, denn für sich selbst das Why/How/What definieren kann. Dafür muss man wohl einen überteuerten Workshop von Sinek buchen. Fazit: 20% interessante Gedanken, 80% aufgeblasene Zeitverschwendung.

94 people found this helpful

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