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!
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Inspiring, but not completely convincing
Published in 2009, this book claims to turn marketing principles on their head. Instead of focusing on price, features, service and quality, Sinek suggests a reversal of priorities. Start with the “why”, clearly explaining the purpose, cause or belief. This can connect to the values and beliefs of early adopter clients (who are very loyal to your “why”).The “how” and “what” in Sinek’s formula only come after “why”.He cites Apple, Harley Davidson, and Southwest Airlines as successful proponents of this approach. With customers being willing to accept less choice, higher prices, or some other inconvenience in order to access the company’s products or services (such as Apple customers queuing through the night for the release of a new iPhone).What Sinek is advocating goes well beyond the Vision, Mission and Values of an organisation. It is about an emotive narrative that can communicate purpose/cause/belief, clearly and in words.The book is certainly inspiring, and relevant to some areas of marketing. It has since been overtaken by a rise and fall of influencers, mass acceptance of sustainability/ESG, and broader attempts by business to tap into loyalty rather than (price) manipulations.While I’m sympathetic to the power of these ideas in a small subset of cases, I remain sceptical of their full application for most organisations (who continue to compete on price, features, service, and quality). Is Sinek’s core thesis only applicable to exceptionally well-positioned businesses?
