I finished reading Simon Sinek's Start With Why this summer, and now am finally getting around to sharing some of the best ideas and quotes I found therein. While many criticize the book as being a 200-page regurgitation of his wildly popular TEDx talk, reading the book may still be worth your time. Sinek does share more anecdotes and examples, which are worth taking in. Or, just skim the following quotes below:
Those who truly lead are able to create a following of people who act not because they were swayed, but because they were inspired.
There is a big difference between repeat business and loyalty. Repeat business is when people do business with you multiple times. Loyalty is when people are willing to turn down a better product or a better price to continue doing business with you. Loyal customers don't often even bother to research the competition or entertain other options. Loyalty is not easily won.
People don't buy WHAT do you do, they buy WHY you do it.
The part of the brian that controls our feelings has no capacity for language. It is this distinction that makes putting our feelings into words so hard. We have trouble, for example, explaining why we married the person we married.
It is not logic or facts but our hopes and dreams, our hearts and our guts, that drive us to try new things.
The goal of business should not be to do business with anyone who simply wants what you have. It should be to focus on the people who believe what you believe. When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our WHY, trust emerges.
Trust is a feeling, not a rational experience.
Great companies don't hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.
The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen.
When people come to work with a higher sense of purpose, they find it easier to weather hard times or even to find opportunity in those hard times.
If the people aren't looking out for the community, then the benefits of a community erode.
Charisma is hard to define, near impossible to measure and too elusive to copy. All great leaders have charisma because all great leaders have clarity of WHY; an undying belief in a purpose or cause bigger than themselves.
Passion without structure has a very high probability of failure.
Leaders never start with what needs to be done. Leaders start with WHY we need to do things. Leaders inspire action.
And here's Sinek's talk:
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