Book Summary of Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Book Summary of Start With Why Main Idea 1
Use the Power of Why To Inspire Others
People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.
In this summary, you’ll learn two things:
- First, how to come up with an inspiring vision.
- Second, how to talk about it.
Sinek used Apple as an example a lot in his talk and book, so we’ll do the same. Here’s what you can expect: We’ll set the stage by explaining how Sinek’s idea of inspiring leadership works and what the three concentric circles, also called the Golden Circle, have to do with it. Then we’ll get down to business and give you some tips on how to use it in your day-to-day work, or how to find your “why” and put it into action. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
How to inspire and how not to inspire
The point of this is to make you an inspiring leader, if you aren’t already one. But you need to know what inspiration is and how it works before that can happen. And the best way to understand inspiration is to first understand what it is not.
Sinek says that there are two main ways to get people to do what you want, whether they are your employees or customers: inspire them or manipulate them. And even though companies want to be inspiring, many of them are just trying to get what they want.
“Manipulation” in this context does not mean tricking people into buying things or anything like that. Instead, it refers to a strategy of giving people reasons to do something. It means, “the carrot and the stick.” Think about how many marketing messages you see and hear every day. Half off, but only for a short time! Few things left! Buy two, get one for free! These are things that make people more likely to buy, like sales, advertising hype, and claims like “Four out of five dentists prefer Trident.”
Manipulation is a common way to get what you want, and it works. The only issue is that it doesn’t work over time. That’s because manipulating people doesn’t make them loyal. When you trick your customers, they come to you not because they like you but because you have good deals. This is painfully clear when the economy is bad. If you have to raise your prices, your customers will leave you for a better deal, since they didn’t care about you or your product to begin with. Why would they do that? They were not moved by you. You just gave them a reason to act.
Now, let’s move to the other end of the spectrum and talk about a company that has been an inspiration: Apple. Apple gives us a very interesting example that is almost hard to understand. Because, at first glance, the company doesn’t seem to have much going for it.
Apple is set up like any other business. Like Dell and Toshiba, it makes computers. Like Samsung, it also makes phones. It’s true that its products look great and work well, but so do products from other companies. Apple sometimes does well and sometimes not so well, and people have a lot of bad things to say about its products and how it runs its business.
Apple’s lack of good deals on its products might be the biggest complaint about the company. You could buy the new iPhone for $1000, or you could buy two new Samsungs that do almost the same things, or even more. But take a close look. Apple doesn’t use carrot-and-stick tricks to get what it wants. It doesn’t give any reason to do it. But what happens when a new iPhone comes out? People can’t get enough of it. They don’t do that for phones made by Samsung.
You could say that Apple customers are so loyal to the brand that they act in strange ways. So the big question is: How does Apple do that?
In short, Apple is a source of inspiration. And here’s a slightly longer one: Apple’s customers care a lot about the company because it starts with “why.” People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Book Summary of Start With Why Main Idea 2
Apple and the Golden Circle
The Golden Circle is made up of three circles that are all connected to each other.
- The “why” is the “bull’s eye” in the middle.
- The “how” and “what” are the two outer circles.
The what tells you what the business or organization does. Most of the time, the “what” is pretty clear, like making a product or providing certain services. The “how” shows how the “what” is reached: How do you make it all work? What, for example, makes a certain way of making something or a certain way of doing business something special?
The “why” tells what a business or group is trying to do.
Why did they start it?
What is the main point of it?
At the end of the 1960s, in Northern California. All over the state—and, to be honest, the whole country—there is a spirit of protest and uprising, and revolution is in the air. People in power are being radically questioned by young people with flowers in their hair and the occasional joint in their mouths.
They don’t like how the government and big businesses try to make everyone act the same and squash individuality. (I find it interesting that Apple started out as the counterculture but now they use censorship, spying and narrative control as they help build the digital prison that will enslave us all) Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, two young men who are rebellious and don’t like the way things are. They take in the energy and values of the people and places around them, and it is in this historical setting that Apple’s spiritual center takes shape.
The computer revolution is happening at the same time that hippies are wandering the streets of San Francisco. It is a quieter and less drug-fueled change. Technology is getting better and better by leaps and bounds. The days of computers that use punch cards and take up whole rooms are over, and the personal computer is coming soon. Suddenly, it seems possible that every American will have their own device in their living room.
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, know that this is their chance. And it will change everything. The two Steves don’t use computers to make money; that comes second. Instead, they’re just a way to get to their real goal, which is to give people more power and make people question the status quo. To put it another way, Apple began with “why,” not “what” or “how.”
Now, let’s talk about Sinek’s most important idea, which is called the Golden Circle. It’s fascinating and still Sinek’s most important idea. It’s a pattern that shows up in the stories of all great leaders and thinkers, from Martin Luther King to the Wright Brothers to Apple. It explains why some brands stick around and others don’t. And, really? It’s pretty simple.
So let’s go back to Apple. What does Apple want to do? You don’t have to look far to find out that the company’s goal is to get people to think differently. Remember that the two Steves came up with these core values in the 1960s. Apple is there to challenge the status quo in creative ways and give power to the individual. Apple doesn’t just make computers and phones because that’s what it wants to do. Its computers and phones do, in a way, show what it stands for, but that’s because the company is following its higher purpose, not because those products were made for that reason.
What didn’t Apple start with? It began with “why.” So, why is the “why” so important? Well, it makes me feel something. It speaks to a deep-seated human need to belong. People are drawn to people and groups that believe and value the same things they do. They didn’t buy iPods because they were a good deal. Instead, they did so because they agreed with Apple that creatively challenging the status quo is a worthwhile goal. “What you do doesn’t matter; what matters is why you do it.”
So, when Dell’s MP3 player came out in 2003, they didn’t buy it. Yes, Dell did have the ability to make good ones. But it just didn’t feel right. People could tell they did it just to get into the market and not for a bigger reason. With the iPod, everything made sense. Apple likes to challenge the way things are done, and at the time, it was challenging the music industry. This is exactly what Apple does, so the move was real and spoke to their customers’ core values. That’s why the iPod did well while Dell’s MP3 player didn’t.
Find out what your company’s higher purpose is for other good reasons as well. When a business first starts out, its goal is to reach a large number of people. To do that, you have to get your foot in the door first. How do you do that, though? Two types of customers are important here: those who come up with new ideas and those who try new things first. These are the kinds of customers who like to be first with new ideas. In other words, the first people to have an iPhone were the geeks, nerds, and cool kids. Innovators and early adopters will go to great lengths to get a product that no one else has tried yet. And they are drawn to leaders with a clear vision and businesses that know why they exist. Once the geeks are on your side, things should get easier because they’ll tell everyone what you’re doing.
One last good reason to know your why: once you know your purpose, you’ll automatically attract people who share it. This is especially important when hiring people. You’ll be able to weed out the people who just want to watch or get something for free, like those who are only interested in money or fame. Then you’ll be left with people who are already very interested in your mission. When you have the right people on board, it will be easier to keep going if you start with your “why.”
Book Summary of Start With Why Main Idea 3
How to Start With Why
The problem is that most founders and leaders don’t know what their “why” is, even though it should be at the heart of every company. They can definitely tell you what they do and how they do it. But if you ask them why their business exists, many of them have trouble answering.
They might mumble that they’ve always wanted to start their own business, or they might just say they’re in it for the money. Or they might say something vague like “making the world a better place.” That’s a very big problem. Because if you don’t know what your business is for, why should anyone else? And, maybe even more importantly, how can you expect your employees to come to work with a sense of purpose if you don’t have one yourself? Why would someone buy your products if they don’t know what they stand for?
Now is the time to do something. Sinek put some ideas about how all over his book, but they were just small bits here and there. We’ve put together the three most helpful points, which are ways for you as a leader to figure out and explain your “why.”
So let’s start with the first one, which is to find your why. This is a hard question, so hard that Sinek wrote a whole other book called Find Your Why about it. It’s not easy to find your life’s purpose or the purpose of your business.
If you want to find your purpose, you might have to look back over your whole life and look for patterns. Think about what you were known for. How did your friends, family, and coworkers see you? What stood out to them about you? There is often the key to your goal.
For example, when Sinek was having trouble and failing, he thought about himself and remembered that people always thought of him as an eternal optimist. He was the kind of person who would always believe in other people and encourage them to act, no matter what was going on. So, he has decided to spend the rest of his life doing that. His “why” is to inspire people, just like he always has.
Once you know why you want to do something, you can move on to step two. That’s finding a way to explain your “why” in a clear way. People won’t understand you if you can’t. There are a lot of leaders who know what they want, but their companies never take off because they can’t get their message across. The way they see it, other people just don’t “get it.” Well, you can’t do that if you’re serious about your why. There’s no way around it: leaders who inspire people must be able to explain why they do what they do.
Here is where we bring back the Golden Circle, which has the why in the middle, the how in the middle, and the what in the outer ring. The best way to inspire people is to talk from the inside out. Simply put, whenever you talk about something, you should always start with why you do it. Then talk about how you do them, and only then talk about what you do. Don’t do the opposite and save your “why” for last. This is true for both marketing messages and internal communications.
Think about what we said about the MP3 player. If Dell made another player, it would probably start with what it was and then explain how it worked. For example, it might say, “Hey, we made MP3 players with 25 gigabytes of storage that were made by top-notch engineers who focused on making them easy to use.” Look at them!”
But do you see what it would do there? First, the what is talked about, which is players with 25 gigabytes of storage. Then, the how is talked about, which is Dell’s excellent engineers. That’s how most businesses talk to each other. Not very interesting, huh?
When Apple launched the iPod, on the other hand, it put the “why” first. It said, “We want to change how music is sold and listened to.” Then it said, “We made a device that fits in your pocket and can hold a thousand songs.” This was the “how.” Based on that, you could buy an iPod if you wanted to. This is a real source of motivation. It says something about who you want to be and what you believe. This is what it looks like to communicate from the inside out—you start with why you do things.
So always put your information in the right order: why first, how next, and what last. This will help you get both the right customers and the right people to work for you. To put it in terms of everyday life: Set up your job ads so that the reason for the job comes first. This is shown by Blinkist itself. When you look at our open jobs, you’ll see these two sentences: “We’re on a mission to help people turn ordinary moments into extraordinary learning opportunities – anytime, anywhere. We make people want to learn more.”
Which brings us to our third tip: get the right people to handle the how so you can focus on the why. As the boss of the business, you are the why. As your business grows, there’s a chance that you’ll get lost in the details of running it. That’s a bad idea. Senior executives who share your vision will have to set up the infrastructure that will make your vision a reality. You can’t take care of everything.
Remember that your job as a leader is to get other people to act, not to do everything yourself. So put your energy into your company’s reason for being. Don’t make things unclear. Remind your employees often of why they started working for your company and why they care about your mission. If you can explain why, everything else will fall into place.
In conclusion
Let’s end this summary with an analogy,
It’s a story about inspiration and how a simple shift in perspective can change everything.
It’s about stonemasons in the Middle Ages who work on a big building site.
You walk up to the first one and ask him if he likes his job. He says, “Well, if you want to know the truth, it’s really a drag. When the sun is out, it’s very hot, and moving one stone after another is hard work. I’m not even sure if I’ll live long enough to see even see this wall I’m building finished. So, short answer: no. I don’t like it at all.”
It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Then you walk up to the second stonemason and ask him the same thing.
He says, “Well, you can probably guess that it’s pretty boring, hot, and not good for my lower back. I’ve been doing this for years, and I don’t even know if I’ll live to see the end result. But you know what? I love it, even though it’s hard work.
I’m building a cathedral, so it’s worth it!”
The work that these two stonemasons do is the same. The second one, on the other hand, does it on purpose. He knows why he’s doing it: he’s building a cathedral. He gives me ideas. And as a leader, this is exactly what you have to do: Bring back to mind why everyone is doing something. Give them places of worship.
