# Start With Why  ## Metadata - Author: [[Simon Sinek]] - Full Title: Start With Why - Category: #books ## Highlights - Though others knew what had to change in America to bring about civil rights for all, it was Martin Luther King who was able to inspire a country to change not just for the good of a minority, but for the good of everyone. Martin Luther King started with Why. ([Location 143](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=143)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Great leaders, in contrast, are able to inspire people to act. Those who are able to inspire give people a sense of purpose or belonging that has little to do with any external incentive or benefit to be gained. ([Location 158](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=158)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Those who truly lead are able to create a following of people who act not because they were swayed, but because they were inspired. ([Location 160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=160)) - Tags: [[pink]] - More data, however, doesn’t always help, especially if a flawed assumption set the whole process in motion in the first place. ([Location 223](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=223)) - Tags: [[pink]] - if you ask most businesses why their customers are their customers, most will tell you it’s because of superior quality, features, price or service. In other words, most companies have no clue why their customers are their customers. This is a fascinating realization. If companies don’t know why their customers are their customers, odds are good that they don’t know why their employees are their employees either. ([Location 254](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=254)) - Tags: [[pink]] - There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it. ([Location 260](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=260)) - Tags: [[pink]] - To quote my mother, “If your friends put their head in the oven, would you do that too?” Sadly, if Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods was paid to do just that, it might actually start a trend. ([Location 386](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=386)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Real innovation changes the course of industries or even society. ([Location 400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=400)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Motorola had successfully designed the latest shiny object for people to get excited about . . . at least until a new shiny object came out. And that’s the reason these features are more a novelty than an innovation. They are added in an attempt to differentiate, but not reinvent. It’s not a bad thing, but it can’t be counted on to add any long-term value. Novelty can drive sales—the RAZR proved it—but the impact does not last. ([Location 404](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=404)) - Tags: [[pink]] - 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. ([Location 441](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=441)) - Tags: [[pink]] - like any promotion, the manipulation will work if the incentive feels high enough to mitigate the risk. ([Location 482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=482)) - Tags: [[pink]] - WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. When I say WHY, I don’t mean to make money—that’s a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care? ([Location 564](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=564)) - Tags: [[pink]] - It’s worth repeating: people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. ([Location 600](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=600)) - Tags: [[pink]] - 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. ([Location 725](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=725)) - Tags: [[pink]] - But when a company clearly communicates their WHY, what they believe, and we believe what they believe, then we will sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to include those products or brands in our lives. ([Location 772](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=772)) - Tags: [[pink]] - it. A failure to communicate WHY creates nothing but stress or doubt. ([Location 843](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=843)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Great leaders are those who trust their gut. They are those who understand the art before the science. They win hearts before minds. They are the ones who start with WHY. ([Location 867](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=867)) - Tags: [[pink]] - If a company does not have a clear sense of WHY then it is impossible for the outside world to perceive anything more than WHAT the company does. And when that happens, manipulations that rely on pushing price, features, service or quality become the primary currency of differentiation. ([Location 931](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=931)) - Tags: [[pink]] - What authenticity means is that your Golden Circle is in balance. It means that everything you say and everything you do you actually believe. ([Location 982](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=982)) - Tags: [[pink]] - There are many ways to motivate people to do things, but loyalty comes from the ability to inspire people. Only when the WHY is clear and when people believe what you believe can a true loyal relationship develop. ([Location 1061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1061)) - Tags: [[pink]] - When our decisions feel right, we’re willing to pay a premium or suffer an inconvenience for those products or services. This has nothing to do with price or quality. ([Location 1067](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1067)) - Tags: [[pink]] - We’re very good at sensing subtleties in behavior and judging people accordingly. We get good feelings and bad feelings about companies, just as we get good feelings and bad feelings about people. ([Location 1079](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1079)) - Tags: [[pink]] - When you know your WHY, the highest level of confidence you can offer is, “I know it’s right.” ([Location 1146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1146)) - Tags: [[pink]] - 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. ([Location 1159](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1159)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Trust begins to emerge when we have a sense that another person or organization is driven by things other than their own self-gain. ([Location 1186](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1186)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Gordon Bethune knew how to lead the company. Those who lead are able to do so because those who follow trust that the decisions made at the top have the best interest of the group at heart. In turn, those who trust work hard because they feel like they are working for something bigger than themselves. ([Location 1195](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1195)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Now consider what a company is. A company is a culture. A group of people brought together around a common set of values and beliefs. ([Location 1276](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1276)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. ([Location 1337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1337)) - Tags: [[pink]] - If the people aren’t looking out for the community, then the benefits of a community erode. Many companies have star employees and star salesmen and so on, but few have a culture that produces great people as a rule and not an exception. ([Location 1468](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1468)) - Tags: [[pink]] - That’s a remarkable concept: only when individuals can trust the culture or organization will they take personal risks in order to advance that culture or organization as a whole. For no other reason than, in the end, it’s good for their own personal health and survival. ([Location 1483](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1483)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Great organizations become great because the people inside the organization feel protected. The strong sense of culture creates a sense of belonging and acts like a net. People come to work knowing that their bosses, colleagues and the organization as a whole will look out for them. This results in reciprocal behavior. Individual decisions, efforts and behaviors that support, benefit and protect the long-term interest of the organization as a whole. ([Location 1505](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1505)) - Tags: [[pink]] - It’s a subtle irony that one of the best customer service companies in the country focuses on its employees before its customers. The trust between the management and the employees, not dogma, is what produces the great customer service. ([Location 1510](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1510)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Whom do you trust more, the waiter who tells you, “Everything on the menu is great,” or the waiter who tells you to avoid the chicken casserole? Are these questions too easy? Then how about this one: why should anyone trust you? ([Location 1603](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1603)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Unless the audience to which you are trying to appeal gets a sense of what that spokesperson believes, unless that spokesperson is “one of us,” the enforcement may drive recognition, it may even drive sales for the short term, but it will fail to build trust. ([Location 1629](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1629)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The ability to get the system to tip is the point at which the growth of a business or the spreading of an idea starts to move at an extraordinary pace. It is also at this point that a product gains mass-market acceptance. The point at which an idea becomes a movement. When that happens, the growth is not only exponential, it is automatic. It just goes. ([Location 1725](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=1725)) - Tags: [[pink]] - To reach the billion-dollar status, to alter the course of an industry, requires a very special and rare partnership between one who knows WHY and those who know HOW. ([Location 2008](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2008)) - Tags: [[pink]] - great organizations function exactly like any social movement. They inspire people to talk about a product or idea, include that product in the context of their lifestyle, share the idea or even find ways to advance the prosperity of the organization itself. ([Location 2036](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2036)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Though there may be short-term benefits without clarity, loud is nothing more than excessive volume. Or in business vernacular: clutter. ([Location 2076](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2076)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Clarity of purpose, cause or belief is important, but it is equally important that people hear you. For a WHY to have the power to move people it must not only be clear, it must be amplified to reach enough people to tip the scale. ([Location 2081](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2081)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Great organizations don’t just drive profits, they lead people, and they change the course of industries and sometimes our lives in the process. ([Location 2091](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2091)) - Tags: [[pink]] - A clear sense of WHY sets expectations. When we don’t know an organization’s WHY, we don’t know what to expect, so we expect the minimum—price, quality, service, features—the commodity stuff. ([Location 2092](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2092)) - Tags: [[pink]] - WHAT you do can change with the times, but WHY you do it never does. ([Location 2197](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2197)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The only contact that the organized system has with the disorganized system is at the base—at the WHAT level. ([Location 2210](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2210)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Note: People buy why you do it, not what you do, but what is the only touch point for users to understand a company's why. The company's what has to do a good job communicating the why - And the only reason symbols have meaning is because we infuse them with meaning. That meaning lives in our minds, not in the item itself. Only when the purpose, cause or belief is clear can a symbol command great power. ([Location 2255](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2255)) - Tags: [[pink]] - passion alone can’t cut it. For passion to survive, it needs structure. A WHY without the HOWs, passion without structure, has a very high probability of failure. ([Location 2558](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2558)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Passion may need structure to survive, but for structure to grow, it needs passion. ([Location 2562](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2562)) - Tags: [[pink]] - When they are unclear about your WHY, WHAT you do has no context. Even though the things you do or decisions you make may be good, they won’t make sense to others without a clear understanding of WHY. ([Location 2892](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2892)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Gaining clarity of WHY, ironically, is not the hard part. It is the discipline to trust one’s gut, to stay true to one’s purpose, cause or beliefs. Remaining completely in balance and authentic is the most difficult part. ([Location 2999](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=2999)) - Tags: [[pink]] - When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you. ([Location 3116](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=3116)) - Tags: [[pink]] - All leaders must have two things: they must have a vision of the world that does not exist and they must have the ability to communicate it. ([Location 3166](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=3166)) - Tags: [[pink]] - We all work with people like this—they walk around with all the answers to all the questions, frustrated that no one else “gets it.” No one can see what they can see. They are visionaries, for sure, but they are not leaders. ([Location 3169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=3169)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it. ([Location 3174](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002Q6XUE4&location=3174)) - Tags: [[pink]]