Isbn start with why

So I was going to practice it as wholly as I could. The only reason I am where I am today, this representative of WHY, is for one reason and one reason only: because of other people. I have no publicist. I have had only very little national press coverage. Yet the concept of WHY is spreading far and wide because it resonates with people on such a visceral level that they share it with those they love and care about.

That I was given the opportunity to write a book about the concept has allowed the depth idea to spread without me. It spreads because this message is inherently optimistic. It is inherently human. And those who believe in it share it. The more organizations and people who learn to also start with WHY, the more people there will be who wake up feeling fulfilled by the work they do.

This book is about a naturally occurring pattern, a way of thinking, acting and communicating that gives some leaders the ability to inspire those around them. We can all learn this pattern. With a little discipline, any leader or organization can inspire others, both inside and outside their organization, to help advance their ideas and their vision. We can all learn to lead. Rather, I wrote this book as a guide to focus on and amplify the things that do work.

I do not aim to upset the solutions offered by others. Most of the answers we get, when based on sound evidence, are perfectly valid. The truth, you see, is always revealed. The stories that follow are of those individuals and organizations that naturally embody this pattern. They are the ones that start with Why.

The goal was ambitious. Public interest was high. Experts were eager to contribute. Money was readily available. Armed with every ingredient for success, Samuel Pierpont Langley set out in the early s to be the first man to pilot an airplane.

Highly regarded, he was a senior officer at the Smithsonian Institution, a mathematics professor who had also worked at Harvard. His friends included some of the most powerful men in government and business, including Andrew Carnegie and Alexander Graham Bell.

He pulled together the best minds of the day, a veritable dream team of talent and know-how. Langley and his team used the finest materials, and the press followed him everywhere.

People all over the country were riveted to the story, waiting to read that he had achieved his goal. With the team he had gathered and ample resources, his success was guaranteed. A few hundred miles away, Wilbur and Orville Wright were working on their own flying machine. Their passion to fly was so intense that it inspired the enthusiasm and commitment of a dedicated group in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. There was no funding for their venture. No government grants.

No high-level connections. Not a single person on the team had an advanced degree or even a college education, not even Wilbur or Orville. But the team banded together in a humble bicycle shop and made their vision real. On December 17, , a small group witnessed a man take flight for the first time in history. How did the Wright brothers succeed where a better-equipped, better-funded and better-educated team could not? Both the Wright brothers and Langley were highly motivated.

Both had a strong work ethic. Both had keen scientific minds. They were pursuing exactly the same goal, but only the Wright brothers were able to inspire those around them and truly lead their team to develop a technology that would change the world. Only the Wright brothers started with Why. Northern California was a hotbed of antigovernment and antiestablishment sentiment; footage of clashes and riots in Berkeley and Oakland was beamed around the globe, fueling sympathetic movements across the United States and Europe.

They aimed to make an impact, a very big impact, even challenge the way people perceived how the world worked. But these young revolutionaries did not throw stones or take up arms against an authoritarian regime. Instead, they decided to beat the system at its own game.

For Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the cofounders of Apple Computer, the battlefield was business and the weapon of choice was the personal computer. The personal computer revolution was beginning to brew when Wozniak built the Apple I.

Just starting to gain attention, the technology was primarily seen as a tool for business. Computers were too complicated and out of the price range of the average individual. But Wozniak, a man not motivated by money, envisioned a nobler purpose for the technology. He saw the personal computer as a way for the little man to take on a corporation.

If he could figure out a way to get it in the hands of the individual, he thought, the computer would give nearly anyone the ability to perform many of the same functions as a vastly better resourced company. The personal computer could level the playing field and change the way the world operated. Woz designed the Apple I, and improved the technology with the Apple II, to be affordable and simple to use. Though he had experience selling surplus electronics parts, Jobs would prove to be much more than a good salesman.

He wanted to do something significant in the world, and building a company was how he was going to do it. Apple was the tool he used to ignite his revolution. And that narrative? Apple is successful because they start with why. How can we tell they start with why? Simple, it's because they're successful! And in fairness there were a few other nuggets in the book worth considering. I appreciated the discussion concerning the idea that "What gets measured gets done". I also thought the distinction between achievement and success was helpful.

Apr 23, Natalie rated it really liked it. Start with Why is one of my all time favorite Ted Talks. This book is a longer version of the same concept. For the first few chapters, I did not feel that I was really getting any new information.

However, the latter portion of the book went in to more specific examples of how great leaders have changed the face of their companies by focusing on Why. Feb 18, Experience Life rated it really liked it. We are easily caught up in the details of what we want to do, and how we are going to get it all done. Embodying our WHYs and effectively communicating them to anyone who will listen, asserts Sinek, is crucial to We are easily caught up in the details of what we want to do, and how we are going to get it all done.

Embodying our WHYs and effectively communicating them to anyone who will listen, asserts Sinek, is crucial to both personal and business success. He explains how each of us can achieve greater success and satisfaction by inspiring others through a shared sense of purpose — as opposed to more commonly used tactics of coercion and manipulation. Apr 12, Michael Cabus rated it it was amazing.

If you work in the corporate sector, it is almost inevitable that you will be invited to a corporate re-branding meeting. At first this sounds like fun, creative; you think it may do with the logo, or maybe color schemes. You are surprised, though, when you go to the first meeting and encounter a team hired to do more than a logo, but to define the company's purpose. There are a series of meetings, in which the rebranding team tells you what you should value, interviews your customers to show you If you work in the corporate sector, it is almost inevitable that you will be invited to a corporate re-branding meeting.

There are a series of meetings, in which the rebranding team tells you what you should value, interviews your customers to show you they are right, then they go away, and come back with their handiwork.

New logo, new tagline, and If this sounds familiar, you may have also had a feeling something is amiss: who are these people to say what one should value?

Why is it that the head of marketing, your internal creative person, has decided his functional duty is to hire some team to be creative for him?

Why do they always have a CEO who likes to talk like he's saying something profound all the time, like he's watched too many Matthew Mcconaughey car adverts and taken them as an ethos? And, most importantly, why do they like to say phrases like 'fun fact.. It may sound like I am disparaging a whole industry, and that's not exactly what I want to do I am a user experience designer, after all, we also have seemingly lofty goals , but rather I am disparaging particular approach of an industry.

Because often the distillation of these experiences is not a cooperative exploration of meaning-making, one in which organisations and marketers define purpose, but rather it produces statements like "be more authentic. This approach can't be blamed; as Sinek points out, defining real purpose asks a lot, emotionally; in fact, Sinek points out there are few people that possess the charisma, the discipline, and focus to be that person dividing people into the dreamers and the doers, who form a sort of symbiotic relationship , and few organisations that can do it.

Most often, businesses become about discounts, promotions, what Sinek calls 'manipulations', and, as he points out, this never lasts, as it never results in true customer loyalty but rather providing a customer convenience, one they will replace if something ever becomes more convenient. The reward for finding the why of your organisation is that people will pay more for the services; elements like loyalty, personal connection and perceived alignment with an individuals lifestyle can make a brand become iconic and sought after even if it costs more than competitors.

Phrases like "solving the world last planning puzzles" or "the 3d experience company" are examples being a bit biased with those , which define why not what. They communicate values. What's great about this book is that it provides a path at the individual and corporate level for growth; it starts with defining personal and corporate values, and then finding branches or new industries that are related to those values.

It's important because this is one of the hardest things we do in our professional lives: how should we focus on personal growth individual level , and what new product should our company take on corporate.

But those are action; and what we want to find is our 'why'. He illustrates ways to do this, not just why its important, and finding your why is the first step to finding happiness. That may sound like hyperbole, but there are corollaries in all aspects of life that are about finding our 'why': philosophy, religion, reading, even playing sport, all these can be about pushing boundaries, and getting into the sense of who you are; they aren't necessarily rational activities in that they don't provide an immediate value, yet we do them by instinct, at least those of us who are interested in personal growth.

It is so refreshing to read these things in a management book, as well to read advice like, focus on being your own competition, take on clients who you know value what you do and don't take on ones that don't , that competing on price is not the obvious or best way to create or do things that will change the world. For those who feel like they are here to 'put a dent in the universe', this book is for you; but not just this book, a certain experiential life is for you, and this book will re-affirm that commitment.

If that resonates with you, as it does with me, read this book. Apr 20, Mohit Pahuja rated it did not like it. The idea is simple but explanations are redundant. Simon's Ted Talk was great but I don't think it's enough content for a book.

He doesn't support his theories with enough evidence. Sometimes, I could think of the counter examples very easily. That made me doubt the author's credibility. And the concept of Golden Ratio that he introduced to give legitimacy to his concept of Golden Rule is outright stupid.

Not worth a read. Just see his Ted Talk, it's great. Apr 24, Laura Frey Reading in Bed rated it it was ok. Try harder. Having read Leaders Eat Last, and watching and following everything Sinek does, I thought it was about time to go back to his original book. With a basis in anthropology, but a strategic marketing mind and experience, Sinek has created a great argument for why "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it".

Work out your own personal "why" and you will be successful provided you stay true to that "why" AND make sure others in your organisation also understand and believe in that "why".

Thi Having read Leaders Eat Last, and watching and following everything Sinek does, I thought it was about time to go back to his original book. I've started to really think about what is my why and how I can communicate that effectively, use it as a basis for what I do and update my marketing material and website! A fantastic book for any leader or business owner who wants to truly understand how to inspire others.

Feb 15, Chad Kettner rated it it was amazing Shelves: business. Simon Sinek offers a life-altering and business-changing message: "Start with Why". Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should people care? The golden circle - the "why, how, and what" - is grounded in biology. If you talk about your beliefs, you will attract others with the same or similar beliefs. Sinek shares several powerful examples, as well as a few other important concepts to really drive the point home.

And while this is one of the most powerful, practical messages I've read in a while, my one complaint is that the book faces the same challenge that a lot of other business books seem to have And I'd still recommend buying the book to drive the points home with a bit more depth. But just realize that it does become repetitive. Jan 07, Malleswari rated it it was amazing. This is one of the best books I read in my list.

Simon Sinek, the author of the book, narrated very clear how great leaders started with WHY and inspired people. Martin Luther King inspires the way they changed the world. I agree with the author's point of Manipulations and energy will bring the customers but that will no longer work. Instead, Inspirations and Charisma will have longer impact, when people believes what we believe they will be with us for long time. Nov 14, Umberto rated it did not like it. I hated this book.

It is overly simplistic, repetitive, has little merit into the real world and was annoying to read. This book could have said everything in 20 pages but instead dragged it out to This book just made me mad and I am glad to be done with it Jul 15, TheBookWarren rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction , original-concepts-or-envelope-nudgi , rcmnd-to-me-by-multiple-sources , economics-physics-the-world , self-help-improvement-or-technical , knowledge-is-power.

This is top-of-his-game Simon Sinek here and it is a book that is a genuine must-have for anyone whom leads people and or teams in business or even social or sporting climates. He rather lays out the foundations and the potential results and outcomes via ROI that can be measured and applicable whenever called upon. Such value and viable strategic tools on hand here that are more relevant each passing moment. This is fact as a opposed to being my opinion. However, it is my opinion of him to say that I believe he has recently now become almost a caricature of his most renowned self.

Irrespective of the above personal notion, Simon Sinek in Literature — at least for now — remains a quintessential voice for those searching for inspiration, structure or guidance in the form of leadership, self-awareness, self-discovery, or just to up-skill their production as pertaining to their career. May 02, Swati rated it really liked it Shelves: business. I read this book on a friend's recommendation. I knew of the author as I had glimpsed a few of his inspirational videos, but at the time of starting this book, I had not seen the Ted Talk that made him famous in the first place which is basically the essence of this book.

Some people feel it's better to just watch the Ted Talk and leave the book as it's repetitive and unnecessarily dragged, I beg to differ. The Ted Talk may not work for everyone to fully grasp the message; it wasn't enough for me, I watched the Ted Talk before I started the book maybe it's just me. But the book made me delve deeper, it helped me understand the concept better.

While I agree there are a lot of repetitions in the book, but I feel it just helped in drilling the message deeper. I definitely was able to take in much more from the book than from the Ted Talk alone. Aug 14, Leah rated it liked it Shelves: own-the-book.

All in all a good book. Notes: - "There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it Typical manipulations include: dropping the price; running a promotion; using fear, peer pressure or aspirational messages; and promising innovation to influence behavior—be it a purchase, a vote or support.

The light bulb, the microwave oven, the fax machine, iTunes. These are true innovations that changed how we conduct business, altered how we live our lives, and, in the case of iTunes, challenged an industry to completely reevaluate its business model Motorola had successfully designed the latest shiny object for people to get excited about 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.

Every one of them can indeed help influence behavior and every one of them can help a company become quite successful. But there are trade-offs. Not a single one of them breeds loyalty. Over the course of time, they cost more and more. The gains are only short-term. And they increase the level of stress for both the buyer and the seller. 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 often don't even bother to research the competition or entertain other options. Loyalty is not easily won. Repeat business, however, is. All it takes is more manipulations. A WHY is just a belief. That's all it is. HOW's are the actions you take to realize that belief.

And WHAT's are the results of those actions — everything you say and do: your products, services, marketing, PR, culture and whom you hire.

Nov 13, Fred Leland rated it it was amazing. This book was very well researched and written in a way that indeed gels with the Author Simon Sinek s "WHY" of inspiring others. The book is based on the premise of most people know what they do. Some know how to do WHAT they do.

But very few know WHY they do what they do. Most think from what to how and then on to why. Simon Sinek submits By WHY he means whats our purpose,and beliefs behind what we do? The book provides great examples This book was very well researched and written in a way that indeed gels with the Author Simon Sinek s "WHY" of inspiring others. The book provides great examples from business, military and social movements where leaders identifies their Why and lived and breathed into their organizations and movements, with such enthusiasm that their organizations flourished and succeeded.

Simple and elegant, it shows us how leaders should lead. This book can lead you to levels of excellence you never considered attainable. A perspective that is nothing short of the truth. Start earning points for buying books! Uplift Native American Stories. Add to Bookshelf. Read An Excerpt. Dec 27, ISBN Add to Cart. Buy from Other Retailers:. Oct 29, ISBN Audiobook Download. Paperback —. About Start with Why 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.

In , Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others?

Listen to a sample from Start with Why. Also by Simon Sinek. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. Creativity, Inc. Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. Give and Take. Leaders Eat Last. Daniel H. Find Your Why. The Question Behind the Question. John G. The Culture Code. Daniel Coyle.