Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

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 historyd) Compare the WHYs of nations in WWI and WWIIe) Compare the WHYs of great leaders in historyf) Compare the WHYs of great geniusesg) 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 educationg) 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 leadersi) 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!

I enjoyed this book very much. Very informative on how leaders should lead. I would highly recommend reading Start With Why.

This book is written to guide you to the understanding of what Sinek calls “the golden circle”. The main idea is this; having the proper understanding of why you do what you do will inspire others to follow. That is, they will follow if you also clearly communicate why you do it. Sinek proposes that this is the way to find the employees, customers, and partners that will be a good fit for an organization and remain loyal.There are three sections in this golden circle: why, how, and what. The one main concept that is repeated over and over is that “people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it” (Sinek, 2009). If you find customers, employees, and partners that have similar values and beliefs as you have, then there is a good fit and trust will be built on this foundation. This will allow for long-term success. That is, the success will last as long as the “why” remains clear.Sinek provides ample examples of successful individuals and organizations that use this approach. He maintains that features and pricing are usually very similar among available products or services, and are not sufficient alone to drive success. The part of our brain that drives logic and communication can relate to the issues of what a company offers and how they do it, but decisions are actually made on a deeper level. Our behaviors and decisions are made in the limbic brain, where there is no capacity for language. If lasting and reproducible success is to be achieved then it is the limbic region of the brain that must be appealed to.Sinek further explains that real leaders are those who have willing followers. The way to do this is by communicating the “why” of the organization clearly and hiring employees who fit into the company culture. As in any culture, those who share the same values and beliefs will be drawn together. “Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it (Sinek, 2009).This book offers a different way to approach business. It is a plan for communicating what a person or organization really stands for. The plan is designed to provide a sustainable method to building quality relationships that are mutually beneficial and satisfying. The golden circle is a simple description of a communication process that has been shown to be effective in many organizations. This is a model that seems to work on many levels and results in more profit, repeat business, less stress, and less turnover and waste.This is an informative look into an approach that many have already used with amazing results. Sinek repeats the main concepts several times and also provides multiple illustrations to drive the point home. The main idea of the book could be condensed into a much shorter format, and I would like to see this done as a tool to use alongside the book. I personally found the repetition and many real world examples to be helpful at driving home the concepts. I recommend this book.

It’s a really good book with a lot of advices for people who’s looking more guidance about some activities management to be successful with

Great book for anyone wanting to start Business.

Muito útil, limpa bem, fácil de usar.

Das Buch unterscheidet sich von den restlichen Selbsthilfebücher, indem die fundamentale Einstellung im Mittelpunkt steht, und nicht die Ergebnisse. Super!

Good product