In a video on Ted.com in May of 2010, Simon Sinek addresses how great leaders inspire action. He begins his speech by asking three separate questions. First; why is apple so innovative when they’re just a computer company with all of the same access to talent, agencies, consultants, and media as everyone else? Second; Why did Martin Luther King lead the civil rights movement when we was not the only man who suffered from discrimination? And thirdly, why were the Wright brothers able to achieve man-powered flight when others were way more qualified with more resources? According to Sinek, these answers are simple and come in a system.
Sinek refers to this as the “Golden Circle.” The outer most ring is “What?”, the next ring in is “How?” and the center point of the circle is “Why?”. This is the order in which most people and companies think; What? How? Why? They want to know what they are doing, how they are doing it, and lastly why they are doing it. According to Sinek the great leaders of the world think the exact opposite. Their thought process is; why am I doing this? How am I going to do this? What am I going to do to do this? They start from the center of the “Golden Circle” and work their way out. The “Why” expresses what that person or company stands for.
Sinek gives a great example using Apple. If their focus was on the “What” their marketing message may sound something like, “We make great computers, they’re beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. Want to buy one?” Instead, Apple is a leading innovator because they believe in something. Their marketing message is, “Everything we do we believe in challenging the status-quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one? The biggest difference between the two is the second message conveys what they believe in. Sinek explains that people do not buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
The goal in being successful is doing business with those who believe what you believe. If you hire some one and they take it because of the money, you will only get so much from them. If you hire some one because they believe in what you believe in, you can start to make progress. A man by the name of Samuel Peirpont Langley was given fifty thousand dollars to build the first man-powered flying machine. He went to Harvard and worked for the Smithsonian and was more than qualified for the job. He was given a highly sophisticated team and had every one rooting for him. Meanwhile two brothers from Ohio were also trying to build the first man-powered flying machine. Orville and Wilbur Wright did not have any funding, nor appropriate schooling but they both shared the same belief and dream driving them to succeed. When they did succeed, Samuel Peripont Langley quit. Instead of seeing their design and trying to improve upon it, he flat out quit. He was not the first, he didn’t get rich, and he didn’t get famous so it quit. Langley was doing it for the “what” and not the “why.”
To answer his third question, Sinek discuss’ Dr. Martin Luther King and why he lead a civil rights movement when he was not the only man suffering. The reason is because MLK told people what he believed in and not what he wanted to change. The people who believed in what he believed in made his cause their own. People are driven by what they believe in. No one went to see MLK’s famous “I Have A Dream” Speech because of MLK, they went to see him because of what they believed in themselves. Sinek has a very clever line, “He gave the I have a dream speech, not the I have a plan speech.”
In my opinion Simon Sinek delivered a very inspiration and eye-opening talk. He addresses the importance of why we do things and the reasoning behind out actions. To start a company it is not about what the company is going to do but why the company is going to do it. It is something I do not think enough people think about when trying to become successful. If a company is making a product to get rich but does not know why they are making that product, they will never succeed.
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