Tao Te Ching
Start With Why
By Simon Sinek
Most professions have clear learning steps – classes, seminars, SOPs, training sessions, degree programs. For the most part, however, leadership skills are neglected, assumed to be innate. Like any other skill though, they can be learned, discussed, practiced. More flexible and situational than linear and defined, they relate to deeper qualities like openness, empathy, and even compassion. Making money, profitability, and most symbols of success become almost unintended consequences rather than goals. The true symbols defining leadership success revolve around less tangible qualities and highlight inspired people engaged in meaningful projects benefiting others.
Themes
Quotes from Start With Why
“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.”
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“He was not perfect. He had his complexities. He was not the only one who suffered in a pre-civil rights America, and there were plenty of other charismatic speakers. But Martin Luther King Jr. had a gift. He knew how to inspire people.”
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“Leaders never start with what needs to be done. Leaders start with WHY we need to do things. Leaders inspire action.”
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“Steve Jobs came of age in this time... saw the power of government and corporations as the enemy, not because they were big, per se, but because they squashed the spirit of the individual... Thus was born Apple Computer, a company with a purpose—to give the individual the power to stand up to established power, to empower the dreamers and the idealists to challenge the status quo and succeed.”
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“The goal of business should not be to simply sell to anyone who wants what you have—the majority—but rather to find people who believe what you believe... people don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it”
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“The only difference between you and a caveman is the car you drive.”
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“There is a reason we're not friends with everyone we meet. We're friends with people who see the world the way we see it, who share our view and our belif set.”
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“This dance between gut and rational decision-making covers how we conduct business and even live our lives... it is what we can't see that makes long-term success more predictable”
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“Trust begins to emerge when we have a sense that another person or organization is driven by things other than their own self-gain.”
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“We've succeeded as a species because of our ability to form cultures—groups of people who come together around a common set of values and beliefs.”
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“WHY-types are the visionaries, the ones with the overactive imaginations. They tend to be the optimist who believe that all the things they imagine can actually be accomplished. HOW-types live more in the her and now. They are the realists and have a clear sense of all things practical.”
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