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
“a WHY never changes. WHAT we do can change with the times, but WHY you do it never does.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“American culture strongly values ideals of entrepreneurship, independence and self reliance... our WHY—the American Dream.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“I was always the eternal optimist. I was the one who inspired everyone to believe that could do whatever they wanted... to inspire people to do the things that inspired them, so that, together, we can change the world.That's the path to which may life and my work is now completely devoted.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“Leaders never start with what needs to be done. Leaders start with WHY we need to do things. Leaders inspire action.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“No matter how experienced they were or what they brought to the table, they were asked to leave if they weren't team players... There was no room for those who didn't believe”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“over 90% of all new businesses fail in the first 3 years... 50% of all marketing works, the problem is, which 50%?”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“over 90% of all new businesses fail in the first 3 years... 50% of all marketing works, the problem is, which 50%”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“Success and achievement are not the same thing... achievement comes when you pursue and attain WHAT you want. Success comes when you are clear in pursuit of WHY you want it.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“The only difference between you and a caveman is the car you drive.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“Trust begins to emerge when we have a sense that another person or organization is driven by things other than their own self-gain.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care? [this can ] explain loyalty and how to create enough momentum to turn an idea into a social movement.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
“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.”
Chapters:
Comments: Click to comment
Comments (0)
Log in to comment.