Sinek Why Quotes & Sayings

Companies that fail to communicate a sense of WHY force us to make decisions with only empirical evidence. This is why those decisions take more time, feel difficult or leave us uncertain. — Simon Sinek

The irony is, the advertising industry knows everyone hates what they produce. This is why they keep looking for new ways to force people to stay tuned. — Simon Sinek

We invest in things like the future, like our children, like education. In other words, we invest in things that we understand we will not see an immediate return of investment but everybody knows it will have a positive impact and you can easily measure it over the course of time. Your why is exactly the same thing. — Simon Sinek

When the WHY Goes, WHAT Is All You'll Have Left — Simon Sinek

Every company, organization or group with the ability to inspire starts with a person or small group of people who were inspired to do something bigger than themselves. Gaining clarity of WHY, ironically, is not the hard part. It is the discipline to trust one's gut, to stay true to one's purpose, cause or beliefs. Remaining completely in balance and authentic is the most difficult part. — Simon Sinek

Those in pursuit of Why are inspired to do what is right. Those in pursuit of What are driven to do what is easy. — Simon Sinek

A why has to be for others. It's something you give to the world. It's the reason your friends love you because this is the thing that you give them and it fulfills them. This is the reason your clients love you or your fans love you because you give them something. It's something to offer, that's what the why is. — Simon Sinek

If they had started their sales pitch with WHY the product existed in the first place, the product itself would have become the proof of the higher cause - proof of WHY. — Simon Sinek

Every single organization - or career, for that matter - exists on three levels: WHAT you do, HOW you do it and WHY you do it. — Simon Sinek

When they are unclear about your WHY, WHAT you do has no context. Even though — Simon Sinek

Reality will always prevail so why help it? Be an idealist and see what happens. — Simon Sinek

Listening is not understanding the words of the question asked, listening is understanding why the question was asked in the first place. — Simon Sinek

The goal of business should not be to do business with anyone who simply wants what you have. It should be to focus on the people who believe what you believe. When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our WHY, trust emerges. — Simon Sinek

For great leaders, The Golden Circle is in balance. They are in pursuit of WHY, they hold themselves accountable to HOW they do it and WHAT they do serves as the tangible proof of what they believe. — Simon Sinek

It's worth repeating: people don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. — Simon Sinek

Ironically, the woman's initial interest may have been generated based on those elements. She agreed to go on the date because her friends told her that Brad was good-looking and that he had a good job and that he knew a lot of famous people. Even though all those things may be true, WHATs don't drive decision-making, WHATs should be used as proof of WHY, and the date plainly fell flat. — Simon Sinek

Most organizations only focus on WHAT they do and HOW they do it - tactics and strategies - and they aren't even aware that this thing called the WHY exists. Focusing on only two pieces of a three piece puzzle leaves an organization, or a career, inherently out of balance. Being out of balance, only operating on two of the three pieces, shows up in different ways - increased stress, loss of passion, obsession with what your competition is doing, being forced to play the price game, trouble differentiating. These are all signs that the WHY is missing. — Simon Sinek

If the leader of the organization can't clearly articulate WHY the organization exists in terms beyond its products or services, then how does he expect the employees to know WHY to come to work? — Simon Sinek

If you sell what you do, you're a vendor. If you sell why you do it, you're a brand. — Simon Sinek

Remember, these chemicals control our feelings. That's why we can actually feel the weight of responsibility when others commit time and energy to support us. We want them to feel that the sacrifices they made for us were worth it. We don't want to let them down. We want to make them proud. And if we are the ones giving the support, we feel an equal sense of responsibility. We want to do right by them so that they can accomplish all that they set out to do. It is because of serotonin that we can't feel a sense of accountability to numbers; we can only feel accountable to people. This — Simon Sinek

Bottom line. All companies are in business to make money, but being successful at it is not the reason why things change so drastically. That only points to a symptom. Without understanding the reason it happened in the first place, the pattern will repeat for every other company that makes it big. It is not destiny or some mystical business cycle that transforms successful — Simon Sinek

WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. When I say WHY, I don't mean to make money - that's a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care? — Simon Sinek

When the person who personifies the WHY departs without clearly articulating WHY the company was founded in the first place, they leave no clear cause for their successor to lead. — Simon Sinek

Instead of asking, "WHAT should we do to compete?" the questions must be asked, "WHY did we start doing WHAT we're doing in the first place, and WHAT can we do to bring our cause to life considering all the technologies and market opportunities available today? — Simon Sinek

Good leadership is always human. It takes time and energy. It is hard work. Which is why good leadership is so special when we find it. — Simon Sinek

All the great organizations in the world, all have a sense of why that organization does what it does. — Simon Sinek

Achievement happens when we pursue and attain what we want. Success comes when we are in clear pursuit of Why we want it. — Simon Sinek

All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year. Those who forget WHY they were founded show up to the race every day to outdo someone else instead of to outdo themselves. The pursuit, for those who lose sight of WHY they are running the race, is for the medal or to beat someone else. — Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, proposed the idea of The Golden Circle contending great organizations create their foundation by first addressing WHY they exist, then HOW they go about doing what they do, and then finally, WHAT they do. — Jeremiah Gardner

Though we may have desires or bold goals, for whatever reason, most of us don't think we can achieve something beyond what we're qualified to achieve. Why, I ask, do we let reality interfere with our dreams? — Simon Sinek

I couldn't understand why my productivity went down when I had deliberately made more time available to write. Then I realized it was because I wasn't flying as much. — Simon Sinek

Directions are instructions given to explain how. Direction is a vision offered to explain why. — Simon Sinek

Every company knows what they do
Some know how they do it
Very few know why — Simon Sinek

Destructive Abundance is what I call the result of this imbalance. It is what happens when selfish pursuits are out of balance with selfless pursuits. When the levels of dopamine-incentivized behaviors overwhelm the social protections afforded by the other chemicals. When protecting the results is prioritized above protecting those who produce the results. Destructive Abundance happens when the players focus almost exclusively on the score and forget why they set out to play the game in the first place. — Simon Sinek

Successful succession is more than selecting someone with an appropriate skill set - it's about finding someone who is in lockstep with the original cause around which the company was founded. Great second or third CEOs don't take the helm to implement their own vision of the future; they pick up the original banner and lead the company into the next generation. That's why we call it succession, not replacement. There is a continuity of vision. — Simon Sinek

Success comes when we wake up every day in that never-ending pursuit of why we do what we do. — Simon Sinek

When people know WHY you do WHAT you do, they are willing to give you credit for everything that could serve as proof of WHY. — Simon Sinek

Good leadership is hard to measure on a daily basis which is why so many default to doing what's easy to measure instead. — Simon Sinek

We say WHAT we do, we sometimes say HOW we do it, but we rarely say WHY we do WHAT we do. — Simon Sinek

I don't consider myself an expert in the why. I don't consider myself an expert in leadership. I consider myself a student of leadership and I consider myself a student of the why. I'm constantly learning and I'm constantly looking for opportunities where it it will fail. — Simon Sinek

You'll never see the president carry his own luggage, and why? Because even though we know he has luggage, it would reduce his stature if he was too much like us. We need to think of our leaders as being above us, even though they must still relate to us. — Simon Sinek

Great leaders are those who trust their gut. They are those who understand the art before the science. They win hearts before minds. They are the ones who start with WHY. — Simon Sinek

Contents Introduction: Why Start with Why? PART 1: A WORLD THAT DOESN'T START WITH WHY 1. Assume You Know 2. Carrots and Sticks PART 2: AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE 3. The Golden Circle 4. This Is Not Opinion, This Is Biology 5. Clarity, Discipline and Consistency PART 3: LEADERS NEED A FOLLOWING 6. The Emergence of Trust 7. How a Tipping Point Tips PART 4: HOW TO RALLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE 8. Start with WHY, but Know HOW 9. Know WHY. Know HOW. Then WHAT? 10. Communication Is Not About Speaking, It's About Listening PART 5: THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS SUCCESS 11. When WHY Goes Fuzzy 12. Split Happens PART 6: DISCOVER WHY 13. The Origins of a WHY 14. The New Competition — Simon Sinek

People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe — Simon Sinek

Regardless of WHAT we do in our lives, our WHY - our driving purpose, cause or belief - never changes. — Simon Sinek

The problem was, they advertised their product as a "5GB mp3 player." It is exactly the same message as Apple's "1,000 songs in your pocket." The difference is Creative told us WHAT their product was and Apple told us WHY we needed it. — Simon Sinek

The farther right you go on the curve, the more you will encounter the clients and customers who may need what you have, but don't necessarily believe what you believe. As clients, they are the ones for whom, no matter how hard you work, it's never enough. Everything usually boils down to price with them. They are rarely loyal. They rarely give referrals and sometimes you may even wonder out loud why you still do business with them. "They just don't get it," our gut tells us. The importance of identifying this group is so that you can avoid doing business with them. — Simon Sinek

Mergers are like marriages. They are the bringing together of two individuals. If you wouldn't marry someone for the 'operational efficiencies' they offer in the running of a household, then why would you combine two companies with unique cultures and identities for that reason? — Simon Sinek

Our visions are the world we imagine, the tangible results of what the world would look like if we spent every day in pursuit of our WHY. — Simon Sinek

People followed him not because of his idea of a changed America. People followed him because of their idea of a changed America. The part of the brain that influences our behavior and decisions does not have the capacity for language. We have trouble saying clearly, in emotional terms, why we do what we do, and offer rationalizations that, though valid and true, are not powerful enough to inspire others. — Simon Sinek

The course of time, all of Apple's competitors lost their WHY. Now all those companies define themselves by WHAT they do: we make computers. They turned from companies with a cause into companies that sold products. And when that happens, price, quality, service and features become the primary currency to motivate a purchase decision. At that point a company and its products have ostensibly become commodities. As any company forced to compete on price, quality, service or features alone can attest, it is very hard to differentiate for any period of time or build loyalty on those factors alone. — Simon Sinek

Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention. — Simon Sinek

My challenge is to make sure the things I say and the things I do remain consistent for as often and as long as possible. My why is to inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that together we can change our world. That's why I wake up every single day. I'm agnostic to the form it takes: I teach, I write, I speak, I advise. — Simon Sinek

The WHY exists in the part of the brain that controls feelings and decision-making but not language. WHATs exist in the part of the brain that controls rational thought and language. — Simon Sinek