Start With WHY.

Start With WHY (Simon Sinek, 2009)

1. A world that doesn’t start with WHY

Our behaviour is affected by our assumptions or our perceived truths. Be careful of what you think you know. Assumptions even when based on sound research can lead us astray.

Carrots and sticks (metaphor of reward and punishment to induce certain behaviour). Fear motivates us to move away from something horrible, aspirations tempt us toward something desirable. Though positive in nature, aspirational messages are most effective for people who lack discipline and feeling insecure that they don’t have the ability to achieve their dreams on their own. Aspirational messages can spur behaviour but for most, it won’t last. Eg gym membership and attendance. Peer pressure works not because the majority or the experts are always right but because we fear that we may be wrong.

The confusion of innovation with novelty. Innovation should be industry-altering, on the other hand novelty us just added values to differentiate, not reinvent. Apple iPhone replaced Motorola Razr not because of the brilliant feature (touch screen) but because they tell the service provider what the phone would do, not the other way around.

2. An alternative perspective

The Golden Circle helps us understand why we do what we do. We can achieve more if we remind ourselves to start everything we do by first asking WHY.

Starting from outside of the circle and moving inward:-

WHAT: everyone knows, easily able to describe, easy to identify

HOW: often explain how something is different or better

WHY: very few can articulate why they do what they do, what’s the purpose, cause or belief

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

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

Knowing WHY is essential for lasting success and the ability to avoid being lumped in with others. 

*my WHY: CONNECTING PEOPLE 💪🏼

The need to belong. Eg meeting Malaysians overseas. Eg social acceptance.

Two parts of the brain is called limbic and neocortex. The part that controls feelings (limbic) has no capacity for language (neocortex) and that’s why it’s hard to put love into words, to explain why we love the people we love. That’s the problem with love, we just know we’ve found it because it just feels right. The gut decision. When we force people to make decisions with only rational thinking, they may be overthinking. Decision made with limbic brain, gut decision, tends to be faster, higher quality decision. Eg teacher told students to choose the first answer they chose in multiple choice questions. Great leaders are those who trust their gut, understand the art before science, win hearts before minds and they are the one who start with WHY.

Clarity of WHY, discipline of HOW and consistency of WHAT to ensure long-lasting business.

3. Leaders need a following

The emergence of trust is not by fulfilling all your responsibilities. Trust is a feeling, not a rational experience. Trust begins to emerge when we have a sense that another person or organisation is driven by things other than their own self-gain. You have to earn trust by communicating and demonstrating that you share the same values and beliefs, talk about WHY and prove with WHAT you do. Give people something to believe in.

Innovation happens at the edges. The role of leaders is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen, not come up with all the great ideas.

4. How to rally those who believe

Communication is not about speaking, it’s about listening. Logos are a way to communicating what you believe. The logo should say something about who you are. It embodies an entire value set, not only the product but also the people behind them.

Survive the celery test.

5. The biggest challenge is success

As success grows, WHY may become fuzzy, split. Never lose sight of WHY no matter how little or how much they achieve. WHY without HOW, passion without structure, has a high probability of failure.

Pass the bus test.

6. Discover WHY

The origins of WHY: trust intuition and take greater risks than others, stay true to one’s purpose, cause or beliefs. To inspire people, do the things that inspire them.

When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you. What if we showed up to work every day simply to be better than ourselves?

What if the next time when someone asks, “Who’s your competition?” “No idea” “What makes you better than your competition?” “We’re not better than them in all cases” “Why should I do business with you then?” “Because the work we are doing now is better than the work we were doing six months ago. And the work we’ll be doing six months from now will be better than the work we’re doing today. Because we wake up everyday with a sense of WHY we come to work. Our goal is to find customers who believe what we believe and work together so that we can all succeed.

P/s: only notes and not reviews.