1-Page Summary

Start With Why covers everything you need to know about creating an organization that puts its values at the center of its business. The core concept is simple and straightforward: great businesses know why they’re doing what they’re doing—and they use that mission as their guiding principle.

Given this goal, Start With Why covers three aspects of WHY: 1) defining your WHY, 2) understanding how your WHY affects your company on all levels, and 3) making sure you stay focused on your WHY in the long-term.

Defining Your Why

Your WHY is your central belief. It’s the concept that motivates you to get out of bed in the morning. In terms of an organization, it’s the reason you’re in business.

The WHY leads to the HOW and the WHAT:

As an example, we’ll use technology company Apple:

The Golden Circle

These three elements form The Golden Circle. The Golden Circle looks like a target, where the WHY is the bullseye, the HOW is the middle ring, and the WHAT is the exterior ring. When you start with WHY, you build your company’s message from the inside out. As a result, customers want to engage with your product because they believe in it. They become loyal to you and your company, which builds your brand and spreads your message.

Don’t Start with WHAT

Unfortunately, most companies don’t start with WHY. That’s because starting with WHY is hard. It involves a lot of introspection, inspiration, vision, and clarity.

Instead, most companies start with WHAT. As the most superficial layer, it’s the easiest to identify and communicate.

As a thought experiment, consider Tom, a man going on a date. When he sits down, he starts with his WHAT: “I’m a really successful person. I own a BMW and my best friends are all CEOs or models. I’m rich and I can buy you lots of nice things.”

Obviously, Tom sounds obnoxious, the kind of person who wouldn’t get a second date. Surprisingly, companies communicate exactly like this: “Our product has the best features. Our customers are the biggest companies in the world. We’re making a lot of money, and you should buy our product too.”

But customers don’t buy WHAT - they buy the WHY. Think about Tom starting with WHY: “What gets me out of bed every morning is making an impact on people by solving their problems. It’s the best feeling in the world. I’m also super lucky to get career success doing what I love. I’ve gotten to know lots of interesting people and I’m fortunate to be able to buy nice things.”

Inspiration Versus Manipulation

Because starting with WHY is hard, most companies turn to manipulations to sell a product. Manipulations are tactics that artificially influence customers to buy from your company or use its services. They include Price, Promotion, Fear, Aspiration, Peer Pressure, and Novelty.

Manipulations work, but they’re only short-term solutions. They won’t create loyal, repeat customers. Only inspiration can do that.

Inspiration happens when a company shares its WHY. At that point, the company isn’t selling a product—it’s selling an idea. As a result, the company’s communications are authentic: the company believes in its message, which comes across to customers. Those customers who share the same WHY are attracted to the company, and when the product is good, it establishes trust. That, in turn, brings in more customers, and creates a repeatable cycle of success.

Notable companies that focus on using their WHY to inspire include Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Harley Davidson.

Inspiring Your Team

Great leaders create strong company cultures where everyone works toward the same goal. They inspire employees to believe and pursue WHY instead of WHAT.

An inspired team shows many benefits, including:

Building an organization that’s based on trust starts with the hiring process. When you have a strong WHY, you can find employees who are also passionate about your mission.

The trick to building a tribe based on inspiration is to look beyond a résumé. Don’t just hire skilled people that you then have to motivate. Instead, hire motivated people who believe in your WHY, and inspire them.

WHY Should Affect Everything You Do

To figure out your WHY, take a step back and examine your motivation behind what you do. It’s more than just making a profit (or at least, it should be). It’s the big, bold vision that motivates your company. Once you have your WHY, you can start focusing on sharing it effectively with the world.

The Golden Circle Megaphone

The Golden Circle isn’t really flat like a normal bulls-eye target. Instead, it’s a three-dimensional cone.

In order to have a strong WHY, every ring of the company needs to be aligned with the organization’s guiding vision. The leaders in the WHY ring need to share the WHY clearly with those in the HOW ring. The HOWs then make sure the WHATs are able to share the organization’s message with everyone else. This creates The Golden Circle Megaphone, which amplifies your message in a way that inspires everyone it touches.

The Celery Test

You also have to be able to use your WHY as a filter for making good decisions. That’s where The Celery Test comes in.

Let’s say you’re at a dinner party, and everyone is giving you advice, telling you to buy products like Oreos, celery, and M&Ms. The advice-givers are successful, smart, trustworthy people that want you to buy things that will help you succeed. But if you go out and buy everything they tell you to, you’ll a) waste money and b) purchase products that might not be a good fit for your company. .

But when you have a strong WHY, you can make decisions based on that idea. If your WHY is to be healthy and eat wholesome food, you know that buying Oreos and M&Ms isn’t right for you. But celery is aligned with your mission, so you should get that instead.

In essence, the Celery Test acts as a filter to whittle down all the possible options into only the few that support your WHY.

Ultimately, The Celery Test does three things for a company:

The Celery Test works with The Golden Circle Megaphone to give companies the means to put WHY at the center of both their messaging and business decisions.

Staying Focused on WHY

Creating a WHY for a company or organization requires a visionary, inspirational leader. Think of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Sam Walton. These leaders are the ones providing the passion and motivation for the business, especially when it's first starting out.

But one of the central problems with starting with WHY is that it leads to success. As a business grows, that inspirational leader becomes further and further removed from the daily aspects of the company’s WHAT. When that happens, a company can lose sight of its WHY.

The Split

When a successful company transforms from a WHY organization to a WHAT organization, it’s called “the split.” This happens when the leadership of a company starts focusing too much on measurable metrics, like financial growth. Suddenly, the organization is focusing on its WHAT, not its WHY. And when that happens, companies stagnate. Examples of companies that have gone through the split include Microsoft, AOL, and Walmart.

But the split doesn’t have to happen. Here are strategies for keeping the focus on WHY:

Introduction: Why Start With Why?

Certain companies and leaders inspire people around them to achieve amazing goals. They mobilize people beyond using personal incentives and rewards - instead, they make people feel a sense of purpose and belonging to a community.

These effective leaders Start With WHY - they communicate the purpose of what they are doing and the impact their work will have.

Here are three examples of leaders who put their WHY first.

Story 1: Samuel Pierpont Langley vs. The Wright Brothers

Samuel Pierpont Langley had a goal: he wanted to be the first man to build a working airplane. He seemed like the perfect man for the job: he was a senior officer at the Smithsonian Institution, had been a mathematics professor at Harvard, and had secured a $50,000 grant from the War Department to help fuel his ambitions.

Already an established man, he sought fame and glory. He wanted to have the same level of fame as a Thomas Edison. He wanted the result more than the WHY itself.

A few hundred miles away, two brothers--Will and Orville Wright--had the same vision but none of the resources. They had no funding, no government connections, and no one on their team had a college education.

But they had one resource in spades: inspiration. True scientists at heart, they were obsessed about the physical problem of flight and balance, and they were determined to make it work. They endured countless failures because they believed the scientific problem was solvable. And they knew if they succeeded, it would transform the world. This WHY inspired their team to surmount every setback.

The Wrights’ inspiration came from starting with WHY, which was much different from Langley’s motivation. That WHY is what made them the first men to achieve manned flight on December 17, 1903—not Langley.

Indeed, once the Wright brothers succeeded, Langley quickly quit his flight dreams. Had he been inspired by the WHY, he would have been excited to improve on the technology. Instead, since he cared mainly about fame, the failure was humiliating, so he quit.

Story 2: Apple, Inc.

The 1960s and 1970s in America were characterized by common people rising up and challenging people in power. That was the case for Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who were at the forefront of the technological revolution.

Although Apple is one of the most prominent technological companies today, Wozniak built the Apple I not to make money, but to help the common man. Wozniak believed that allowing average people to buy and own computers would level the playing field and give the little guy a leg up.

Jobs’s role was to sell the computer Wozniak made. Jobs was more than just a great salesman: he also believed that revolutionary ideas would change the world.

That combined vision of accessibility, opportunity, and revolution became Wozniak and Jobs’s WHY—and it led to incredible success. In their first year, Apple made $1 million in revenue. This rose to $10 million in their second year. And by year six, Apple had become a billion dollar business with 3,000 employees.

Wozniak and Jobs weren’t the only people, or even the first people, participating in the computer revolution of the 1970s. But Apple succeeded--and continues to succeed--because it starts with WHY.

Story 3: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Most applications in Start With Why focus on business, but the principle applies broadly to any area of life.

Like Wozniak and Jobs, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t the first or only person participating in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. What made Dr. King stand out was his ability to inspire others. He knew that his voice wouldn’t be enough to change race relations in America. It would take thousands of average people to rally around a common cause.

His commitment to his ideals and his vision for a unified America is what brought 250,000 people to Washington D.C. to hear him deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28th, 1963. They weren’t invited and the speech wasn’t advertised. Dr. King’s vision inspired people to spread the word, build a movement, and change the nation. And it all started with Dr. King’s belief in his WHY.

The Goal: Inspiration, Motivation, Action

Those who lead aren’t necessarily #1 in terms of market share, but they’re the companies or people who are setting the course for their industries. Apple computers only make up 3 percent of the global home computing market share; however, Apple leads the technology industry because of its impact and vision. Other technology companies are trying to become Apple, not the other way around.

Great leaders:

Studies show that most people are disengaged from their job. They lack a sense of purpose. And this feeling often starts from the top. Instead, if every leader started with WHY, great results might happen:

Exercise: Learn to Identify the WHY

Now that you’ve had a brief introduction to why a person, movement, or company’s WHY is important, let’s think of some other examples.

Chapter 1: Trust Your Intuition

Business runs on a series of decisions. Whether it’s deciding what to sell, who to sell it to, or how to staff your organization, leaders have to make tons of decisions every day.

Many businesses and people rely on data to guide their decision making. We obsess over discovering details, thinking this will lead to better decisionmaking. We read books and journals, go to trade conferences, and ask our friends for more information.

But in many situations, more data doesn’t help make a better decision. We’re often tempted to think that a project didn’t work because of some missing vital detail. But sometimes, we have the entire premise of our information gathering incorrect, or we start with a wrong critical assumption. In these cases, no amount of extra data would have helped us make the right decision.

Sinek uses an example to illustrate how easily we can make mistaken assumptions. Read this description of a leader and imagine who it is:

“A 43-year-old man was sworn in as the leader of his country on a cold January day. This man was raised Roman Catholic. His predecessor was a general who led his nation’s armed forces in a war to defeat Germany.”

Who are you picturing? It’s tempting to think of John F. Kennedy. But in fact, it’s January 1933, and the description is of Adolf Hitler.

The point is that it’s easy to make wrong assumptions without knowing it. In these cases, collecting more data might not correct your decision-making, because you start with a flawed assumption about what’s driving your business.

Trust Your Gut

What’s the alternative to making decisions with data? By trusting your gut. In many situations, we have no relevant data or ignore the evidence, yet we make decisions using our intuition that turn out just fine.

When you start with WHY, you define a guiding direction that allows you to make proper decisions, even with incomplete data. Essentially, your WHY is the correct assumption about your business, and you avoid getting misled by false assumptions.

Sinek uses an analogy of a group of American executives who visited a Japanese car assembly line. The executives were confused by the door installation process. In the United States, a line worker would take a rubber mallet and tap the door on the edges to fit it perfectly into the car frame. In the Japanese manufacturing line, this step was missing. The American executives were perplexed.

The Japanese guide explained: their doors simply fit without manual adjustment, because they were designed to fit perfectly from the beginning. They engineered the right outcome from the beginning.

When you know WHY you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re able to start making correct decisions from the outset.

Chapter 2: Manipulations Don't Work

All businesses need to motivate customers and employers to do something, whether that’s buying a product or just performing a job.

There are two ways we can motivate people to act: manipulation and inspiration.

Six Common Manipulations (And Why They Fail)

Here are six common manipulation tactics and why they don’t work.

#1: Price

Lower prices induce people to buy, so companies engage in price wars and sell at rock-bottom prices.

But price manipulation can be dangerous for a company. When a customer becomes used to paying a low price, it can be nearly impossible to increase the cost of an item.

This creates a market of commodities, where companies have to create more products to keep their revenue up. So while lowering prices drives business, it also makes it hard to earn a profit in the long run.

#2: Promotions

Promotions are short-term programs (often referred to as “value added” programs) that offer a temporary incentive to make a purchase immediately. Some common promotions include limited-time sales, cash-back offers, coupons, or mail-in rebates.

We’ve all experienced promotions, and they’re a common manipulation for the car industry.

To avoid the financial penalty of promotions, companies often design rebates to be difficult to cash in on. Nearly 40% of customers never get the rebate, since they don’t follow the steps to get the refund. While this manipulation has a short-term financial advantage, it costs in long-term reputation and repeat business.

#3: Fear

Fear is the most powerful manipulation because it taps into our survival instinct.

It’s also a common tactic: think of anti-drug advertisements or public service announcements that caution you to wear your seatbelt lest you die in an accident.

In the business world, fear is often used to convince us that if we don’t buy a particular service or product, something bad will happen to us. (Shortform example: a good example of this are pharmaceutical advertisements, where people are told that not taking a certain drug will adversely affect their longevity or quality of life.)

While often nothing bad will really happen to you if you don’t buy said product/service, fear makes customers feel like it will—which is an effective manipulation.

#4: Aspiration

Aspiration taps into people’s desire to have more, do more, or be better. They’re most effective if the people they target are insecure or worry about achieving their goals.

Aspiration sounds a bit like inspiration, but they’re different things. For example, aspiration gets people to buy gym passes, but it takes inspiration to get a person to use them. That’s why gym memberships rise by 12 percent in January, but only a fraction of those people ever use them.

The biggest issue with aspirations as a manipulation tactic is that they create a desire for short-term satisfaction when only long-term solutions work. Aspirations might get people to act for a little while, but they fail to maintain their momentum.

#5: Peer Pressure

When a company claims that a majority of people or experts are using their product, they’re using social pressure--also known as peer pressure--as a manipulation. That’s why advertisements often make claims like “four out of five experts agree” or that “millions of satisfied customers” believe their product is the best!

Peer pressure works because it plays into our deep-seated fear that other people might know something we don’t. In other words, by invoking the majority, peer pressure makes us worry that our decisions are wrong.

That’s why celebrity endorsements can be so effective. When a celebrity talks about a product, it makes people think the product is good, or that buying that product will make us more like the celebrity endorser. Think of examples like Michael Jordan endorsing Gatorade and Nike, or Tiger Woods endorsing everything from Titleist golf balls to GM cars.

#6: Novelty

Novelty — defined as being “new” or “unusual” — is often marketed as “innovation.”

But novelty and innovation are very different from one another.

Ultimately, novelty tricks consumers into thinking that a product or service is innovative when it’s not.

We can see the difference between novelty and innovation when we look at two “innovative” phones: the Motorola RAZR and the Apple iPhone.

Whenever companies introduce multiple minor variants of a product, that’s a sign that they’re just practicing novelty instead of innovation, like Colgate’s thirty-two types of toothpaste.

Manipulations Only Create Short-Term Gains

Manipulations are common because they work in the short term. We live in a world where we value quick results.

As a result, manipulation tactics have become pervasive. Most companies use manipulations to get consumers to choose their product or service. And it goes beyond business: manipulations are commonly used in politics, too.

In the end, however, manipulations only lead to short-term profits. That’s because manipulations lead to transactions, not loyalty. Just like the mallets and car doors from Chapter 1, manipulations are a way companies can slap a bandage on a deeper problem. Because the results are temporary, companies have to keep using manipulations to be successful.

Why Manipulations Are Dangerous

Manipulations are an excellent tactic for transactional businesses where you only do business with a customer once.

But for any businesses that want lasting relationships with repeat customers, manipulations don’t help.

In fact, some manipulations can even harm a company’s ability to weather downturns in the economy. For example, the American motor industry--which embraces manipulations--found itself struggling in the economic downturn of 2008.

Ultimately, manipulations create stress for buyers and for sellers.

Manipulations are dangerous because their short-term effectiveness has made them the norm. As a result, companies feel pressured to do what their competition is doing. In other words, if the competition is using manipulations, then it’s more likely that your company will, too.

The economic crisis of 2008 is an extreme example of the danger of manipulations.

What’s the alternative to manipulation? Inspire your customers with your WHY.

Chapter 3: The Golden Circle

Chapter 3 introduces the core concept of The Golden Circle, one of the fundamental concepts of the book. In essence, the Golden Circle is the embodiment of how you start with WHY.

Defining The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle visualizes the structure of an organization and looks like a bullseye target with three rings. The bullseye at the center is the WHY, the next ring out is the HOW, and the largest ring is the WHAT. When making decisions or communicating, you begin at the center with the WHY, then migrate out to the HOW, then finally the WHAT.

start-with-why-golden-circle.png

Let’s define those terms in reverse order:

When it comes to communication, people tend to want to work from the outside in because it’s easier to explain your WHAT than it is to explain your WHY. Often, companies even stay at the outside layers, focusing only on the WHAT instead of the HOW or the WHY.

In contrast, what all great companies have in common is that they work The Golden Circle in reverse: they start with the bullseye (WHY) and work their way outward.

Apple and Golden Circle Marketing

Apple consistently uses The Golden Circle correctly. They begin with WHY, then figure out HOW they’ll achieve their vision and WHAT they need do create to get there.

This is clear in Apple’s marketing. Think about how strange it would sound if Apple took the typical WHAT to HOW to WHY marketing approach. It might sound something like this:

“We make good computers. Our computers are easy to use, elegant, and well designed. You should buy one.”

Now, compare that to the start with WHY approach that Apple actually uses to inspire customers:

“We think differently. We want to challenge the status quo. The way we do this is by making products that are easy to use, elegant, and well designed. And we just happen to make computers as our products. You should buy one.”

The difference is that Apple’s products are a result of their WHY. Their MacBooks, iPods, and iPhones are just a physical representation of the company’s core beliefs. Therefore, when someone buys an Apple product, they’re not just buying the WHAT: they’re buying the WHY, too.

Put another way, people don’t actually want to buy stuff. They want to buy ideas. They want to join movements. Putting your WHY first ensures that your ideas, not your product, are what make you stand out from the crowd.

It’s not that Apple’s products don’t matter - quality matters, of course. But the connection between a strong WHY and a high-quality WHAT becomes an unstoppable combination. Lots of companies make arguably equally high-quality products - but people don’t feel the same emotion and inspiration with a Dell laptop or a Samsung phone. Apple is unique in the strength of people’s emotional and inspirational connection to their mission - and this starts with WHY.

Apple and Golden Circle Decisions

Beyond marketing to consumers, all of Apple’s decisions, from product design to its advertising campaigns, put the WHY first.

Here are three examples of how Apple has done this over the past four decades:

1. The Mac Computer

The original Apple computer was designed to put accessible, easy-to-use computers in people’s homes. This broke up the monopoly that big businesses had on computing power, and it put opportunity back in the hands of the common man.

2. iTunes

The record industry had an iron grip on how people could listen to music—until Apple came along with the iPod and iTunes. By marketing the iPod as a device that put thousands of songs in your pocket, they focused on the WHY. (Note how they didn’t define the iPod as the WHAT of being an 8GB MP3 player.)

Further, with iTunes, they challenged the music industry’s strong grip on how people consumed music, letting them purchase songs digitally instead of whole physical albums. This fit Apple’s WHY of challenging the status quo and upsetting old power dynamics to empower consumers.

3. Apple Vs. Apple, Inc.

In 2007, Apple changed its legal name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc. Apple had become an “ideas” company--a WHY company--and wanted its legal name to reflect its philosophy.

The Results of Apple’s WHY

Making every decision with their WHY in mind has put Apple ahead of their competitors both in the tech industry and beyond.

Would it feel right to stand six hours in line for a new Dell computer? No - because the many other computer manufacturers have focused on the WHAT. When you buy a WHAT product, you don’t feel like you personally identify with the company’s mission (if it even has one). It’s a simple transaction, and one computer is just about as good as another.

In contrast, people who buy Apple’s WHY will choose Apple products over competitors’, because they are inspired. They feel they are part of the mission.

WHY Isn’t About “Being Better”

Which is better, Mac or PC? Everyone has an opinion, and the debate can get heated.

But when you use The Golden Circle, winning a debate like that one doesn’t matter.

Depending on the customer, “best” is subjective. Even though Apple is an industry leader, their products are right only for those people who share Apple’s WHY. Other people may align with different missions and have different needs. And that’s okay. It’s not about a Mac or a PC being “better” or “worse.” It’s about making sure the right people who align with your WHY are using your product.

Starting With WHY Creates Lasting Success

Working The Golden Circle from the inside out - starting with WHY - provides a path to long-term success. It provides a mix of innovation and flexibility that allows a company to adapt to changing circumstances.

Take railroads, for example. In the late 19th century, railroads were some of the biggest companies in America. Their early innovations changed the landscape of the country.

But over time, railroads lost sight of their WHY and instead began focusing on WHAT they were. Instead of defining a WHY of “moving people affordably,” they focused on the WHAT of “railroads and trains.”

So when the airplane was introduced, many of those big railroad companies went out of business. If they’d kept sight of their WHY, the outcome might have been different. They might have realized technology was changing and switched to a better WHAT to meet their WHY.

This example demonstrates one of the dangers of using The Golden Circle from the outside in. When you lead with WHAT, you become vulnerable to new technologies and trends. It makes it hard for people to see why your products or services have value in the face of change.

This is true for newspapers, publishing, even television. Starting with WHY does more than help you adapt--it helps you innovate, which is the key to lasting success.

Two other reasons that starting with WHY lends to long-term success:

Exercise: Apply The Golden Circle to Your Organization

Apply The Golden Circle to what you do. Start with WHY, go to HOW, then to WHAT.

Chapter 4: The Golden Circle’s Biological Foundation

The reason Golden Circle works has roots in human biology. Humans want to belong, and the need is so powerful that we will often put incredible effort and money into achieving that feeling.

Organizations that start with WHY clearly define who they are and what they stand for, and as a result, their products or services come to represent those beliefs.

When those beliefs align with our own, it creates a sense of belonging and kinship. Buying their products makes us feel like we belong in the same group as other people who buy the same things and believe in the same ideals.

Like we mentioned in Chapter 3, it’s not about Mac or PC being better or worse. Instead, each company’s WHY appeals to different types of people.

Because we want to belong, we’re attracted to companies that communicate what they believe, and we bond with other people over the products and ideas that we value.

Trusting Your Gut

The reason The Golden Circle works is because the different levels (WHAT, HOW, and WHY) correspond with different levels of the brain: specifically, the neocortex and the limbic brain.

Because the limbic brain doesn’t use language, it makes it hard for us to put our feelings into words. It’s why we hard time talking about the decisions we make. When a choice “feels” right, when we make a decision based on a “gut feeling,” it’s because we’re using our limbic brain. Once the decision gets made, our neocortex swoops in to try and verbally articulate the way we feel.

How We Make Decisions

To put it simply: decisions start in our limbic brain, and then we articulate and rationalize them using our neocortex. The WHY is how you win a customer’s “heart,” and afterward the WHAT and HOW is how you win their “mind.”

When you start with why, you target the emotional gut part of a person’s brain. While making decisions by gut may sound wishy-washy, the limbic brain is actually powerful. Studies suggest our gut instinct leads to better, faster decision making. That’s because when we use our neocortex to make decisions, we often end up overthinking them. We try to rationalize our decisions, which often leads to poorer choices.

Let’s compare rational and gut decision making with example scenarios:

So while we can make decisions with our rational brains only, we are often less confident in our choices. That happens when a company sells us on their WHAT.

But WHY connects to a deep, emotional part of ourselves. WHY leads people to make decisions based on their gut instinct, which in turn helps them feel more confident and satisfied with your choice.

Gut Decisions are Hard to Explain

Because gut decisions are hard to articulate, when your customers explain their decisions, they point to factors that might be misleading for you to act on.

For example, people explaining why they bought a Mac may point to the screen resolution and the features, but really it was a gut, emotional decision based around Apple’s mission.

This is a red herring for companies - just because people explain their decisions in terms of features doesn’t mean giving more features will sway them. In fact, often asking people what they want is misleading. As Henry Ford said, “if I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” This is the pitfall that WHAT companies compete on, and they commoditize their products by focusing on easy-to-replicate features.

Example: Laundry Detergent

Laundry detergent companies spent years competing on how clean they can get your clothes. Market research showed that people said they were looking for the detergent for the cleanest clothes. Built on this research, brands competed on how well they actually cleaned clothes, experimenting with proprietary additives.

But what people actually wanted was different. Later research showed that people weren’t interested in the detergent that literally got their clothes the cleanest. Instead, they wanted a product that made clothes feel the cleanest. The first action after taking laundry out of the dryer wasn’t to inspect it for cleanliness, it was to smell it. The feeling is stronger than the fact.

This revelation changed the grounds of competition for laundry detergent.

When you start with WHY, you don’t have to have the best, cheapest, most wonderful product. The sense of belonging is a powerful driver that can overcome minor differences in quality.

Loyal customers stick with companies, even when their products are more expensive than their competition (Apple) or take a long time to deliver (Harley-Davidson).

Leading From the Gut

Great leaders and organizations start by winning people’s hearts, then appeal to their minds. They begin with WHY--the emotional, ideological draw--then focus on the WHAT and the HOW.

This can lead to counter-intuitive approaches. Visionaries see what most of us don’t see and have no idea to ask for. But when we see it, we know we want it.

For example, John F. Kennedy assumed the office of United States President during tough times. But instead of focusing on WHAT he planned to do, he famously started with WHY: serving the country.

Similarly, Southwest Airlines entered a crowded market where air travel was a luxury that was inaccessible to normal people. Instead of charging more for their tickets to make a profit, they decided to charge less. That’s because affordable, accessible air travel is their WHY.

Exercise: Trust Your Gut

When has your gut triumphed over your rational brain?

Chapter 5: The Three Principles of The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle is a powerful tool that helps you run inspirational companies or become a great leader. But The Golden Circle only works if all three elements--the WHY, HOW, and WHAT--are in balance and used in the right order.

Let’s start by talking more about three key principles of the Golden Circle.

Element #1: Clarity in WHY

Starting with WHY means that leaders need to be able to clearly articulate why they do what they do.

Without a WHY, you have to resort to manipulations to get people to engage with your products or services, which only leads to short-term results.

Leaders who start with WHY get people to follow them willingly instead.

Element #2: Discipline in HOW

Discipline kicks in during the HOW phase. (Remember that HOW applies to the values, principles, and operational structures that help you achieve your WHY.)

HOW you work lets you make decisions that support your WHY, like hiring the right people, creating purposeful policies, and finding partners that support your vision.

But in order to do that, you have to have discipline. You need to hold every team member accountable to the principles and never veer from your direction. Counter-intuitively, discovering the WHY is relatively easy - it’s living it, day in and day out, with discipline, that’s the hard part.

Many companies espouse their values in the form of nouns - “Honesty. Customer Service. Innovation.” But effective discipline comes from articulating your values as verbs. Instead of “Integrity,” say “Do the right thing.” Instead of “Innovation,” say “Ask how everyone else is wrong.”

These verbs help people understand how they should act, which in turn, helps them make better decisions in pursuit of the WHY.

Element #3: Consistency in WHAT

If a WHY is a belief and a HOW is an action, the WHAT is the product. It’s what you produce and everything you say and do, including your marketing and hiring practices.

To maintain the public’s belief in your WHY, your WHAT needs needs to be consistent with how you live the WHY. All of your actions--from the products you put on the market to the way you treat your employees--should support your WHY. That level of consistency proves to outsiders looking in that you actually believe in your WHY.

If you betray your WHY and are inconsistent in how you follow your principles, people won’t know what you stand for. If you say your company questions the status quo as a WHY, but you put out me-too products indistinguishable from the rest of the market, you sound inauthentic.

Authenticity is also important when it comes to sales because it helps people believe in what they’re selling. By being authentic and honest (and appealing to the limbic brain), you can build customer relationships that are based on trust, not manipulation. Consistency and the authenticity that comes from it create long-lasting relationships and long-term success.

Authenticity In Action: Apple Versus Dell

Apple believed--and continues to believe--that its products like the Mac, iPod, and iTunes challenge the status quo. As a result, people understand WHY Apple does what it does, which is what makes their products authentic.

To compete with Apple, Dell released its own MP3 players and PDAs. But Dell doesn’t communicate its WHY, which means that consumers have no idea why Dell made those products other than to compete with Apple. This translates to a lack of authenticity, which makes entering a new market segment more expensive and harder.

The takeaways from this example are 1) that authenticity comes from having a clear WHY that you believe in, 2) authenticity is important to consumers, and 3) cultivating authenticity is important to sustained success.

Using The Golden Circle In the Correct Order

Once you have clarity in WHY, discipline in WHAT, and consistency in HOW, it’s time to make sure you deploy them in the right order.

Remember: great leaders and organizations work The Golden Circle from the inside out, not from the outside in. That means you have to start with WHY, which provides the framework for the HOW and the WHAT.

By keeping each step in order, you inspire people by connecting with who they are on a much deeper level.

This creates reciprocity. Because you start with WHY, your product (or WHAT) becomes a representation of your beliefs. Customers that share your beliefs will be drawn to your products, which in turn serve as an outward representation of their own WHY, too. Starting with WHY turns people who might say “I think this is the right decision,” into those who say “I know this is the right decision.”

And then you’re able to create a situation where people are able to verbalize their rationale for making a gut decision. This is powerful, and it’s also an example of balance in action.

The Dating Analogy

As a thought experiment, consider Tom, a man going on a date. When he sits down, he starts with his WHAT: “I’m a really successful person. I own a BMW and my best friends are all CEOs or models. I’m rich and I can buy you lots of nice things.”

Obviously, Tom sounds obnoxious, the kind of person who wouldn’t get a second date. Surprisingly, companies communicate exactly like this: “Our product has the best features. Our customers are the biggest companies in the world. We’re making a lot of money, and you should buy our product too.”

Now think about Tom starting with WHY: “What gets me out of bed every morning is making an impact on people by solving their problems. It’s the best feeling in the world. I’m also super lucky to get career success doing what I love. I’ve gotten to know lots of interesting people and I’m fortunate to be able to buy nice things.”

Instantly, by starting with WHY, then putting the WHAT after, Tom becomes less obnoxious.

Likewise, companies should message the same way: “We come to work everyday to solve our customers’ problems. This is the best feeling in the world. And this is good for business. We’re very successful, and we have the world’s biggest companies as our customers. Our company has never been doing better.”

Case Study: Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines was founded by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King in 1967 in order to make low-cost air travel available to everyone. At the time, only 15 percent of Americans traveled by air because it was so expensive.

Here’s how they used The Golden Circle in order:

The WHY, HOW, and WHAT all came together in a balanced mix, which led to amazing customer loyalty.

People heard Southwest’s message loud and clear, saw that the company supported their WHY in every aspect of the business, which created authenticity and trust. It came through in their tagline: “you are now free to move about the country.”

That’s the reason competitor airlines like Ted and Song--which were created by United Airlines and Delta to compete with Southwest--ultimately failed within four years of launching. While it was clear their WHAT was to provide cheap flights, they lacked a WHY. It felt inauthentic - these were just old airlines trying to grab a share of the market. As a result, they became commodities competing on price, rather than inspiring loyal customers.

Embracing the three principles of The Golden Circle--and keeping them balanced--has had a hugely positive impact on Southwest Airlines’ business. Now, people choose to fly Southwest for more than just their low fares. They choose Southwest because it’s a company that inspires them. Southwest’s WHY is clear, which means even when their routes and prices aren’t the best, people still choose to fly them over the competition.

Exercise: Operate with Discipline and Consistency

Is your business operating with a balanced circle in mind?

Chapter 6: Establish Trust

Trust is a gut feeling--it exists in the limbic brain and can’t be rationalized. That’s why we trust certain companies even when things go wrong, and mistrust other companies even though they do everything right.

And when people trust a leader or organization, they place a higher value on it. Sinek defines value as “the transference of trust,” meaning value is the result of people trusting in you, your product, or your company.

Consequently, you can’t rationally convince someone to trust you. You have to earn that trust by showing them that you share their values and beliefs. That happens when you clearly communicate your WHY. Once people trust you, they will follow you willingly.

Trust and Culture Go Together

Trust is important because it’s also the foundational building block of culture. Culture emerges when a group of people who believe and value the same things unite around those shared ideals. When we are around people who think like us, we start to trust them.

On an individual level, we form communities with people who share similar beliefs, values, and ideals. In other words, we form communities with people who share our WHY.

Consequently, those with strong WHYs tend to attract like-minded people and create a sense of belonging. That’s why companies with strong WHYs tend to have strong cultures and high levels of trust, both internally and externally.

In turn, being in a community of people who are there for the same reasons builds trust. We believe that someone who shares our beliefs is also more likely to have our back and not take advantage of us.

In turn, having trust allows people to take risks.

Trust and the Limbic Brain

The feeling of trust is located in the limbic brain (our emotional center).

That’s why personal recommendations from people we trust hold so much power: it taps into our limbic brain. When we trust the person, we’re more likely to follow their recommendations, even if they seem illogical.

Trust beats out rationality. The trick to inspirational marketing, then, is to activate networks of trusted people to talk about you and your company. (More on trust and marketing in later chapters.)

Trusting Your Leadership

When a group of people with similar beliefs have a cause, challenge, or goal to chase, this creates a strong sense of teamwork. This gives employees something to work toward, which is how great ideas happen.

This is very different from average companies, who just give people things to work on. In these situations, people do their jobs and nothing more.

It’s the job of a great leader to create an environment where inspired work can happen.

Great leaders create strong company cultures where everyone works toward the same goal. They inspire employees to believe and pursue WHY instead of WHAT.

There’s a parable of a man who comes across three bricklayers working. He asks the first bricklayer what he’s doing; the first bricklayer grumbles, “I’m laying bricks.” He asks the second the same question and gets the reply, “I’m making money.” Lastly, he asks the third bricklayer, who replies in awe, “I’m building a cathedral.”

All three men were doing the same work. The first two men had a job. The third had a calling.

By starting with WHY, you give your employees a cathedral.

An inspired team shows many benefits, including:

Building Your Tribe on Inspiration

Building an organization that’s based on trust starts with the hiring process. When you have a strong WHY, you can find employees who are also passionate about your mission.

The trick to building a tribe based on inspiration is to look beyond a résumé. Don’t just hire skilled people that you then have to motivate. Instead, hire motivated people who believe in your WHY, and inspire them.

Hiring the right people often has a flywheel effect - the more people you bring on who fit your culture, the easier it is to recruit people who also fit the culture, and so on.

Here are two real-world examples that show the effects of hiring employees who believe in your WHY:

The Shackleton Expedition

In the 20th century, Ernest Shackleton set out to cross the Antarctic. He put out an ad for this unprecedented journey: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” This attracted only people who loved the WHY and could endure the pain.

Shackleton didn’t ask for his WHAT: “Men needed for adventure. 5 years experience required. Must know how to maintain ship and pitch tents.”

He and his team of twenty-seven men ended up stranded in the Antarctic for ten months when their ship, the Endurance, sank. Remarkably, no one died, because Shackleton hired inspired people.

Southwest Flight Attendants

In the 1970s, Southwest changed their flight attendant uniform to hot pants and go-go boots, and the only people who applied for the job were cheerleaders and majorettes.

That ended up being a perfect alignment to Southwest’s WHY, since they were also cheery and uplifting. It was a perfect fit with Southwest’s commitment to fun. As a result, Southwest started actively recruiting majorettes and cheerleaders to be flight attendants.

Case Study: Trust and Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines was largely considered one of the worst airlines in the United States in the 1980s. Without a clear WHY, the company made decisions that were expedient, not correct. That led to employee exploitation, which destroyed employees’ trust in their company and leadership. In turn, employees mistreated the customers. Continental Airlines’ company culture was miserable, and the airline was in a downward spiral.

When Gordon Bethune became CEO in 1994, the company had just lost $600 million and ranked last in every measurable metric.

Bethune could see that the company had no culture and no common vision. So he decided to fix Continental by creating trust between the company and its employees. Some of the ways he did this were:

The year after Bethune took the reins, Continental posted a $250 million profit. And under Bethune’s leadership, Continental would go from being one of the worst airlines in the United States to one of the best.

And it all happened because Bethune focused on earning trust. That trust created a company culture where employees felt protected and inspired, which led to incredible success.

Chapter 7: Create Your Own Tipping Point

So after you define your WHY and Golden Circle, how do you get your new product or mission to reach more people?

In sum, by 1) understanding that different people will adopt your product at different stages of maturity, 2) finding your early adopters, and gaining a critical mass of them.

This chapter explains both concepts and how they apply to starting with WHY.

Defining the “Tipping Point” and the “Law of Diffusion of Innovations”

To understand the key points in this chapter, we have to define two key terms: the tipping point and the Law of Diffusion of Innovations.

Tipping Point

The term “tipping point” was coined in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point.

According to Malcolm Gladwell, a tipping point is “the point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.” (Related terms for this include critical mass and inflection point.)

Tipping points happen when a mass of influencers unite to support an idea or a product.

While tipping points might seem like they happen somewhat spontaneously or by luck, they can actually be consciously designed by leveraging The Law of Diffusion of Innovations.

The Law of Diffusion of Innovations

This term was coined by Everett M. Rogers in his 1962 book, Diffusion of Innovations. The Law of Diffusion explains how innovations--whether they are products, services, or ideas--spread through a population.

He identifies five key populations of people who, over time, spread an innovation throughout a social system. We’ll dive into these five populations in the next section.

The Five Populations in The Law of Diffusion

The Law of Diffusion identifies five key groups of people who help spread innovations through society. They are:

Group 1: The Innovators

Innovators make up 2.5 percent of the population. These are the people who want to be first, so they chase new ideas and products. They’re most interested in advancing society and changing the world in some way. Innovators are the rarest type of people. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk are all innovators.

Group 2: Early Adopters

Early adopters make up 13.5 percent of the population. These people aren’t coming up with new ideas, but they see the value in them, trust their guts, and jump on board right away. These are the people who stand in line for the new iPhone or have five tablets laying around the house because they upgrade models the day they release.

Group 3: Early Majority

The early majority is a large portion of the population at 34 percent. They’re still fairly comfortable with new technologies, but they’re more practical than early adopters. Additionally, they're less likely to act on gut instinct, so rationality matters more to them.

Group 4: Late Majority

The late majority, like the early majority, makes up 34 percent of the population. Also like the early majority, they’re more practical. However, they’re even less likely to make a decision on gut instinct, and even when presented with rational reasons for an innovation, they’re much less likely to hop on board.

Group 5: Laggards

Laggards are the type of people who still miss rotary phones. They make up 16 percent of the population, and they’re actively hostile toward new innovations. These are the people who are resistant to change.

In the Law of Diffusion, these groups are spread along a bell curve, where the top and bottom groups (innovators and laggards, respectively) represent that smallest portions of the population and the middle groups (the Early and Late Majorities) represent the largest.

In tipping point scenarios, all five of these groups (unconsciously) work together over time to spread an idea until that innovation eventually becomes part of our status quo.

There’s one important caveat: the Law of Diffusion category a person falls into depends on the product. For example, one person might be an early adopter when it comes to smart watches, but in the late majority when it comes to new fashion.

That’s because everyone has different WHYs. Not every product is designed for you, so it makes sense that you would move up and down the Law of Diffusion spectrum depending on the product/service in question.

The Law of Diffusion and Mass Market Success

So how can we use The Law of Diffusion to create tipping points and mass market success? The key is making sure you’re marketing to the right population.

Making sure you get innovators and early adopters on your side first is the trick to mass market success. While this these constitute just a small fraction of the overall population, they’re likely going to be your most loyal customers, and they’ll help your product spread to the masses.

How does this work?

This raises the question - how do you attract the early adopters? By focusing on WHY. You win over people who align with your mission and are willing to tolerate significant cost or inconvenience to join your mission.

Don’t Start By Marketing to the Masses

In contrast with this logic, most companies focus on marketing new products to the middle of the bell (the Early and Late Majority). This seems intuitive - this is where the majority of the population falls, so it seems like the most successful place to start marketing.

But this tends not to work. The Majority rarely try a product unless someone else has tried it before them. Since they’re risk averse, they want a trusted recommendation before they jump in.

The further you move to the right of the bell curve--toward the late majority and the laggards--the more likely you are to find people who need what you’re offering but don’t share your WHY. As a result, they tend to be difficult to work with.

You should avoid working with the late majority and laggards: not only will you struggle to get them to see your value, you’ll probably never win their loyalty. Instead, start by building a tipping point.

Keep in mind that while most businesses want mass market success, only 2,000 businesses in the United States ever reach a billion dollars in annual revenue. 99.9% of all American businesses have fewer than 500 employees.

But if you want a shot at succeeding in the mass market, you have to use the Law of Diffusion correctly. You have to focus on reaching the innovators and early adopters if you want to penetrate the market .

Case Study: TiVo

The term “TiVo” has come to mean the same thing as “recording on a DVR.” And yet, despite being well-funded with a great product, TiVo didn’t achieved mass market success because they didn’t start with WHY. As a result, they haven’t effectively used The Law of Diffusion.

Instead of telling people the WHY behind their company (which is to give people power over how they watch television), they spent all of their time talking about WHAT a DVR is and what it could do. Furthermore, they targeted the majority with their marketing, rather than the early adopters.

As such a new device, TiVO was difficult to understand the value of until you installed it in your house. But most people never got to that point.

Instead of focusing on WHAT, TiVO should have articulated its WHY - like “We want to empower people who like having control over every aspect of their lives, including when and how they watch TV.” This would have attracted the early adopters, who would align with the WHY, try out the device, and understand the value.

Then, the early adopters would have created a tipping point and spread the product to the masses.

Exercise: Start a Tipping Point

Reach the right people to create a tipping point for your new product or service.

Chapter 8: The Golden Circle Megaphone

Clarifying your WHY is well and good. But concretely, how do you achieve your WHY? It comes through building your HOW and your WHAT.

Without a strong HOW, inspirational WHY leaders have big ideas but struggle to execute them. An organization needs to be built to support and execute the WHY.

The Golden Circle Megaphone

By now, you know what The Golden Circle looks like: it’s a bullseye with WHY in the center, HOW in the second ring, and WHAT in the last ring.

But The Golden Circle does more than help you create your message, it amplifies it, too. That’s because The Golden Circle is actually a cone, just like a megaphone. Pretend you’re looking at the Golden Circle from above:

start-with-why-cone.png

The cone represents the three levels of a company or organization:

1. WHY at the Top

At the top, or point, of the cone is the WHY. This is the smallest layer of the organization which contains the top-level leaders, like the CEO or COO. These leaders provide the vision of the organization by articulating and living out its WHY.

2. HOW in the Middle

The next level of the cone is the larger HOW section. The HOW is comprised of senior executives whose job it is to translate the WHY for other employees. They create systems, rules, and policies that support the company’s WHY. Without great people in the HOW level, a company with a strong WHY can still fail.

3. WHAT at the Bottom

The WHAT level is where the bulk of the company’s employees exist. They’re doing the practical, daily work to bring the company’s products and services to life. But more importantly, these are the people who interact with customers. If they can’t articulate the company’s WHY, then customers won’t understand it, either.

When you start your message at the top and pass it through your organization, it amplifies—just like it would if it passed through a megaphone. It affects people within your organization, and then the organization uses it to amplify the message to the outside world.

Combining a Charismatic WHY With a Hard-Working HOW

Strong, charismatic leadership that starts with WHY is critical. But most WHYs need a practical HOW to help translate their vision and passion to rest of the organization.

WHYs are big-idea optimists who believe all of their ideas are possible. HOWs live in reality and are better at building the processes that bring those bold ideas to life.

WHYs have the vision and imagination needed to change industries, but they often don’t know HOW to do it. HOWs have the ability to create change, but they don’t have the vision to know what changes to make.

WHY types live in the future, and HOWs live in the present. WHYs are dreamers, while HOWs are practical.

WHY types and HOW types are capable people who can run businesses without the other. But in order to build a world-changing movement or organization, both need to exist. Without a strong HOW, inspirational WHY leaders have big ideas but struggle to execute them.

Here are some famous examples of WHY and HOW partnerships that have changed the world:

Case Study: Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy

Martin Luther King Jr. and his civil rights movement exemplify the ways WHY and HOW people work together to achieve their common goals.

In this case, while Dr. King was the leader and the WHY behind the push for racial equality, he was supported by Ralph Abernathy, who handled the HOW. Abernathy’s job was to help individuals understand what steps they needed to take to be part of the movement. Then King’s followers--the people in the WHAT level--hit the pavement to create change.

Great leaders are great because they have a team of excellent HOW-type people. Leaders can keep their sights set on the path ahead while their HOW team figures out how to implement ideas and create an organization oriented around the leader’s vision.

And because great leaders are charismatic, they attract incredibly talented HOW types that also believe in their vision.

Don’t Confuse Amplification With Volume

Amplification happens when you successfully share your WHY using The Golden Circle. Unfortunately, it’s easy to confuse amplification with volume.

Volume comes from a combination of money and publicity stunts. With enough of both, you can create expensive advertising campaigns that keep your message front and center (and the volume cranked up to high). But volume alone doesn’t create loyalty.

Take, for example, a publicity stunt that happened on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004 where Oprah gave a new car to every member of her studio audience. Everyone remembers the stunt, but no one remembers the type of car she gave away: the Pontiac G6.

In the end, Pontiac spent $7 million dollars to market their car through this publicity stunt, but it quickly faded from memory since the stunt didn’t reinforce the brand’s WHY. In contrast, people remember the event because it reinforced Oprah’s WHY, which was to be spontaneously generous to those around her.

Energy Versus Charisma

Similar to volume vs amplification is the idea of energy vs charisma. While energy can motivate people, charisma is what truly inspires them.

It’s easy to create energy within an organization through manipulations like bonuses or incentives. But charisma is what makes a leader or an organization great. Charisma has little to do with someone’s personality or physicality. Instead, charisma comes from clearly understanding your WHY and living it. This is magnetic - people are drawn to others who have a die-hard belief in a purpose greater than themselves.

In other words, energy is short-term excitement, whereas charisma comes from knowing your WHY and working toward a goal bigger than yourself. Charisma inspires people, which creates loyalty.

Energy Versus Charisma: Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates

To see the difference between energy and charisma, let’s compare two former CEOs of Microsoft: Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.

Steve Ballmer is known for being high energy. When he makes speeches, he’s enthusiastic--he often runs around the stage. (Shortform note: watch this video for some of Ballmer’s conference highlights.) And audiences respond to it! But energy alone isn’t enough to sustain a movement. It wears off.

Bill Gates, on the other hand, lacks Ballmer’s energy. He’s soft-spoken, but when he speaks, it’s with conviction. That’s because he knows his WHY and believes in it wholeheartedly. He saw a vision of a computer on every desk in every home, a WHY that resonated with his employees and customers. And today, with his work at the Gates Foundation, he has the admirable WHY of relieving as much human suffering as possible with the resources as his disposal.

So while Ballmer has energy, Gates has charisma. And that charisma comes from starting with WHY.

Case Study: Ron Bruder

Entrepreneur Ron Bruder has had repeated success because of his commitment to starting with his WHY: his belief that if you show someone an alternative possibility, it creates the possibility for that idea to be realized.

First, he started Greenwell, a travel company that was one of the first to fully computerize its operation. He grew Greenwell into a multi-million dollar business.

Next, he founded Brookhill, a real estate development company focused on building on brownfields, which are former oil and gas production sites that have long been considered too polluted to develop. While everyone thought brownfields were a lost cause, Bruder’s WHY meant that he wasn’t willing to accept that answer. Instead, he partnered with engineering firms to figure out how to clean the land through new, innovative techniques.

His latest endeavor is the Education for Employment Foundation. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, Bruder realized that terrorism wasn’t really a result of hatred. It was the consequence of a lack of opportunity for young men and women in the Middle East, Gaza, and the West Bank.

So while the country was using violence to end terrorism, Bruder saw a different path: education. The EFE Foundation’s goal is to teach these young people the hard and soft skills they need to access opportunities in their countries and abroad.

By sitting at the top of The Golden Circle and using it as a megaphone, Bruder is able to amplify his WHY while trusting those who align with his beliefs to keep the movement going. This is how Bruder is able to repeat his success over and over again across industries.

Chapter 9: Communicating With the Marketplace

Now that you’re thinking of The Golden Circle as a three-dimensional cone, it’s time to talk about what that cone is sitting on: the marketplace.

The marketplace is made up of all the customers, shareholders, competition, supplies, money, and all the other factors that make an economy work. The marketplace is characterized by chaos and disorganization. While your organization has structure and purpose, the world outside it doesn’t.

start-with-why-marketplace.png

Getting your message out and into that chaotic space is tough, especially since the only contact your organization has with the marketplace is at the bottom of the cone at the WHAT level. If your WHAT doesn’t embody and communicate your WHY, the marketplace won’t hear it.

For small businesses, this isn’t a huge problem. That’s because the company’s CEO--the head of WHY--is intimately involved in the company’s WHAT, too.

But as a company grows, and there are more HOW and WHAT level employees, the WHY leaders become farther removed from the marketplace. The WHY leaders have less capacity to communicate directly with customers, and become more involved with managing the HOW.

Put another way, as a company grows, the WHY leadership becomes the limbic brain of the company, unable to use language to express its WHY to the marketplace. That purpose is left to the WHAT level, which creates the products, the marketing campaigns, and the customer support functions.

The key, then, is to communicate your WHY clearly throughout every level of the organization. In doing so, you’ll be able to articulate your WHY to the marketplace, too.

Chapter 10: Good Communication Is About Listening

This chapter explains how an organization--especially a large one--can communicate its WHY to the marketplace effectively.

This centers around two big ideas: the power of symbols and The Celery Test.

The Power of Symbols

A symbol is defined as an object imbued with additional meaning. It’s an object that represents an idea bigger than the thing itself.

Here are two examples of powerful symbols:

All societies use symbols to reinforce their core beliefs. And the stronger the core belief, the more powerful the symbol.

Logos: The Symbols of Business

Logos are a visual object that identify a company, but they can also be symbols of what a company stands for.

Unfortunately, most companies don’t use their logos this way. Instead, companies act like dictators, telling customers who they are, what they do, and why we should be loyal to them. And like dictators, these companies manipulate people into following them. In these cases, company logos are just a way to communicate the business’s name, not to share their meaning.

In order to work as a symbol, a logo--and the company behind it--must be inspirational. The logo has to tell people something about the company beyond what they sell: it has to symbolize the company’s beliefs.

Take the Harley-Davidson logo, for instance The logo isn’t just a motorcycle brand anymore. It represents more than that: it symbolizes an outlaw mentality. The logo is so meaningful that merchandising makes up 12 percent of the company’s revenue.

The major takeaway for businesses is this: symbols are another way to amplify your message using the Golden Circle megaphone, because they can quickly and easily communicate your WHY.

The Celery Test

Trying to communicate your WHY effectively and make decisions in accordance with WHY can feel overwhelming. That’s why Sinek developed the Celery Test, a heuristic to determine what communications “best practices” really are the best practices for your business.

Here’s how the Celery Test works: imagine you’re starting a new health food store. Your WHY is to sell foods that are healthy and improve people’s well-being. You go to a dinner party where people give you advice about your new health food store. One person approaches you and tells you that you need more M&Ms, another person suggests adding celery instead, and a third person tells you to buy Oreos.

All of these people are successful and give good advice, so it's tempting to go right out to the supermarket and buy exactly what they recommended. But that will result in purchasing an armful of mismatched products which might not add value to your organization.

The better tactic is to go into the grocery store knowing your WHY. If the WHY of your health food store is to make sure people have access to healthy food, then the answer is obvious - you don’t need M&Ms or Oreos, but you buy the celery. In essence, the Celery Test acts as a filter to whittle down all the possible options into only the few that support your WHY.

Case in point - celery being the right answer was probably obvious to you when you first read the scenario. That’s the magic of a clear, concise heuristic - it makes decision making easy, because you know what decisions align with your WHY, and which ones don’t.

The Celery Test works for both short-term and long-term decisions:

Other advantages of The Celery Method include:

Obviously, not every company or organization is looking for healthy foods. But every organization should have a WHY. That’s what makes The Celery Test--which puts your WHY front and center--a great filter for your decision-making process.

Because of its simplicity, the Celery Test scales well to fit your entire organization. For people who create the HOW and people who execute the WHAT, knowing a clear, simple WHY makes decision making easy for them on a day-to-day basis.

Examples of Celery Tests

Here are two examples of companies that have passed (and failed) The Celery Test:

Disney: Disney’s strong WHY is to produce family friendly entertainment. This WHY is apparent to all its audience members and has been demonstrated over decades of discipline and consistency. Because of that, parents rarely worry about taking their kids to Disney movies or buying Disney products. Disney passes the Celery Test of whether its products are family friendly.

Volkswagen: Volkswagen is a company known for its friendliness to people, mass appeal, and hippie ideals (picture the VW van common in the 1970s). In 2004, they introduced the Phaeton, a $70,000 luxury car. The problem? Volkswagen's WHY was making great cars for everyday people. The product didn’t align with their WHY, so it didn’t succeed. Had they used the Celery Test, they could have ruled out the Phaeton as incompatible with their mission.

Chapter 11-12: How Success Separates You From WHY

So far, the book has covered how to take a company or organization without a clear WHY and put it on the right track. But what happens when a company has a WHY—but has lost it along the way?

How Success Can Negatively Affect Your WHY

Top executives and business owners have a common problem. When they were asked whether they felt successful, 80 percent of attendees said no. They all felt that as they became successful, they lost the thing that made their business special.

The pattern: although these leaders knew WHAT they did and HOW they did it, they’d become disconnected from their WHY.

The biggest hurdle any company will face is success. That definitely sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? After all, isn’t success the goal behind starting with WHY?

The problem is that as a company grows, leadership becomes more removed from the company’s messaging. In terms of the Golden Circle, when your company grows, the rings of the Golden Circle get wider, which moves the leader with the passionate vision further away from making every decision for the company.

When that happens, it’s easy to shift focus from WHY to WHAT—and before you know it, WHY starts coming last. Sinek refers to this as “the split,” which he says happens to many successful companies.

That’s why success--or at least, success that makes you lose sight of your WHY--can have negative ramifications on even the most successful company, like:

Think of it this way: the growth of a company is usually measured by your WHAT. As your WHAT increases, your company grows. That makes your “megaphone” louder—but without sticking with your WHY, your message gets muddy.

Eventually, your communication with your customers isn’t inspirational. It’s just noise.

Case Study: The Problem With Walmart

When Sam Walton founded Walmart in 1962, he had one core belief: if he looked after people, then people would look after him and his company. Sam Walton believed in the power of community. That philosophy is what led Walmart from its humble beginnings as a mom-and-pop shop in Arkansas to become the biggest retailer in the world.

As the company grew, Sam Walton stayed committed to his WHY. But when he died, the Walmart became disconnected from its WHY. Instead, executives began to focus on HOW the company did business: selling products at low prices.

But in the process, it sacrificed how it treated people. As a result, Walmart has faced scandal after scandal over treating employees poorly, and it owes hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

Competition and changing economy isn’t what’s hurting Walmart: Walmart has become its own worst enemy because it’s success has disconnected it from its WHY.

The School Bus Test

To counter the problem of losing your WHY, use the School Bus Test: if your CEO was hit by a school bus tomorrow, would the organization continue to thrive?

Strong, inspirational leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Sam Walton do more than just share their company’s values: they embody them and maintain discipline throughout the organization. So when those leaders are gone, the company runs the risk of moving into the split. In other words, a change in leadership is a good time for the company to lose sight of its WHY.

Unfortunately, this is a common issue. Here are three examples of companies that haven’t planned for succession, and as a result, have gone through the split:

Plan Smooth Successions

Since the WHY usually comes from the company’s founder, it’s important to plan for a smooth succession that keeps your WHY intact when he or she eventually leaves.

In order to make the transition successful, the original founder needs to make their WHY as clear as possible. They have to leave a clear cause/belief for their successor to champion. Without that, the next leader is more likely to focus on the company’s WHAT.

Successors to influential leaders need to be picked based on their belief in the company's WHY, not necessarily their skills or current position. If the new leader can’t communicate the company’s vision and values clearly, then the employees in the organization won’t be able to, either.

Chapter 13: Where WHY Comes From

In this chapter, Sinek reinforces the process of following WHY by tracing it through three examples: Apple, the English longbow, and his own journey to becoming a mentor and coach.

The Apple Journey

Apple has put WHY first since its inception. When Apple first started, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs saw the company as a way to give individuals power.

At the time, companies held a monopoly on computing, and Jobs and Wozniak believed that by empowering individuals with computing power, they could change the world. Igniting revolutions by empowering people became the company’s WHY!

Just like the company, all of Apple’s products and their launches have started with WHY:

Apple’s constant commitment to their WHY has created incredibly loyal employees and customers who are drawn to their beliefs.

Note, not everyone is--even though Apple is a leader in the industry, they only hold about 2.5 percent of the personal computer market share. But starting with WHY isn’t about converting everyone.

And yet, Apple is still one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. And it all comes from pursuing the company’s values and vision in everything they do.

The English Longbow

Here’s a different example that shows how starting with WHY a) has always worked and b) is effective outside of business, too.

In 1415, King Henry V of England was marching into the Battle of Agincourt, one of the deciding battles of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. Henry had already lost 40 percent of his troops, and he was about to square off against a much bigger, much healthier French army.

And yet, the English one because they had one piece of technology the French didn’t: the longbow. Archers could stand out of range of French artillery and still deliver devastating volleys of arrows onto the battlefield. The longbow created a tipping point.

But the arrows and bows themselves weren’t the tipping point: it was the arrow’s momentum.

And yet again, the momentum doesn’t come originally from the arrow flying forward--the momentum develops when the arrow is pulled backward and cocked into place.

The same thing applies to a company or organization, too. While it’s tempting to look forward and planning out how to get there, the power of WHY comes from looking inside your organization and figuring out your beliefs first.

And that starts with you.

Sinek’s Journey to Why

Finally, Sinek shares his own experience and how he got to WHY in his personal life and his career.

He explains that in 2005, he found himself struggling. He’d founded his business in 2002, even though he knew that 90 percent of new businesses fail in the first three years. But he wasn’t deterred.

Over the next three years, his company stayed afloat and even succeeded. Sinek thought they beat the odds.

But the fourth year was a different story. The novelty of running a business had worn off. He’d lost his passion and his WHY, which left him demoralized and depressed. Imposter syndrome set in, and Sinek became convinced he was a failure.

It took meeting Victoria Duffy Hopper, who explained the limbic brain and neocortex to him, to change his perspective. Suddenly, Sinek realized why people do what they do—which is the secret behind effective marketing. In that moment, he rediscovered his WHY.

From there, he made sure that his WHY motivated all of his business decisions. Sinek went from worrying that he was failing to speaking about The Golden Circle and WHY all over the world. But more importantly, he explains that the only thing he changed was his mentality. By starting with WHY, he not only recaptured his own passion, he found himself is a position to inspire others, too. WHY has been Sinek’s path to success, and now he’s sharing it with you.

Chapter 14: Rethinking Competition

The common sentiment when it comes to building a business is that you have to make sure you’re beating the competition.

But the problem with that idea is that it makes you focus on what other companies are doing rather than steering your own. Instead of competing against others, it’s more effective to compete against yourself.

Here’s an anecdote of Ben, a high school cross-country track runner. He was the slowest on his team because Ben was born with cerebral palsy. Running was hard for Ben, but he pushed himself to finish each race. His WHY was to challenge himself to do better every race.

His teammates, all faster than he, support his WHY. After every race, they come back onto the track to run beside him to the finish line.

This story reminds us that when you compete against yourself and no one else, other people--even those who others might identify as your competitors--want to help you.

Companies and organizations that focus on WHY are more concerned with pushing their companies forward than going head-to-head with the competition. Starting with WHY makes you laser-focused on your own mission, not the missions of others.

And that leads Sinek to make his final point as he sums up the impact of starting with WHY. When you start with WHY:

In other words, starting with WHY can change more than just your own life and business. It can change the world.