Simon Sinek

Suggesting that successful businesspeople and companies share a common inspiration that motivates them to perform beyond standard levels, an anecdotal reference explains how to apply the author's principles of "why" to everything from working culture to product development. A first book.

How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Start with why

Cristian Garcia

Un libro que tenía pendiente hace tantos años. Siempre escuchamos el "porqué" de Simon Sinek y siempre había querido entender de dónde venía. El libro se lee rápido y es entretenido, tiene buenos casos y está bien articulado. Es muy simple enganchar con el autor y seguir su narrativa. Un libro similar a Lovemarks, pero -a mi parecer- mejor. Definitivamente recomendable.

Draws on real-life stories and figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Steve Jobs, to examine the qualities a good leader requires in order to inspire and motivate people.

Morgan Holland

Good book on examining why you want to do something in business and why that's so important, but didn't find it as amazing as everyone else seemed to, summary is sufficient.

Celil Bozkurt

Kitabın ana fikri ilgi çekici fakat 15 dakikalık bir TED konuşmasını bir kitaba çevirmek için çok çaba verilmiş ve maalesef ki bu çaba kendisini çok belli ediyor.

Hrishikesh Bhaskaran

I haven't heard Simon Sinek's famous TED talk. 
So the reading experience was fresh, and I totally liked the idea. 
But all of these could have been summed up in a single article. 
The book is boringly lengthy and repetitive. 
The same examples are used over and over again. 
Don't read the book, go watch the TED talk.

Alfredo santos

Short read, and kind of repetitive but with the intention to be so. The book offers a strong perspective on how (or why) to create/manage/lead your company with true purpose and feeling. It draws examples from companies like Apple and Southwest (apparently these are the only companies all biz-related books talk about nowadays) and deciphers the key elements that gives them such a 'cult' following. Inspiring, well researched, a bit too long and worth the read if you're a business owner or an early stage startup looking to fuel your motivation.

Fadi

هذا كتابٌ اسمه أكبر من محتواه.
الكتاب نُشر عام 2009 يعني ليس حديثاً، ولبّه يُختصر في 3 أسطر:
لكي تنجح في حياتك الشخصية والعملية والمهنية، على مستوى الأفراد أو المنظمات أو الشركات الكبرى فعليك أن تركّز على [ لماذا ] بكل تفصيلها، والتي تعني بشكلٍ من الأشكال الغوص في العمق لمعرفة أسباب العمل الذي تقوم به بدلاً من السؤال عن [ ماذا ] ستفعله، و [ كيف] ستفعله.
الكتاب من 6 فصول رئيسية يندرج تحت كل فصل أبواب فرعية، تدور أغلبها عن قصص وخبرات لشركات كبرى نجحت وأخرى أخفقت، مع إيضاح أنّ سبب النجاح فيها هو التركيز على [ لماذا ] وسبب فشلها هو الابتعاد عن نهج [ لماذا ].
==
الفصل الثالث فصل لطيف ويغنيك عن قراءته حضور هذه المحاضرة ( مترجمة )
https://www.ted.com/…/simon_sinek_how...…
==
أفضل فكرة يمكن أن تخرج بها من الكتاب هي فكرة [ الدائرة الذهبية ] والتي تقول إنّ الشركات الناجحة والأفراد الملهمون ليسوا بالضرورة هم الذين يكونون أكثر ذكاءً من غيرهم بل الأمر كلّه متعلق بكونهم بحثوا جيداً عن سبب فعل الأشياء وفعلوها بطريقة مغايرة " هنا يضرب مثال حقيقي عن شركة آبل وكيف أنّ هذه الشركة أصبحت أكثر من مجرّد شركة تقدم خدمة هواتف حديثة لزبائنها، بل أصبحت "أسلوب حياة" وضمنت ولاء عملاءها بسبب حسن استخدامها للسؤال الأهم وهو: لماذا؟

Pratul

The first 80 pages are useful as a new mental model even though the examples might get repetitive quickly... But after page 80, the book just gets boring.

Jason Horne

Felt like this book could have been summed up just as well in a long form blog post. A lot of reiterating the same thesis.

Patrick Baumann

Try to find a summary of the book and save yourself the time of reading the whole thing. Many repetitions of one insight (which is indeed valuable). Quit reading after half of the book, which was already too much.

Kuba Milcarz

Changed the way I see business. The idea is simple “start with WHY” and illustrated on almost 300 pages (mostly on Apple). Sinek showed a variety of applications of this concept. However, he didn’t introduce anything new besides that.

Pranav

Absolutely transformative book. A must read.

+ | A good emphasis on finding own 'why' instead of describing 'what'. 

+ | Mentioning useful concepts such as the 'Law of diffusion of innovations'.

Melike Oran

+ | A good emphasis on finding own 'why' instead of describing 'what'. 

+ | Mentioning useful concepts such as the 'Law of diffusion of innovations'.

+ | Well-framed leadership mentality. 

- | Second half turns into repetitions.

- | Excessive Apple advocating.

Ugis

Great book that reminds us all to think about WHY not HOW or WHAT we are doing. Recommended read for every enterpreneur and leader. [reading time: 9h15m]

Lupas Alexandru

No, it's ok, if you have the choice between walking your dog and read this book, enjoy your walk. :)

Deniz Kahraman

prejudiced and cliche. Apple fanboy's handbook.

Mary Baldwin

It would be improper to start this review without first explaining a few things:

a) Why I did
My aim in life is to learn as much as possible and be able to expand, share, contradict and compare everything I learn with the experiences I have every day.

b) How I did it
I read this book with care and attention. I committed myself from start to finish. 

c) What I did
Erm, I.. Read the book

Now, if you've read the book - you're grimacing at my butchery of the principle. If you haven't read the book; you will have given up reading by now for fear I'd continue writing á la year 12 science project. 

Let's start positive: I enjoyed reading this book because it helped me understand a little more about how my approach to things often differs from that which others take. It seems I have a natural tendency to 'Start with Why', and am often the one to ask 'Why?' of others. Not a new trait; as my parents will testify - they labelled me with the nickname 'The Why Bird' by the time I was five years old. It was nice to have this trait examined and gave me opportunity to look back at experiences, businesses and interactions where the 'Why' definitely did not come first. Introspective, useful.

The author does an excellent job of correlating his breakdown of why, how, what to the areas of the brain driving them, and uses this to illustrate what makes explaining our raison d'être; our why, often so tricky. He doesn't go so deep as to turn off non scientists, but gives enough validity to be credible.

With this application we are taken through a series of success/failure examples; in both companies and leaders, where 'The Why' has been strong or absent. The prose is easy to digest and very well structured, and where examples are used, the stories are engaging and relevant.

On the downside, the book is far too long. Although there is useful content from start to finish, theres also a lot of repetition and unnecessary reiteration. I say that however, as someone who considers herself to already start with why. Perhaps a more 'what' driven reader would have a completely different opinion. 

I'd recommend the book especially to anyone who is about to take their first steps into a leadership role or wants some self analysis of their leadership qualities. I've certainly taken a lot away from the book, but I could've got the same from 12 paragraphs, not 12 chapters.

David V.

This book is everything that is wrong with many books these days.

In it's core it has a great idea. Everyone that saw Simon's video on YouTube would agree. But to communicate this idea, you need 20 minutes or 100 pages with examples and stories. But adding another 150 pages that repeat the mantra, provide extra examples, most of which are quite obvios, adds nothing to the book.

To editors: Please stop asking authors to write 250 page books. We, the readers, will buy 100-page books if they are good!

Why are some people and organizations more inventive, pioneering and successful than others? And why are they able to repeat their success again and again? Because in business it doesn't matter what you do, it matters why you do it. Steve Jobs, the Wright brothers and Martin Luther King have one thing in common: they STARTED WITH WHY. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others, or to be inspired. Based on the most-watched TED Talk of all time. 'One of the most useful and powerful books I have read in years' William Ury, coauthor of Getting to Yes 'This book is so impactful, I consider it required reading' Tony Robbins, bestselling author of Awaken The Giant Within

How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action

Start With Why

Alexander Sandberg

Sinek's concept around starting with WHY is amazing, but the book is pretty slow and repetitive. I'd recommend his TED talks instead.

Ivaylo Durmonski

Though the idea the author is trying to communicate through his book is amazing, something you should really take into account if you’re running a business, the text feels like endless praise for Apple. An endless repetition of pretty much the same message, again and again.

I loved the TED talk by Simon Sinek (How great leaders inspire action). I’ve watched it at least 50 times. I’ve shared with friends and discussed it with colleagues. Actually, I don’t know why it took me a couple of years to get my hands on the book.

To be honest, I wanted to like the book. To give it 5 stars and to tell you that you should go buy it now. However, it turns out, that the TED talk is all you need to know about why some organizations are more profitable than others.

Don’t get me wrong, the concept of starting with why is of uber importance. You surely need to remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing every single day when you’re doing business. But a whole book to convey the idea? A waste of time. Probably a long article would have been enough.

My personal takeaway? This: Don’t just do stuff. Don’t sell and resell. First, figure out why you want to be in the business. Sit down and write your why. How to do it? The why usually uncovers by answering the following question: What kind of change do you want to make in the world?

Read more: https://durmonski.com/book-summaries/...

Adiya 

First of all let just talk about the book cover, it's so pretty, minimalistic and simple. I just love the cover, one extra star only for the cover. Now with the contents of the book, if there was a simplistic way of describing my feelings for this book, I would say this book is just *Chef's Kiss* so amazing. The whole book was an eye opener for me, because I'm financially illiterate, and I have no shame in saying that. The book is absolutely informative to read. It was basically about how the market works, the manipulation companies use to sell their products and how APPLE got its cult like fan following/loyal customers. And the way any company and any person can get this Cult Guru like status only by knowing their "Why". It is heavily influenced by the series of circles, i.e. "The Golden Circle" - The Why, How, and What. 

This very simple Golden Circle of Why, How and What Idea explains why organizations and leaders inspires other. Everybody/Every Company knows what they do, some know how they do it, very few people know WHY they do what they do. 

"People don’t buy WHAT you do,” Sinek explains. “They buy WHY you do it.” Sinek underscores his argument with profiles of leaders and companies that have won employee, partner and customer loyalty by operating according to this same pattern he calls The Golden Circle. The most important fact Simon Sinek is trying to point out is that the way something is communicated must be believed in, explained, and people accept it for themselves, because THEY believe in it. It is a very inspiring, enlightening and insightful book that I would recommend to those who feel like they are here to 'put a dent in the universe', I highly recommend this book to you.

Simon Bronders

"It is more fun to be slightly eccentric than to be completely normal."

Luca Conti

Good concept. Too many repetitions. Skip the last two chapters 

Adam

One of the top recommendations by Aaron Skonnard, I knew I had to read this one. The premise is that great leaders lead by asking why to get to the bottom of something. I hadn't realized it before, but I'd already seen Simon Sineks TED talk. His talk focuses around working from the outside in, asking questions more tied to emotion than to superficial results.

Elsa Saks

the WHY has become a song in me. i reflected back to many events in my life and, for me, it's true that WHY has been the key. Simon's words are a mantra to do great things.

Start with why How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

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