Name: Jake Holloway's review of Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Item: Start with Why
Rating: 3
Author: Jake Holloway

Simon Sinek

The inspiring, life-changing bestseller by the author of LEADERS EAT LAST and TOGETHER IS BETTER. In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on START WITH WHY -- the third most popular TED video of all time. Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it. START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way -- and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Start with Why

Why are some people and organisations 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. www.startwithwhy.com Jacket design: Base Art Co.

Start with why

I haven't think it that way. That remind of the team behind the browser Arc: the founder said una podcast that they were optimizing for feelings. Although is feels romantic, they actually measured that Why using an engagement metric called D5D7.

Dewith

Because he figured out how to measure a value he holds dear, that value is embraced. 

Jake Holloway

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.

My manager recommended this and I thought it was going to be a very corporate book but to my surprise, it was not! I really enjoyed it, learned a lot and understood more about the reasons behind some of mine and other people’s actions. 

Ani Velasquez

My manager recommended this and I thought it was going to be a very corporate book but to my surprise, it was not! I really enjoyed it, learned a lot and understood more about the reasons behind some of mine and other people’s actions. 



Interesting self help book. Learned a lot about commonly know companies and successful people. A bit repetitive 

Bailey Dunn

Lewis Ngugi

** spoiler alert **
           Brilliant! 

This book took me back to a movie that I've watched more than 12 times now: 3 idiots. 
Rancho led. He inspired everyone because he always knew his WHY. 

Some of my takeaways are:

1. The analogy of the arrow: "Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention." 
2. Hardest part isn't gaining clarity of your WHY, it is staying true to your purpose.
3. Lastly is a lesson from Ben Comen which is amazing: Compete against yourself.

Bottom line: We can all learn to lead!

Allison Dempsey

Required reading for a work book club. I appreciated the general sentiment for sure, but similarly to how so many meetings in our work days could have just been emails, this book could have just been the Ted Talk.

Aamna

Too verbose. Could have been written in 5 pages.

I think it's very long for the content. Most non-fiction books could have been a blog post and this one isn't the exception.

I don't think I've lost my time, but I think it could have been more suscint.

I think it's very long for the content. Most non-fiction books could have been a blog post and this one isn't the exception.

I don't think I've lost my time, but I think it could have been more suscint.

The author is making a good and an interesting point but gets extremely redundant. The book could’ve easily reduced to an article

Rahma Ali

Ali Angco

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. :)

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!

Jake Holloway &
Start with Why by Simon Sinek

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Jake Holloway &Start with Why by Simon Sinek

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Jake Holloway &
Start with Why by Simon Sinek