Notes from my January 2020 reading of Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

5 – There are leaders, and those who lead.
6 – Those who lead have were not swayed, but inspired.

Manipulations
17 – Price. Cutting costs will increase sales at first but will cause you to be a commodity of people to never buy unless you are cutting prices.
18 – Promotion.
20 – Fear.
22 – Aspirations. Become something because of the purchase.
25 – Novelty a.k.a. Innovation – Has to be game changing no just another feature.
28 – Manipulations work in the short term. They may drive sales, but not loyalty. The create a short-term behavior change.
29 – Loyalty is when people turn down better opportunity for you. Loyalty is not easily won.
37 – The Golden Circle
WHAT do you sell
HOW is what differentiates you. May be how you are better.
WHY is your purpose, cause, or belief. Why does your company (or organization) exist. Why do you get out of bed in the morning. Why should anyone care.
41 – People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
45-46 – Great example of Dell Computure trying to compete with Apple. They are seen as a computer company, not a TV, Phone or Music company so people didn’t buy. Apple is seen as a company that challenges the status quo. They even changed their name in 2007 so they didn’t think of themselves as just a computer company.
47 – Orgs with clear sense of why never worry about it. They don’t think of themselves as being like anyone else. They don’t have to convince others of their value.
50 – When a why goes fuzzy, growth and loyalty become harder to get and behavior turns to manipulations.
53 – We trust those with common beliefs or values more than those without.
55 – We are drawn to leaders and orgs who communicate what they believe. They make us feel like we belong, safe, and special. We feel a bond with others who are also drawn to the belief.
57 – Decision making and the ability to explain the decision happen in different parts of the brain. That’s why it’s so hard to explain a why.
58 – Decisions made in the Limbic Brain (Gut decision) tend to be faster, higher-quality decisions.
59 – Win hearts first (with WHY) then minds (with HOW and WHAT). It’s harder to make a decision with no WHY.
66 – If a leader can’t clearly articulate the why beyond Product and Services, they can’t expect employees to know why they come to work each day.
67 – For guiding principles to be effective they must be verbs, which give us a clear idea of how to act in any situation.
67 – WHY = Belief, HOW = Actions to realize the belief, WHAT = The result of the actions
67 – Authenticity is having your golden circle in alignment. Making your hows and whats match your why. It’s a requirement for lasting success, without using manipulations
84 – To gain trust you have to talk about “WHY” and prove it with “HOW”.
87 – In Continental Airlines turnaround, many things were termed in how it would help the employees.
90 – A company is a culture (a group of people who think the same way) not a group of products and services. We should not just find people with the right skills, but also people with the right beliefs.
92 – Interesting use of Shackleton’s job posting.
93 – When employees belong they will guarantee your success. They wont work hard and innovate for you, they will be doing it for themselves.
94 – Great companies hire already motivated people and then inspire them.
106 – Trust of the company’s WHY is a prerequisite to a good fit.
110 – Tree of Monkeys. If the leaders are always looking up with smiles, all the monkeys below them are only seeing asses.
112 – We are more likely to trust someone with our own values and beliefs.
120 – The goal is not to sell to anyone who wants, but to find the people who believe what you believe.
134 – Charisma inspires. Charisma commands loyalty. But, it’s hard to define and even harder to measure.
136 – When the WHY is clear people with that same belief will be drawn to it and take part in creating it.
141 – Most people are HOW types and don’t need WHY types to succeed. WHY types must have HOW types in their world.
146 – A leader with a cause must have a megaphone, a way to loudly and clearly deliver their message.
187 – The school bus test. What are you doing to ensure your founding vision is alive forever. (Even if the founder is hit by a bus)
193 – Value is a perception, not a calculation.
201 – A successor to the founder must pick up and advance the original cause.
205 – Money should never be a cause, it should be a result. (Note: I believe this also applies to fame.)
215 – Finding your WHY is a process of discovery, not invention. It’s not interviewing customers or employees.
224 – Our goal is to attract customer who believe what we believe and work together so we all succeed. We should be doing the same thing inside companies.