Business Broker Blog

Chris Bond's Book Review - "Start with Why"

This month's featured book is "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek.  The subheading of this brilliant work is "How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action" and, as you might have guessed, they do this by starting with why they are in business.  Where do most business people start when speaking of their work?  Either with what (a bland description of what it is the company does) or, just as bad, with how (all the ins and outs of how their business works).  Sinek is, well, a cynic about this approach.  He wonders (as should we), "Who cares?"
  
In "Start with Why," Sinek challenges leaders thusly: "Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you'll be stuck with whoever's left."  Ouch.  Sinek tells the story of the great explorer Ernest Shackleton to drive this point home.  It was Shackleton who lead the 1914 voyage of the Endurance from England into the icy Wendell Sea near the South Pole and against impossible odds lost not one man while stranded in the Antarctic for ten months.  All 27 crewmen were recruited with the this understanding: it will be a brutal journey, more hazardous than anything you've done before, with honor and recognition in case of success.  Just imagine the mutiny the captain would have had on his hands had he sold them on great benefits and casual Fridays.
 
Pop quiz: Who was Samuel Pierpont Langley?  Don't feel badly if you don't know.  Make-up quiz: Who were the Wright Brothers?  Okay, no excuse not knowing that one!  Langley had every resource at his disposal to build the world's first heavier-than-air flying machine while the Wright Brothers had next to none.  Read Sinek's book to get the full perspective on how the Wright Brothers started with why and crushed Langley in his pursuits.  This story, and many others, are wonderful examples of how leaders can - and should - start with the passion of why, then work on the how, and finally develop the what.  And if you own and iPod or an iPad, look no further than Steve Jobs for a perfect modern example of how a business leader can change the world by, you guessed it, starting with why. 
 
Good reading!
 
Chris