Sinek Quotes

#1. Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, proposed the idea of The Golden Circle contending great organizations create their foundation by first addressing WHY they exist, then HOW they go about doing what they do, and then finally, WHAT they do.

Jeremiah Gardner

#2. Genius is in the idea. Impact, however, comes from action!

Simon Sinek

#3. Would anybody be offended if we gave a $150 million bonus to Gandhi? How about a $250 million bonus to Mother Teresa? Do we have an issue with that? None at all. Great leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers. They would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the people.

Simon Sinek

#4. You'll never see the president carry his own luggage, and why? Because even though we know he has luggage, it would reduce his stature if he was too much like us. We need to think of our leaders as being above us, even though they must still relate to us.

Simon Sinek

#5. Those in pursuit of Why are inspired to do what is right. Those in pursuit of What are driven to do what is easy.

Simon Sinek

#6. Sometimes spending time with someone who is perceived as 'successful' can make us feel less successful.

Simon Sinek

#7. Generosity is doing something for someone else expecting nothing in return.

Simon Sinek

#8. Leaders are the ones who have the courage to go first, to put themselves at personal risk to open a path for others to follow.

Simon Sinek

#9. Bad leaders care about who is right. Good leaders care about what is right

Simon Sinek

#10. The strong bond of friendship is not always a balanced equation; friendship is not always about giving and taking in equal shares. Instead, friendship is grounded in a feeling that you know exactly who will be there for you when you need something, no matter what or when.

Simon Sinek

#11. Republicans are completely befuddled by Obama's 'star power' and don't seem to have a clear or effective strategy to compete.

Simon Sinek

#12. We crave explanations for most everything, but innovation and progress happen when we allow ourselves to embrace uncertainty.

Simon Sinek

#13. A sour corporate culture can actually make an entire society unhappy. This means that a strong corporate culture can have a positive impact on a society.

Simon Sinek

#14. Leaders don't look for recognition from others, leaders look for others to recognize.

Simon Sinek

#15. Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year. I have a strict rule: I don't work on Halloween and I won't travel on Halloween. Not for any reason.

Simon Sinek

#16. WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. When I say WHY, I don't mean to make money - that's a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

Simon Sinek

#17. Those who are inspired are willing to pay a premium or endure inconvenience, even personal suffering. Those who are able to inspire will create a following of people - supporters, voters, customers, workers - who act for the good of the whole not because they have to, but because they want to.

Simon Sinek

#18. We must all try to empathize before we criticize. Ask someone what's wrong before telling them they are wrong.

Simon Sinek

#19. Our vision is only actionable if we share it. Without sharing, it's just a figment of our imagination.

Simon Sinek

#20. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe

Simon Sinek

#21. A leader without a title is better than a title without the ability to lead.

Simon Sinek

#22. Never opt for change simply to leave something you don't like. Change works best when you go toward something, even if it is the unknown.

Simon Sinek

#23. When the WHY Goes, WHAT Is All You'll Have Left

Simon Sinek

#24. To become an academic expert takes years of studying. Academic experts are experts in how and what others have done. They use case studies and observation to understand a subject.

Simon Sinek

#25. Fight against something and you focus on the thing you hate. Fight for something and you focus on the thing you love.

Simon Sinek

#26. The WHY exists in the part of the brain that controls feelings and decision-making but not language. WHATs exist in the part of the brain that controls rational thought and language.

Simon Sinek

#27. A true friend is someone with whom protocol is no longer necessary.

Simon Sinek

#28. Stress and anxiety at work have less to do with the work we do and more to do with weak management and leadership.

Simon Sinek

#29. Progress is more important than perfection.

Simon Sinek

#30. Those who fear the new are the ones who have mastered the old.

Simon Sinek

#31. Believing that your competition is stronger and better than you pushes you to better yourselves.

Simon Sinek

#32. A five minute call replaces the time it takes to read and reply to the original email and read and reply to their reply ... or replies. And I no longer spend 20+ minutes crafting the perfect email - no need to.

Simon Sinek

#33. Pure pragmatism can't imagine a bold future. Pure idealism can't get anything done. It is the delicate blend of both that drives innovation.

Simon Sinek

#34. Intelligence looks for what is known to solve problems. Creativity looks for what is unknown to discover possibilities.

Simon Sinek

#35. Those who lead are able to do so because those who follow trust that the decisions made at the top have the best interest of the group at heart.

Simon Sinek

#36. Time and energy. Those are the most valuable sacrifices leaders can make.

Simon Sinek

#37. The confident ask questions to learn what will connect. The insecure just keep talking with the hope something will stick.

Simon Sinek

#38. Humility, I have learned, must never be confused with meekness. Humility is being open to the ideas of others.

Simon Sinek

#39. Notoriously outspoken, his sentences always punctuated with profanities, General George S. Patton was the epitome of what a leader should be like - or so he thought. Patton believed a leader should look and act tough, so he cultivated his image and his personality to match his philosophy.

Simon Sinek

#40. I think most people are inherently interested in how their brain works, in what makes them tick.

Simon Sinek

#41. Don't wait for perfection before you start. Start somewhere so you can have something tangible you can work to perfect.

Simon Sinek

#42. We can make up for lost money, but we can't make up for lost time.

Simon Sinek

#43. When we tell people to do their jobs, we get workers. When we trust people to get the job done, we get leaders.

Simon Sinek

#44. It is a prerequisite, then, for someone to trust the culture in which they work to share the values and beliefs of that culture. Without it, that employee, for example, is simply a bad fit and likely to work only for self-gain without consideration for the greater good.

Simon Sinek

#45. Stand for people. Not a product or service or metric or number. If we stand for real, living, breathing people, we will change the world.

Simon Sinek

#46. Our visions are the world we imagine, the tangible results of what the world would look like if we spent every day in pursuit of our WHY.

Simon Sinek

#47. Good leadership is always human. It takes time and energy. It is hard work. Which is why good leadership is so special when we find it.

Simon Sinek

#48. Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress: Working hard for something we love is called passion.

Simon Sinek

#49. The true value of a leader is not measured by the work they do. A leader's true value is measured by the work they inspire others to do.

Simon Sinek

#50. Complaining begets more complaints. Anger begets more anger. And optimism begets more optimism.

Simon Sinek

#51. If you want to achieve anything in this world, you have to get used to the idea that not everyone will like you.

Simon Sinek

#52. Some in management positions operate as if they are in a tree of monkeys. They make sure that everyone at the top of the tree looking down sees only smiles. But all too often, those at the bottom looking up see only asses.

Simon Sinek

#53. The value we provide most to others is the same value we appreciate most from others.

Simon Sinek

#54. Though we may have desires or bold goals, for whatever reason, most of us don't think we can achieve something beyond what we're qualified to achieve. Why, I ask, do we let reality interfere with our dreams?

Simon Sinek

#55. Every single organization - or career, for that matter - exists on three levels: WHAT you do, HOW you do it and WHY you do it.

Simon Sinek

#56. The true value of networking doesn't come from how many people we can meet but rather how many people we can introduce to others.

Simon Sinek

#57. The irony is that the best thing we can do is, well one option, is to quit job we don't like. You don't always have to quit, and quite frankly, option two is to try to help others solve the problem that you are struggling with.

Simon Sinek

#58. Instead of showing up to let everyone know how great we are, show up to find out how great everyone else is.

Simon Sinek

#59. The passion to change the world for the better is a more powerful force than defense to keep it the same.

Simon Sinek

#60. Optimism is the ability to focus on where we're going, not where we're coming from.

Simon Sinek

#61. When people know WHY you do WHAT you do, they are willing to give you credit for everything that could serve as proof of WHY.

Simon Sinek

#62. Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.

Simon Sinek

#63. We learn most not from all of the things that go right. We learn most when everything goes wrong.

Simon Sinek

#64. The more you inspire, the more people will inspire you.

Simon Sinek

#65. Risk deters those who see what they could lose. Those focused on the gain see it as a necessary part of their journey, even if the possibility of loss exists.

Simon Sinek

#66. Babe Ruth was not afraid to strike out. And it was this fearlessness that contributed to his remarkable career.

Simon Sinek

#67. A star wants to see himself rise to the top.
A leader wants to see those around him rise to the top.

Simon Sinek

#68. Our strength will come not from the sharpness of our spears, but from our willingness to offer others the protection of our shields.

Simon Sinek

#69. The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull together as a team.

Simon Sinek

#70. There is not a single one of us with a job that is not completely reliant in some way shape or form on others.

Simon Sinek

#71. If we don't give things a try, nothing will get off the ground.

Simon Sinek

#72. Quality effective leaders have the confidence to trust others to try, succeed, and sometimes to fail. We very often confuse personality with leadership. In other words, leadership is not about being a nice person or not a nice person.

Simon Sinek

#73. Any great and inspiring leader or organization that ever existed set out to do something completely unrealistic.

Simon Sinek

#74. The problem was, they advertised their product as a "5GB mp3 player." It is exactly the same message as Apple's "1,000 songs in your pocket." The difference is Creative told us WHAT their product was and Apple told us WHY we needed it.

Simon Sinek

#75. So much of starting a business or affecting change is the confidence and courage to simply try.

Simon Sinek

#76. Vision is the ability to talk about the future with such clarity it is as if we are talking about the past.

Simon Sinek

#77. Greatness starts with a clear vision of the future.

Simon Sinek

#78. There are many ways to motivate people to do things, but loyalty comes from the ability to inspire people.

Simon Sinek

#79. If you care, do something. If you don't care, please stay out of the way of those who do.

Simon Sinek

#80. The quality of a leader cannot be judged by the answers he gives, but by the questions he asks.

Simon Sinek

#81. We are only in charge when we are willing to let others take charge.

Simon Sinek

#82. We'd achieve more if we chase the dream instead of the competition.

Simon Sinek

#83. In this age of omniconnectedness, words like 'network,' 'community' and even 'friends' no longer mean what they used to. Networks don't exist on LinkedIn. A community is not something that happens on a blog or on Twitter. And a friend is more than someone whose online status you check.

Simon Sinek

#84. Focus on money and we will make money. Focus on impact and we will make an impact.

Simon Sinek

#85. Optimists focus on the place they are going. Pessimists focus on the obstacles along the route. To become an optimist simply look ahead.

Simon Sinek

#86. To be authentic is to be at peace with your imperfections.

Simon Sinek

#87. Leave America and you'll find that the consumers in many other countries enjoy watching advertising. Not because the products are better, but because the ads are produced to be entertaining. Sometimes they are funny. Sometimes they are dramatic. Sometimes they are just beautiful.

Simon Sinek

#88. There's nothing efficient about innovation.

Simon Sinek

#89. Entrepreneurs see the thing they want or need, then try to figure out a process of how to get it. People who shouldn't be entrepreneurs see the standard process they need to go through to get the thing they want or need then decide if they want to go through that process.

Simon Sinek

#90. The goal of business should not be to do business with anyone who simply wants what you have. It should be to focus on the people who believe what you believe. When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our WHY, trust emerges.

Simon Sinek

#91. Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention.

Simon Sinek

#92. Good marketing speaks to human beings - the way human beings understand and take in information.

Simon Sinek

#93. Returning from work feeling inspired, safe, fulfilled and grateful is a natural human right to which we are all entitled and not a modern luxury that only a few lucky ones are able to find.

Simon Sinek

#94. We should never let reality interfere with our dreams. Reality can't see what we can see.

Simon Sinek

#95. The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong. Fitting in is important.

Simon Sinek

#96. When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen.

Simon Sinek

#97. The primary ingredient for progress is optimism. The unwavering belief that something can be better drives the human race forward.

Simon Sinek

#98. Remember to connect with people now and then. In fact, pick up the phone, right now, and call a friend for no other reason than to say hi.

Simon Sinek

#99. I'd rather play in the major leagues and have some bad games than play consistently good ball in the minors.

Simon Sinek

#100. Innovation is not born from the dream, innovation is born from the struggle

Simon Sinek