Start with why -- how great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek | TEDxPugetSound — Transcript

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1. 0:00Transcriber: Capa Girl Reviewer: Wendy Morales
2. 0:02So, where do you start when you have a program that's about integrating lives with passions?
3. 0:08Well, you start with "why."
4. 0:10Why?
5. 0:11And that kicks us off for the first speaker tonight - Simon Sinek
6. 0:17and his talk "Start with why."
7. 0:22Simon Sinek: We assume, even, we know why we do what we do.
8. 0:28But then how do you explain when things don't go as we assume?
9. 0:32Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things
10. 0:37that seem to defy all of the assumptions?
11. 0:39For example: why is Apple so innovative?
12. 0:42Year after year, after year,
13. 0:44they're more innovative than all their competition.
14. 0:48And yet, they're just a computer company.
15. 0:49They're just like everyone else.
16. 0:51They have the same access to the same talent,
17. 0:53the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media.
18. 0:56Then why is it that they seem to have something different?
19. 1:01Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement?
20. 1:05He wasn't the only man who suffered in a pre-civil rights America,
21. 1:09and he certainly wasn't the only great orator of the day.
22. 1:11Why him?
23. 1:13And why is it that the Wright brothers were able to figure out
24. 1:17controlled, powered man flight when there were certainly other teams
25. 1:21who were better qualified, better funded --
26. 1:24and they didn't achieve powered man flight,
27. 1:27the Wright brothers beat them to it.
28. 1:29There's something else at play here.
29. 1:32About three and a half years ago I made a discovery.
30. 1:36And this discovery profoundly changed my view
31. 1:40on how I thought the world worked,
32. 1:42and it even profoundly changed the way in which I operate in it.
33. 1:48As it turns out, there's a pattern.
34. 1:50As it turns out, all the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world --
35. 1:55whether it's Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers --
36. 1:58they all think, act and communicate the exact same way.
37. 2:02And it's the complete opposite to everyone else.
38. 2:06All I did was codify it, and it's probably the world's simplest idea.
39. 2:12I call it the golden circle.
40. 2:22Why? How? What?
41. 2:25This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders
42. 2:29are able to inspire where others aren't.
43. 2:31Let me define the terms really quickly.
44. 2:34Every single person, every single organization on the planet
45. 2:37knows what they do. 100 percent.
46. 2:39Some know how they do it,
47. 2:42whether you call it your differentiated value proposition
48. 2:44or your proprietary process or your USP.
49. 2:47But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do.
50. 2:52And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit."
51. 2:54That's a result. It's always a result.
52. 2:56By "why" I mean: What's your purpose?
53. 2:58What's your cause? What's your belief?
54. 3:00Why does your organization exist?
55. 3:04Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act,
56. 3:06the way we communicate is from the outside in.
57. 3:08It's obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing.
58. 3:11But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations --
59. 3:15regardless of their size, regardless of their industry --
60. 3:19all think, act and communicate from the inside out.
61. 3:23Let me give you an example.
62. 3:25I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it.
63. 3:28If Apple were like everyone else,
64. 3:31a marketing message from them might sound like this:
65. 3:35"We make great computers.
66. 3:37They're beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.
67. 3:41Wanna buy one?" "Meh."
68. 3:44And that's how most of us communicate.
69. 3:46That's how most marketing is done, that's how most sales is done
70. 3:48and that's how most of us communicate interpersonally.
71. 3:50We say what we do, we say how we're different or how we're better
72. 3:53and we expect some sort of a behavior,
73. 3:55a purchase, a vote, something like that.
74. 3:57Here's our new law firm.
75. 3:59We have the best lawyers with the biggest clients,
76. 4:00we always perform for our clients who do business with us.
77. 4:03Here's our new car. It gets great gas mileage,
78. 4:05it has leather seats, buy our car. But it's uninspiring.
79. 4:10Here's how Apple actually communicates.
80. 4:14"Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo.
81. 4:19We believe in thinking differently.
82. 4:23The way we challenge the status quo
83. 4:25is by making our products beautifully designed,
84. 4:27simple to use and user friendly.
85. 4:29We just happen to make great computers.
86. 4:32Wanna buy one?"
87. 4:34Totally different right? You're ready to buy a computer from me.
88. 4:36All I did was reverse the order of the information.
89. 4:39People don't buy what you do they buy why you do it.
90. 4:41People don't buy what you do they buy why you do it.
91. 4:44This explains why every single person in this room
92. 4:48is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple.
93. 4:51But we're also perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple,
94. 4:55or a phone from Apple, or a DVR from Apple.
95. 4:58But, as I said before, Apple's just a computer company.
96. 5:01There's nothing that distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors.
97. 5:04Their competitors are all equally qualified to make all of these products.
98. 5:08In fact, they tried.
99. 5:09A few years ago, Gateway came out with flat screen TVs.
100. 5:12They're eminently qualified to make flat screen TVs.
101. 5:15They've been making flat screen monitors for years.
102. 5:17Nobody bought one.
103. 5:19Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs, and they make great quality products,
104. 5:25and they can make perfectly well-designed products --
105. 5:28and nobody bought one.
106. 5:29In fact, talking about it now, we can't even imagine
107. 5:31buying an MP3 player from Dell.
108. 5:33Why would you buy an MP3 player from a computer company?
109. 5:35But we do it every day.
110. 5:37People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
111. 5:40The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have.
112. 5:45The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.
113. 5:51Here's the best part:
114. 5:52None of what I'm telling you is my opinion.
115. 5:55It's all grounded in the tenets of biology.
116. 5:57Not psychology, biology.
117. 6:00If you look at a cross-section of the human brain,
118. 6:01looking from the top down,
119. 6:03what you see is the human brain is actually broken into three major components
120. 6:06that correlate perfectly with the golden circle.
121. 6:10Our newest brain, our Homo Sapien brain,
122. 6:12our neocortex, corresponds with the "what" level.
123. 6:16The neocortex is responsible for all of our
124. 6:18rational and analytical thought and language.
125. 6:22The middle two sections make up our limbic brains,
126. 6:25and our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings,
127. 6:28like trust and loyalty.
128. 6:31It's also responsible for all human behavior,
129. 6:34all decision-making,
130. 6:35and it has no capacity for language.
131. 6:38In other words, when we communicate from the outside in,
132. 6:41yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information
133. 6:45like features and benefits and facts and figures.
134. 6:47It just doesn't drive behavior.
135. 6:49When we can communicate from the inside out,
136. 6:51we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior,
137. 6:55and then we allow people to rationalize it
138. 6:58with the tangible things we say and do.
139. 7:00This is where gut decisions come from.
140. 7:02You know, sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and figures,
141. 7:06and they say, "I know what all the facts and details say, but it just doesn't feel right."
142. 7:10Why would we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right?
143. 7:12Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making doesn't control language.
144. 7:16And the best we can muster up is, "I don't know. It just doesn't feel right."
145. 7:20Or sometimes you say you're leading with your heart,
146. 7:22or you're leading with your soul.
147. 7:23Well, I hate to break it to you, those aren't other body parts
148. 7:25controlling your behavior.
149. 7:27It's all happening here in your limbic brain,
150. 7:29the part of the brain that controls decision-making and not language.
151. 7:33But if you don't know why you do what you do,
152. 7:35and people respond to why you do what you do,
153. 7:39then how will you ever get people to vote for you,
154. 7:42or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal
155. 7:46and want to be a part of what it is that you do?
156. 7:49Again, the goal is not just to sell to people who need what you have,
157. 7:52the goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe.
158. 7:55The goal is not just to hire people who need a job,
159. 7:59it's to hire people who believe what you believe.
160. 8:02I always say that, you know,
161. 8:04if you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money,
162. 8:10but if you hire people who believe what you believe,
163. 8:11they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.
164. 8:14And nowhere else is there a better example of this
165. 8:16than with the Wright brothers.
166. 8:18Most people don't know about Samuel Pierpont Langley.
167. 8:21And back in the early 20th century,
168. 8:24the pursuit of powered man flight was like the dot com of the day.
169. 8:27Everybody was trying it.
170. 8:29And Samuel Pierpont Langley had, what we assume,
171. 8:32to be the recipe for success.
172. 8:34I mean, even now, when you ask people,
173. 8:36"Why did your product or why did your company fail?"
174. 8:39And people always give you the same permutation
175. 8:40of the same three things:
176. 8:42under-capitalized, the wrong people, bad market conditions.
177. 8:45It's always the same three things, so let's explore that.
178. 8:49Samuel Pierpont Langley was given 50,000 dollars by the War Department
179. 8:53to figure out this flying machine.
180. 8:55Money was no problem.
181. 8:57He held a seat at Harvard and worked at the Smithsonian
182. 9:01and was extremely well-connected.
183. 9:02He knew all the big minds of the day.
184. 9:04He hired the best minds money could find
185. 9:08and the market conditions were fantastic.
186. 9:10The New York Times followed him around everywhere,
187. 9:13and everyone was rooting for Langley.
188. 9:16Then how come we've never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley?
189. 9:19A few hundred miles away in Dayton Ohio,
190. 9:22Orville and Wilbur Wright,
191. 9:24they had none of what we consider to be the recipe for success.
192. 9:28They had no money, they paid for their dream
193. 9:30with the proceeds from their bicycle shop,
194. 9:33not a single person on the Wright brothers' team had a college education,
195. 9:36not even Orville or Wilbur,
196. 9:39and The New York Times followed them around nowhere.
197. 9:42The difference was, Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause,
198. 9:46by a purpose, by a belief.
199. 9:48They believed that if they could figure out this flying machine,
200. 9:52it'll change the course of the world.
201. 9:55Samuel Pierpont Langley was different.
202. 9:57He wanted to be rich, and he wanted to be famous.
203. 10:00He was in pursuit of the result. He was in pursuit of the riches.
204. 10:04And lo and behold, look what happened.
205. 10:06The people who believed in the Wright brothers' dream
206. 10:09worked with them with blood and sweat and tears.
207. 10:12The others just worked for the paycheck.
208. 10:14And they tell stories of how every time the Wright brothers went out,
209. 10:17they would have to take five sets of parts,
210. 10:19because that's how many times they would crash before they came in for supper.
211. 10:23And, eventually, on December 17th 1903,
212. 10:27the Wright brothers took flight,
213. 10:30and no one was there to even experience it.
214. 10:32We found out about it a few days later.
215. 10:36And further proof that Langley was motivated by the wrong thing:
216. 10:40The day the Wright brothers took flight, he quit.
217. 10:43He could have said, "That's an amazing discovery, guys,
218. 10:46and I will improve upon your technology," but he didn't.
219. 10:50He wasn't first, he didn't get rich,
220. 10:52he didn't get famous so he quit.
221. 10:54People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
222. 10:57And if you talk about what you believe,
223. 10:59you will attract those who believe what you believe.
224. 11:01But why is it important to attract those who believe what you believe?
225. 11:07Something called the law of diffusion of innovation,
226. 11:09and if you don't know the law, you definitely know the terminology.
227. 11:12The first two and a half percent of our population are our innovators.
228. 11:17The next 13 and a half percent of our population are our early adopters.
229. 11:22The next 34 percent are your early majority,
230. 11:24your late majority and your laggards.
231. 11:28The only reason these people buy touch tone phones
232. 11:29is because you can't buy rotary phones anymore.
233. 11:31(Laughter)
234. 11:34We all sit at various places at various times on this scale,
235. 11:37but what the law of diffusion of innovation tells us
236. 11:40is that if you want mass-market success
237. 11:43or mass-market acceptance of an idea,
238. 11:45you cannot have it until you achieve this tipping point,
239. 11:49between 15 and 18 percent market penetration, and then the system tips.
240. 11:55And I love asking businesses, "What's your conversion on new business?"
241. 11:58And they love to tell you, "Oh, it's about 10 percent," proudly.
242. 12:00Well, you can trip over 10 percent of the customers.
243. 12:02We all have about 10 percent who just "get it."
244. 12:04That's how we describe them, right?
245. 12:05That's like that gut feeling, "Oh, they just get it."
246. 12:07The problem is: How do you find the ones that get it
247. 12:10before you're doing business with them versus the ones who don't get it?
248. 12:13So it's this here, this little gap that you have to close,
249. 12:18as Jeffrey Moore calls it, "Crossing the Chasm" --
250. 12:20Because, you see, the early majority will not try something
251. 12:24until someone else has tried it first.
252. 12:28And these guys, the innovators and the early adopters,
253. 12:31they're comfortable making those gut decisions.
254. 12:33They're more comfortable making those intuitive decisions
255. 12:36that are driven by what they believe about the world
256. 12:40and not just what product is available.
257. 12:42These are the people who stood in line for 6 hours
258. 12:45to buy an iPhone when they first came out,
259. 12:47when you could have just walked into the store the next week
260. 12:49and bought one off the shelf.
261. 12:50These are the people who spent 40,000 dollars
262. 12:52on flat screen TVs when they first came out,
263. 12:55even though the technology was substandard.
264. 12:58And, by the way, they didn't do it
265. 12:59because the technology was so great, they did it for themselves.
266. 13:03It's because they wanted to be first.
267. 13:06People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it
268. 13:08and what you do simply proves what you believe.
269. 13:12In fact, people will do the things that prove what they believe.
270. 13:16The reason that person bought the iPhone in the first six hours,
271. 13:21stood in line for six hours,
272. 13:23was because of what they believed about the world,
273. 13:25and how they wanted everybody to see them:
274. 13:27They were first.
275. 13:28People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
276. 13:31So let me give you a famous example,
277. 13:34a famous failure and a famous success of the law of diffusion of innovation.
278. 13:37First, the famous failure.
279. 13:39It's a commercial example.
280. 13:41As we said before, a second ago, the recipe for success is
281. 13:44money and the right people and the right market conditions.
282. 13:46Right? You should have success then.
283. 13:48Look at TiVo.
284. 13:50From the time TiVo came out about 8 or nine 9 ago to this current day,
285. 13:54they are the single highest-quality product on the market,
286. 13:58hands down, there is no dispute.
287. 14:00They were extremely well-funded.
288. 14:02Market conditions were fantastic.
289. 14:04I mean, we use TiVo as verb.
290. 14:06I TiVo stuff on my piece of junk Time Warner DVR all the time.
291. 14:11But TiVo's a commercial failure.
292. 14:14They've never made money.
293. 14:16And when they went IPO, their stock was at about 30 or 40 dollars
294. 14:20and then plummeted, and it's never traded above 10.
295. 14:22In fact, I don't think it's even traded above 6, except for a couple of little spikes.
296. 14:27Because you see, when TiVo launched their product
297. 14:29they told us all what they had.
298. 14:32They said, "We have a product that pauses live TV,
299. 14:35skips commercials, rewinds live TV
300. 14:38and memorizes your viewing habits without you even asking."
301. 14:43And the cynical majority said, "We don't believe you.
302. 14:47We don't need it. We don't like it. You're scaring us."
303. 14:51What if they had said,
304. 14:53"If you're the kind of person who likes to have total control
305. 14:58over every aspect of your life, boy, do we have a product for you.
306. 15:04It pauses live TV, skips commercials, memorizes your viewing habits, etc., etc."
307. 15:09People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
308. 15:11And what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.
309. 15:15Now let me give you a successful example of the law of diffusion of innovation.
310. 15:21In the summer of 1963, 250,000 people showed up
311. 15:26on the mall in Washington to hear Dr. King speak.
312. 15:31They sent out no invitations, and there was no website to check the date.
313. 15:37How do you do that?
314. 15:39Well, Dr. King wasn't the only man in America who was a great orator.
315. 15:44He wasn't the only man in America who suffered in a pre-civil rights America.
316. 15:47In fact, some of his ideas were bad.
317. 15:50But he had a gift.
318. 15:52He didn't go around telling people what needed to change in America.
319. 15:55He went around and told people what he believed.
320. 15:57"I believe, I believe, I believe," he told people.
321. 16:01And people who believed what he believed
322. 16:03took his cause, and they made it their own, and they told people.
323. 16:06And some of those people created structures
324. 16:09to get the word out to even more people.
325. 16:12And lo and behold, 250,000 people showed up
326. 16:15on the right day, at the right time to hear him speak.
327. 16:19How many of them showed up for him? Zero.
328. 16:26They showed up for themselves.
329. 16:28It's what they believed about America
330. 16:30that got them to travel in a bus for 8 hours
331. 16:33to stand in the sun in Washington in the middle of August.
332. 16:36It's what they believed, and it wasn't about black versus white:
333. 16:3925 percent of the audience was white.
334. 16:42Dr. King believed that there are two types of laws in this world:
335. 16:45those that are made by a higher authority and those that are made by man.
336. 16:50And not until all the laws that are made by man are consistent with the laws
337. 16:54that are made by the higher authority will we live in a just world.
338. 16:57It just so happened that the Civil Rights Movement
339. 16:59was the perfect thing to help him bring his cause to life.
340. 17:04We followed, not for him, but for ourselves.
341. 17:07And, by the way, he gave the "I have a dream" speech,
342. 17:09not the "I have a plan" speech.
343. 17:12(Laughter)
344. 17:15Listen to politicians now, with their comprehensive 12-point plans.
345. 17:17They're not inspiring anybody.
346. 17:20Because there are leaders and there are those who lead.
347. 17:23Leaders hold a position of power or authority,
348. 17:27but those who lead inspire us.
349. 17:31Whether they're individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead,
350. 17:35not because we have to, but because we want to.
351. 17:40We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.
352. 17:45And it's those who start with "why" that have the ability
353. 17:51to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.
354. 17:56Thank you very much.