Don’t Start With “What”. Start With “Why” - Deepstash

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Don’t Start With “What”. Start With “Why”

Start with “Why”. Move to “How”. Then to “What”.

This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren't.

Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100%. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by "why" Simon Sinek doesn’t mean "to make a profit." That's a result. It's always a result.

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MORE IDEAS ON THIS

Aim For The Innovators And The Early Adopters

We all sit at various places at various times on this scale, but what the law of diffusion of innovation tells us is that if you want mass-market success or mass-market acceptance of an idea, you cannot have it until you achieve this tipping point between 15 and 18market penetration

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The Defiers Of All Assumptions

How do you explain when things don't go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? For example: Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year, after year, they're more innovative than all their compet...

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Aim For The Ones That Believe What You Believe

In the summer of 1963, 250,000 people showed up on the mall in Washington to hear Dr. King speak. They sent out no invitations, and there was no website to check the date. How do you do that? Well, Dr. King didn't go around telling people what needed to change in America. He went around and told ...

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People Buy Your “Why”.

Here's how Apple actually communicates.

"Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computer...

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Information Alone Does Not Sell Things

Why would we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right? Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making doesn't control language. The best we can muster up is, "I don't know. It just doesn't feel right." Or sometimes you say you're leading with your heart or soul. I hate...

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Feelings Sell Things

But if you don't know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then you will never get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do.

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It Was “I Have A Dream”. Not “I Have A Plan”.

There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they're individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We foll...

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We’re Biologically Made To Buy “Why”

If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, from the top down, the human brain is actually broken into three major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Our newest brain, our Homo sapiens brain, the neocortex, corresponds with the "what" level. The ne...

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What “Why” Is: Going From The Inside Out

By "why," Simon Sinek means: What's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? As a result, the way we think, we act, the way we communicate is from the o...

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People Don’t Buy Your “What”.

If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this: 

"We make great computers. They're beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Want to buy one?" 

"Meh."

That's how most of us communicate. That's how most...

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SIMON SINEK

People don't buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it.

The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. 

The goal is to do busin...

SIMON SINEK

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Starting With “What” Is Giving Information

In other words, when we communicate from the outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information like features and benefits and facts and figures.

It just doesn't drive behaviour.

When we can communicate from the inside...

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The Law Of Diffusion Of Innovation

But why is it important to attract those who believe what you believe? Something called the law of diffusion of innovation, if you don't know the law, you know the terminology. The first 2.5% of our population are our innovators. The next 13.5% of our population are our e...

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Aim For The Ones That Are Doing It For Themselves

There were people who stood in line for six hours to buy an iPhone when they first came out, when you could have bought one off the shelf the next week. They didn't do it because the technology was so great; they did it for themselves. They did it because they wanted to be first. They did...

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The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle

As it turns out, there's a pattern. 

As it turns out, all the great inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, whether it's Apple, or Martin Luther King, they all think, act and communicate the exact same way. And it's the complete opposite t...

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CURATED FROM

CURATED BY

xarikleia

“An idea is something that won’t work unless you do.” - Thomas A. Edison

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership - starting with a golden circle and the question: "Why?"

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