Research Memo: Start with WHY!

Simon Sinek is a thinker who changed the world's leadership theory with the single phrase, "Start with WHY." His 17-minute talk at TEDx in 2009 has been viewed over 69 million times, placing it in the top 5 TED talks of all time. His books have been translated into over 50 languages, and his Golden Circle theory is utilized in MBA programs and corporate training worldwide. In Japan, "Start with WHY!" is widely read as a must-read for business professionals, and his TED talk is frequently used as English teaching material in universities. This manuscript is an original translation of Simon Sinek's TED talk, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" (2009, TEDxPugetSound) as teaching material for university students studying business administration. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Sinek. It is a Japanese translation with academic annotations.

How do we explain when things don't go as we assume? Or, as a more fundamental question, why are some people able to achieve results that defy all our conventional wisdom, time and time again?

Think about Apple. Why is it that Apple is so consistently innovative? Year after year, they outperform all their competitors. And yet, they are just a computer company. They use the same talent, the same advertising agencies, the same consultants, and the same media as everyone else. So why does it seem like they have something fundamentally different?

Why was it Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who led the Civil Rights Movement? He wasn't the only one suffering in America before the Civil Rights Movement. He wasn't the only great orator of the time, either. Why him?

And why were the Wright brothers able to achieve powered, manned flight? Despite the existence of several other teams with better funding and more experience, none of them could pull it off. Yet, the Wright brothers got there first.

There is another force at work here.

About three and a half years ago, I made a discovery. It fundamentally changed my view of how the world works, and even changed the guidelines for how I live in this world. There was a pattern. Great leaders and organizations around the world—whether it's Apple, Dr. King, or the Wright brothers—all thought, acted, and communicated in the exact same way. And it was the complete opposite of how everyone else did it.

I simply put that pattern into words. It is perhaps the simplest idea in the world. I call it the "Golden Circle."

Why. How. What.

This little idea explains why some organizations and leaders are able to inspire, while others cannot. Let's define the terms. Every person and every organization on the planet knows 100% of what they do. Some organizations know how they do it—their differentiated value proposition, their proprietary process, or what is called a USP. However, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. By "why," I don't mean to make a profit. Profit is a result, and it is always just a result. "Why" is the question of what your purpose is, what your belief is, and why your organization exists. Why do you get out of bed every morning? And why should anyone care?

As a result, most people's thinking, acting, and communicating go from the outside in. They start with the clearest thing and move toward the most ambiguous. But inspiring leaders and organizations, regardless of their size or industry, all think, act, and communicate from the inside out.

Let me give you a concrete example. I'll use Apple because everyone is familiar with them. If Apple were like everyone else, their marketing message would sound something like this: "We make great computers. They are beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. Want to buy one?" This is how most of us communicate. Much of marketing and sales is done this way, and it's the same in our daily human relationships. We say what we do, explain how we are different or better, and expect some kind of action. Whether it's a purchase, a vote, or anything else. "We are a new law firm. We have the best lawyers and the biggest clients, and we always get results." "Here is a new car. It has great gas mileage and leather seats. Please buy it." But this doesn't move people.

Let's look at 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. And it just so happens we make great computers. Want to buy one?"

You should feel that it is completely different. Now, you feel like you want to buy that computer. All I did was reverse the order of the information. This proves that people are not moved by "what" you do, but by "why" you do it.

That is why everyone in this room has no resistance to buying a computer from Apple. Not only that, but Apple's MP3 players, smartphones, and DVRs are accepted just as naturally. Again, structurally, Apple is just a computer company. There is nothing fundamentally different from their competitors. Their competitors have the capability to make all those products, too. Some companies have actually tried. A few years ago, Gateway released a flat-screen TV. Despite their long track record of making flat-screen monitors, nobody bought it. Dell released an MP3 player and a PDA, and they were perfectly fine products, but nobody bought them either. Nowadays, you can't even imagine yourself buying an MP3 player from Dell. Yet, we do exactly the same thing with Apple every day.

People are not moved by "what" you do, but by "why" you do it. The goal is not to sell to everyone. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.

And here is the important part. This is not my opinion. It is all backed by biology. Not psychology, but biology.

If you look at a cross-section of the human brain from the top, it is divided into three major parts that correspond perfectly to the Golden Circle. The newest brain, the Homo sapiens brain, the neocortex, corresponds to the "what" layer. The neocortex is responsible for rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two parts make up the limbic brain, which controls all feelings like trust and loyalty. Furthermore, all human behavior and decision-making happen here. And the limbic brain has no capacity for language.

In other words, when you communicate from the outside in, people can understand vast amounts of information like features, benefits, facts, and figures. But it doesn't drive behavior. When you communicate from the inside out, you are speaking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior. And people then rationalize those decisions with the concrete facts you present.

This is the true nature of "gut decisions." You can lay out all the facts and figures, and some people will say, "I understand everything, but it just doesn't feel right." Why do they use the phrase "doesn't feel right"? Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making has no capacity for language. When you try to put that feeling into words, the best you can do is say, "I don't know, it just feels wrong." Or some people say, "I'm following my gut" or "I feel it in my heart." Unfortunately, it is not your heart or your gut that controls your behavior. It is all happening in the limbic brain. It is the part that controls decision-making but lacks language.

But if you don't know 'why' you are doing what you are doing, and yet people still respond to your 'why,' how will you get people to vote for you, buy from you, and, most importantly, have true loyalty and want to be a part of what you are trying to build?

The goal is not to sell to everyone who needs what you have. It is to sell to people who believe what you believe. The goal is not to hire people just because they need a job. It is to hire people who believe what you believe. People who are hired just because they can do the job will work for money. But people who share the same beliefs will work with all their might.

There is no better example to illustrate this so vividly than the story of the Wright brothers.

Hardly anyone knows a man named Samuel Pierpont Langley. In the early 20th century, achieving powered manned flight was like the dot-com boom of that time. Everyone was trying. And Langley had everything we consider the 'formula for success.' Even today, when you ask why companies fail, the same three answers always come back: lack of capital, personnel problems, and poor market conditions. It is always these three. So let's examine them.

Langley received $50,000 from the War Department to develop his airplane. Funding was not an issue. He was affiliated with Harvard University, active at the Smithsonian Institution, and had impeccable connections with the intellectual elite of the time. He gathered excellent talent without sparing any expense, and the market conditions were perfect. The New York Times followed him constantly, and everyone wanted him to succeed.

Then why don't we know his name?

Hundreds of miles away in Dayton, Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright had none of what was considered the formula for success. They had no funding; their dream was supported only by the sales from their bicycle shop. Not a single person on their team had graduated from college, and neither had Orville or Wilbur. The New York Times did not cover them at all.

Here is the difference. Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause, a purpose, and a belief. They believed that if they could realize flight, they could change the course of the world. Langley was different. He was seeking wealth and fame. What he was chasing were the results and the rewards.

And what happened? The people who believed in the Wright brothers' dream worked with them with all their might. The others were just working for a paycheck. There is a story that every time the Wright brothers went out for a flight test, they brought five sets of parts. Because it was normal to crash five times before dinner.

And on December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers took flight. No one was there to witness it. The world didn't find out until a few days later.

There is no greater proof that Langley was driven by the wrong motives. On the day the Wright brothers flew, he gave up. He could have said, 'That is a wonderful discovery. Let's further develop their technology.' But he didn't. He wasn't the first. He didn't get the wealth or the fame. So he gave up.

People are moved not by 'what' but by 'why.' If you talk about your beliefs, people who share those same beliefs will gather.

But why is it important to attract people who share the same beliefs? Here we return to the 'Law of Diffusion of Innovation.' Even if you don't know the law itself, you must have heard the terms. In any group, the first 2.5% are innovators. The next 13.5% are early adopters. The next 34% are the early majority, followed by the late majority, and then the laggards. The only reason laggards adopt new technology is because they have no other choice. They change only because they can no longer buy rotary phones.

We are all at different positions on this curve depending on the scene and situation. But what this law teaches us is that for an idea or product to be accepted by the masses, it will not happen until market penetration reaches 15-18%. Once it crosses that level, the system starts to move all at once.

When you ask companies, 'What is your new customer conversion rate?', they proudly answer, 'It's about 10%.' But 10% of customers is a number you could encounter by chance just walking down the street. Everyone has that 10% who 'get it' from the start. It's an expression we often use: 'That person got it right away.' The problem is how to distinguish between those who 'get it' and those who don't before starting a transaction. This is what Geoffrey Moore calls the 'chasm.' The early majority won't move until someone else tries it first. But innovators and early adopters are used to making intuitive judgments. They are people who can act based on what they believe about the world, not on what is available in the market.

When the iPhone was first released, there were people who waited in line for 6 hours to buy it, even though they could have bought it without waiting the following week. When flat-screen TV technology was still immature, there were people who paid $40,000 to buy one. They didn't do it because the technology was superior. They did it for themselves. They wanted to be the very first. People are moved not by 'what' but by 'why.' And 'what you do' is merely proof of what you believe.

The person who waited in line for 6 hours on the first day the iPhone was released didn't come to buy a phone. They were declaring who they were and how they wanted to be seen by the world. They were the first.

Now, let me introduce one famous failure and one success regarding the Law of Diffusion of Innovation.

First, the failure. Think about TiVo. Since TiVo appeared about 8-9 years before this talk, the company has continued to provide arguably the highest quality product in the market to this day. They had sufficient funding, and the market conditions were perfect. We even use 'TiVo' as a verb.

Yet, TiVo was a commercial failure. It never once turned a profit. The stock price at the time of the IPO was around $30-40, but it plummeted afterward and rarely exceeded $10. With very few exceptions, it hardly ever even crossed $6.

The reason is that when TiVo announced their product, they told people 'what they had.' They said, 'It's a product that can pause live TV, skip commercials, rewind live TV, and automatically record your viewing habits.' The skeptical majority responded, 'I don't believe it. I don't need it. It's scary.'

What if they had said this instead? 'For those who want to take control of every aspect of their lives, we have the perfect product. It features live TV pausing, commercial skipping, automatic recording of viewing habits, and many other functions.' People are moved not by 'what' but by 'why.' 'What you do' only serves as proof of your beliefs.

Now, here is a success story. In the summer of 1963, 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to hear Dr. King's speech. No invitations were sent out. There were no websites to check the date. How on earth was this possible?

Dr. King was not the only great orator in America. He was not the only person suffering in America before the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, some of his ideas were not necessarily superior. But he had a special talent. He didn't go around talking about what America should change. He went around talking about what he believed. He kept saying, 'I believe, I believe, I believe.' People who believed what he believed took that cause as their own and passed it on to others. Some of them created mechanisms to spread the message even further.

And on that day, 250,000 people gathered at the right place on the right day. How many of them came for Dr. King? Not a single one. Everyone came for themselves. What they believed about America made them ride a bus for eight hours and stand in the scorching heat of a Washington August. It wasn't a black and white issue. 25% of the audience was white. Dr. King believed this: there are two types of laws in this world. Laws made by a higher power and laws made by man. Until all man-made laws align with the laws of the higher power, we cannot live in a just world. The Civil Rights Movement was the best way to demonstrate that belief to the world. We followed not for him, but for ourselves.

By the way, the speech he gave was 'I Have a Dream.' It was not a speech titled 'I Have a Plan.'

Listen to the comprehensive 12-point plans of today's politicians. They don't move anyone's heart. There is a difference between someone who holds the title of leader and someone who truly leads. Leaders are in positions of power or authority. But those who truly lead inspire us. Whether as individuals or organizations, we follow not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow for our own sake.

And those who start by talking about 'why' have the power to move those around them, or to encounter those who will move them.

Thank you very much.