"Start With Why" Book Review

Have you ever wonder why are you doing what you're doing right now? What is the purpose beyond all this? If you're a student, why do you want to work on your tasks up until 4AM? If you're working, is there anything else beside money that you're looking for?

Simon Sinek is an inspiring TEDx speaker. His lecture titled "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" and he mentioned again and again the ESSENCE of Why.

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Start with why... because Why is the heart of everything. It's the recipe for long-term success.

Sinek mentioned Bill Gates from Microsoft as one of his examples. His dream was a PC on everyone's desk. A cause, an answer to 'why', can engage people who believe in that dream. People who share the same value. In return they'd begin to trust Bill Gates, trusting the product and its development.

The other example was about Steve Jobs in Apple. Compared to Microsoft, Apple is all about 'challenging the status quo' and they communicate their WHY clearly. Sinek described it with marketing advertisement.

"A marketing message from Apple, if they're like everyone else, might sound like this:
We make great computers
They're beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
Wanna buy one?"

While in truth Apple advertises as such:
"Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.
The way we challenge the status quo is making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
And we happen to make great computers.
Wanna buy one?"

Start with WHY you even do what you do, then HOW you produce your creation, and finally WHAT you present to us. Go from the inner side of the circle to the outside.

Sinek's Profile

Sinek was an anthropologist who ventured to start a business, but later turn to the marketing industry. "After year one," he said when he wrote about his business, "we celebrated. We hadn't gone out of business." But slowly he began to lose his initial drive... He lost his 'WHY'. If anyone would ask about his business, he'd describe it as "positioning and strategy consulting." It's a HOW and WHAT answer, but not a WHY answer.

Years later he found the WHY concept and how it affects leadership and business. He is eager to inspire people about the concept, which in return would motivate them to do inspiring things.

What Is Your WHY?

Although heavy on the marketing content, I found "Start With Why" very amusing and applicable to ourselves. Sometimes we ARE lost, we feel restless although we achieve targets. But perhaps it is all because we forget WHY we start it in the first place.

Personally, I found my actions - most of them - were aligned to my values. My big three values are multiculturalism, education, and love.

1. Multiculturalism means diversity and authenticity for me: having a diverse group of people and respects the differences, while proudly presents my origins to the group.
2. Education is all about learning for me. Life is about taking paths that you would never expect. So you have to learn and re-learn as you gain skills from a variety of places.
3. Finally, love. I believe that everyone deserves love, and God fills us with love to love one another.

What would be yours? What's your WHY?


For now, my HOW and WHAT are still pending. They can be anything and I'm sure they'll grow to many activities in the future. As long as we keep the WHY, we're close to make a difference in our lives.

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