Don't Pretend You're Purpose Driven | Simon Sinek at Entreleadership 2019

when you start a business with an exit strategy in mind it means you were setting out to play the finite game which means you will put lipstick on that pig right you may have a weak culture but you're gonna prioritize making them the numbers look good for the seller for the buyer rather than for actually building a strong culture which is something they can't see and it's harder for them to evaluate right we've all seen it right and we see what happens when companies get sold they go right very often or some turnaround person comes in and makes everybody hate their lives and you know but it that's my little secret question when somebody wants me to get involved in their business I would say what's your exit strategy and if they have one I'm not interested now I don't have a problem with an exit but an exit should happen organically you've been doing it for twenty years you're tired bad enough it's time to exit but you're gonna hand over really strong culture with a really wonderful group of people who you're gonna care about and everybody's been taking care of and hopefully you're gonna sell it to somebody that may not be the highest bidder but it's the best person to continue to carry your torch into the future right so again it goes back to the previous question I don't know when it started that we should only start businesses to sell them I mean and if you do do that and this is I don't have a problem with people who play by the finite mindset by the way just stop pretending that you're not like I'm tired of companies that put their where purpose-driven and we care about people you don't know you know I don't have any problem if you put on your website we don't give a rat's ass about purpose we're not buying one to give one to anybody we don't really we're gonna put cheaper ingredients so we can make squeeze and extra penny on the margins we don't care we're just maximizing profit take it or leave it I actually don't have a problem with that because then at least I know what I'm buying and now I actually have the choice if I want to buy into that or not right but don't pretend and lie to me don't pretend and lie to me tell me that you're Purpose Driven and you care about people before profit I've never met a CEO who doesn't care about their people right there number one growth number two my shareholder number three my people see I care that means there's at least two other things that come more important than the very people who helped you build your wealth right so I don't actually have a problem with it just be honest just be honest and I think everybody I think too many people lie about that they actually are playing in there for the game where they're not so and I think it's terrible that we're teaching people to start businesses so that they can sell them because again if you play by that mindset you're going to make very different decisions about your people your product your ingredients even how to treat your customer over if you're building a business with an infinite mindset [Music]

Channel: Simon Sinek

Views: 218,351

Rating: 4.9514351 out of 5

Keywords: simon sinek, start with why, inspiration, motivation, leader, leadership, purpose, corporate, ceo, exit strategy, the infinite game

Id: GcvL7BB0UT8

Length: 2min 55sec (175 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 06 2019