Simon Sinek | The biggest mistake people make while pursuing their dreams

i'm simon Sinek and you're watching behind the brand hi I'm Brian Elliott welcome to another edition - behind the brand today I'm here with optimist author and speaker simon Sinek Simon welcome to the show nice to be here thanks for having me I usually asked my guest how'd you get this job I tripped over it and nothing about my career was planned or expected tell me about that there's not a single thing I do that was that I imagined I'd be doing I'm my story is much like many entrepreneurs a bunch of years ago I started a small business I thought I had a better mousetrap and for the first few years it was exciting and fun and you know there's the novelty of starting a business my fourth year was entirely different we'd built up a good client base we did great work we were like by our clients we liked our clients but I lost my passion for what I was doing and I kept it to myself I was embarrassed you know superficially I should have been happy I owned my own business I made it okay living we did great work we had with these great clients you're the boss I was the boss and I didn't want to admit that I was unhappy and that I didn't want to wake up and do it again every day and so I just kept it to myself why not you know people have real stress and people have real problems and and I felt that my problems and the fact that I was you know that I'd lost my passion was inadequate or selfish and so all of my energy went into pretending that I was happier more successful than I was were you thinking I fake it till you make it kind of thing or were you I know it was it was um it was it was that I didn't know what I was doing the business was growing and and I wasn't capable I didn't have the skillset to build it yeah it was also it also was basically a one-man show even though I had a small staff I mean it was basically you know me showing up to every meeting and me making every decision yeah and it's not a sustainable model so you're just on autopilot yeah and and so it was it was hard and it was really a dark period after I have to admit it was really a dark place and there was a confluence of events that I'm immensely grateful for when I learned how the human brain works I learned how decisions happen and that every single organization on the planet even our own careers always function on the same three levels what we do how we do it and why we do and you have to have all three I knew what I did I knew how I did it I knew how I was different or special compared to my competitors but I couldn't tell you why I was doing what I was doing and so I became obsessed with learning my why I learned my why and it restored my passion to levels I've never experienced prior I did what anybody would do I shared it with the people I love I started telling my friends about this crazy cool idea they started making crazy life changes they would invite me to their homes to share it with their friends and I literally would just stand in someone's living room they would be sitting on the bed or on the floor and in a studio apartment in New York City and I would tell them about this thing called the why this Golden Circle and people just kept inviting me and I just kept saying yes I had the opportunity to write a book you know speaking start to become more common and and the demand and the growth was totally totally organic and things started to get weird and I started to get invitations from places and people I never imagined meeting for those who have not seen actually for those living in a cave who haven't seen that talked about the goals of circle write that down first recreate that a little bit for us here create a little magic so we understand what you're talking about give us some context sure if we're hearing it for the first time well like I said before every single organization on the planet even our own careers always function on these same three levels you know what we do how we do it and why we do it every single organization that planet knows what they do it's the products you sell it's the services you offer some can articulate how they're different or how they stand out from the crowd but very very few people or organizations can articulate why they do what they do that purpose cause or belief that inspires them to get out of bed in the morning it's not about money or market share those are results yeah it's literally a purpose closer believe it's a thing that inspires so give us some examples I mean there's lots of companies that know what they do you know they make a computer product or you know their their engine is bigger faster or better gas mileage than the other but why is it that understanding the why is so critical I mean look the example I always use in the example that's sort of I'm known to use as the Apple example Apple doesn't start by talking about what they do they talk about they start by talking about what they believe if Apple spoke like anybody else they'd start with what they do we make great computers how do they do it they're beautifully designed simple to use and user friendly want to buy one mmm right but they start with why everything we do they say 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 computers want to buy one it's totally different right and it actually feels different and the reason is is because the organization the order of the communication order of the information goes to the limbic brain the limbic brain is the part of the brain that makes all our decisions it's also responsible for all of our feelings and emotions which is why we're told we have to make emotional connections that doesn't mean make people cry that means go to the part of the brain that's responsible for decision making is that why we say I just know it in my heart or I feel it my gut correct yeah you don't know anything is you all right and nothing's happening in your stomach right that's not where behavior happens we say that because the part of the brain that controls language and which is the neocortex also controls rational and analytical thought but it's not the limbic brain and so we have trouble articulating why we make decisions or why we feel the way we do towards somebody that's why we speaking metaphors and analogies all the time you know we sit down in a relationship we're struggling and we don't know how to express the emotions we say it's like this I feel like I'm on a train that's heading down the track and I can see the and that's we're trying to articulate what we feel I just know things my bone if you live in my bones we start you know we start to use stories and things like that that's why story is so important but ya know it's it's all biology so you wrote the first book start with Y or is your intention who who did you hope would read that book and what did you hope that they would do with it so understand this is neither an academic nor commercial exercise for me this was a deeply and continues to be a deeply personal experience the discovery of this thing called the Y and the articulation of the thing that I called the Golden Circle saved me and it and it and it and it helped my friends and so I made the simple decision you know I could copyright it rights protect it you know and all that stuff and sell it and make millions or I could give it away and I chose to give it away that was the decision I made and the simple reason was why should I be the only one who gets to have my passion reignited I believe that the opportunity to love our work fulfillment is a right and not a privilege you know people say I love my job ago you're so lucky you know that shouldn't be the exception it should be the rule it's not a lottery you know it's a right and we're not destined to hate our job be there correct and so if this helps those who aspire to feel inspired when they go to work if they want something that will help them inspire those around them that's who I wrote it for it was it's for this it was for the people just like me it was the people just like my friends so he created a movement I hope so I like to think so yeah you talked about in part of it anyway well you talked about in that famous original TEDx town I think about another person of influence who didn't have the convenience of modern technology what not who was able to assemble lots of people at one place in one central area to give a very profound speech that you know changed the course of history talk a little bit about that how was that done so you talk about Martin Luther King yeah and the rally in Washington there's something called the law of diffusion of innovations which Emmet Rogers codified I think back in the 60s and really every entrepreneur should learn it very simply all populations sift across the standard deviation the bell curve what the law of diffusion tells us the first two and a half percent of our population are innovators the next twelve or thirteen and a half percent of our population our early adopters 34 percent of your early majority next thirty four thirty four percent of your late majority and the last 16 percent are your laggards yeah right your laggards are the ones that you know the only reason they buy you know touch-tone phones is because you can't buy rotary phones anymore you know the early adopters are happy to take a risk there they they're happy to trust their guts to trust their intuition when they make decisions the majority more center more practical ones a little more proof you know wants to know that price quality service and features are all there they care about those things the early adopters less so inconvenience is okay if they believe in what it is these are the people who stand in line for hours to buy an iPhone when it comes out well you can just go in the store the following week and just buy one right yeah I mean they're the they're the folks that are watching the first couple people eat yeah the food and if they're not they don't keel over dead then maybe I'll try that's the majority that's that would be the early majority right but it's the early adopters who are trying the food and so any entrepreneur that wants to have mass-market success what we usually do is aim at the majority which is the place where we see the opportunity the market but the reality is the way that ideas spread the way that things happen the way that things become mass market is actually quite the opposite because the reason the early majority don't jump into something's they won't try something until somebody else has tried at first right so the law of diffusion tells us very simply is that you know if you ignore it everybody gets 10% of your customers or employees who just get it that's how we describe them but that's not enough to create a tipping point to create a tipping point you need to have between 15 and 18 percent part market penetration and that doesn't necessarily mean of the market it means of the people who believe what you believe so that means telling people bright about price quality service and features which is a terrible hard game to play because it's a game of cat and mouse with the majority doesn't work as effectively as telling the group of early adopters what you believe and if they believe what you believe they will be drawn to you I'm obsessed with this little model and it's it's responsible for the spread of even my work I don't have a publicist now I've none of my neither of my books were reviewed by the New York Times or they have no sort of mass media reviews I didn't hire anyone to go into Amazon and put fake you know things to drive up my ratings it's it's all real and the reason is is because I never aimed at the majority always talked obsessively about what I believe what I believe what I believe the way you introduced me optimist immediately you know what I stand for and what I believe even before I've even said a word you know so those who believe what I believe those who imagine the world that I imagine are drawn to my work and if they find it appealing then they'll tell their friends about it the same way the same reason I told my friends about it because when we find something beautiful we want to share it with the people we love you see a good movie call your friends so you got to see this movie same thing and if they find it and they should and so you have these people who are by the way have way more credibility than me or any marketing writing advertising or any journalists when your friend says you should read this it's way more inspiring more trustworthy than anybody else we have the context and that's the law of diffusion and so I've been obsessed and continue to be about finding the people who believe what I believe and those who say prove to me why I should read your book or prove to me why I should you know listen to the stuff you say and the answer is don't I'll get you later on you know um I never try to sell or convince someone that this is interesting those those who get it are the ones that I'm more interested in and this is how Martin Luther King did it it's not Martin Luther King attracted a quarter of a million people to show up on the mall in Washington in 1963 in the middle of August with no internet no email no mass marketing it's because the people who believed what he believed took his cause made it their own they found ways to get people to come some find ways to get it out in a big way and when they started the rally there weren't a lot of people they actually got worried that not a lot of people going to show except they started coming and coming and coming and so I think in this data-driven metrics obsessed you know measure the clicks and views and whatnot world people are uncomfortable with the fact that there's an element of faith that's involved here because the problem with the law of diffusion is I can't tell you how long it'll take but I can't tell you how long it'll take to fall in love either I know it takes more than a week I know it takes less than seven years but I don't know how long it takes in other words it's human it's a human experience and all of these things are human loyalty is a human feeling trust is human feeling somebody's desire to choose one thing over another is all part of that feeling part of the brain so it's all connected and so when it's organic when it's it's that it's much more authentic I take it a tell you a little funny story about speaking of metrics and this idea of faith as it you know you can't measure everything you know what's your definition of faith by the way undying belief patience not not necessarily able to explain but still willing to to give it a try or follow a belief it's something that is real but is unseen - yeah I mean it's sometimes it's there's an element of unpredictability you know so for example I I had a meeting at the Pentagon and I was meeting with some big general and you know when you go for a meeting in an office you sit in the foyer and they come and get you and you make hallway talk on the way to the office to have the meeting sure how was your trip you know that that kind of stuff and so he came to get me and we were walking to his office and we were making hallway talk he said to me Simon I've had everyone in my office read your book and I responded my publisher thanks you and he responded tell them not to bother I had them read my copy total book sales one total impact huge versus when I go to an event and they give away 500 copies of my book for free but nobody reads it they use them as coasters total book sales 500 total impact nothing negligible and so if the only drive is to sell books you can achieve that you can buy that there are tricks and games and marketing that you can do that and you spike and you disappear right but are you interested in sales are you interested in impact and impact it's a lot harder to measure because there's no direct correlation to the sale on the impact but maybe somebody bought one talks about it and talks about it talks about it and talks about it and talks about it that's what I'm interested in yeah those are the things I mean why would someone talk about your stuff even if they don't buy it when and you don't know the impact down the road you have no clue maybe it's been dormant inside their heart for a year or five years an experience a thought and emotion triggers that other person comes out and now it's valuable correct and so where where metrics and making decisions solely based on the measurable is inconvenient is we can only really measure one level out we can measure the click or the view or you know how much time they spend there and we can try and produce theories as to whether that will you but we have no clue what happens four or five six levels beyond that and whether that helped didn't help negatively affected or positively affected the behavior that happens or more importantly how they tell their friends I'm more interested in people talking about my work than actually personally engaging with it for one person to read a book is great for one person to tell a four five six seven of their friends about something that they maybe only read the first chapter and that was enough to inspire them I'll take that any day what have you been afraid of in the past have you ever been stuck paralyzed by fear yeah I mean of course you know in our world we're sort of a few of us are afraid of dying we don't live in that kind of society in the first world on a daily basis but we fear failure you know we all do it paralyzes a lot of people from not starting businesses and in that time that I spoke of you know those years ago that dark peered for me I was all consumed by fear I was afraid I was going to go to business and it's my that fear and became paranoia and extended beyond even my business has convinced my those who work with me hated me I was even worried I was going to get evicted were these just things that you manufactured in your own mind of course or is it a reality I mean you can make a case for anything you know one way or the other God has given us the gift of rationalization but it I don't believe the courage to overcome these things I don't believe this comes from inside us you don't you don't go inside to find courage you know courage comes from relationships courage comes from the feeling that someone has your back and when someone says whether it's a parent or a mentor close friends as I believe in you I've got your back you know that's what fuels is it gives us the okay I'm going to do this I'm going to do this you know that's where courage comes from and even me that's where it came from in this dark period I was very lucky that I had a friend who said are you okay she could see I wasn't myself she said don't worry you're not alone you know and that that gave me the courage to admit that I was struggling and to be willing to try and find a solution how did that feel when she said that look humans are social animals and and almost all of our behavior is governed by our desire to feel safe you know locking the doors at night feels safe having someone sit next to us when we're hurt when we're depressed we want someone near us I mean this is you know when we get married we celebrate we want to be near people I mean this is this is a very very basic human thing and so those who foster relationships those who take care of others will find themselves in a position where others are more likely to take care of them those who are driven solely by their own success their own Fame their own fortune that's a solo that's a solo exercise you know people will happily watch you and if they're helping you it's probably for selfish gain themselves because you set the tone you know there's I think there's an important lesson there I would like to underscore this little yeah and it was subtle so I don't want anyone to miss it in order to get through tough times yeah in order to get through the fear we need other people have to but the biological and anthropological imperative but you know isn't it ironic that during those times I personally the opposite feeling a curse I want to go back inside my shares whether it's you know I feel shame or it's it's too painful or risky to stick my neck out and I think and I speak from personal experience that I just want a journey alone to carry the burden alone when I was almost like that that fish-out-of-water it's it's flapping away from helping hands that could push it right back into the water where it ought to be just to live and survive and yet it flaps away from helping hands so I mean yes it's it's it's a we we feel vulnerable yeah and so we don't expose ourselves to further vulnerability whether it's humiliation or the real opportunity of failure the real chance of failure and so we we we close in we put our walls up and we we work to protect ourselves the irony is it does more damage yeah and it's and it's when we can make ourselves vulnerable when we can expose ourselves to someone and still feel safe and know that they will keep us safe that's where the opportunity the courage comes from there's a great example which is an Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous has been helping people overcome the addiction to alcohol for 75 80 years very successfully and we know we know the 12-step plan you know we joke about the first step you know it's admit you have a problem right but the 12-step is what's fundamental Alcoholics Anonymous knows that if you master all eleven steps but not the twelfth the likelihood is pretty good that you're going to drink again however if you master the 12-step that's how you beat the disease the twelfth step is the commitment to help another alcoholic its service in other words when we willingly help those who are struggling with the same thing we're struggling with that's where we find the will to look after ourselves in the courage to to continue and so I'm a great fan of entrepreneurs who help other entrepreneurs regardless of their level of success and without an expectation of return there cannot be an expectation of anything of return the expectation of return become makes it a transaction and that's when you start to create these transaction relationships I'll do it for you if you did for me I'll only do it for you viewed it for me if I do this for you will you do this for me it destroys the nature of the human relationship the nature of a relationship is the willingness to give and no expectation of anything in return I mean think about our friends the values of a friend is not this is not this equitable exchange of what she do for me right no we don't keep notebooks in our back pockets of all the things we've done for our friends you know tallying how much they've done for us you know if a friend asks us to do something we never say well I've done seven things for you this month in you've done three things for me you know yeah the reason our friends are our friends is not by the balance it's the belief the undying belief that if if we needed them they would be there no matter what and when we don't believe that that's when we start to feel the referential son equitable and that's when we start to say I do things for you all the time you never do anything for me it's not the doing it's the belief that if I were to ask that you would be there for me without question and when we have that feeling we give unconditionally because we know that one time that we need them they'll be there I wonder to even extend it further to say we have these friends because they need us and that you know that well is reciprocity right I mean you know we can both make ourselves vulnerable we can both turn our backs and trust that the other will watch for danger you know you watch in that direction all watch in that direction and I never have to check over my shoulder because I trust that you've got my back literally so the best definition of love I ever heard is giving someone the power to destroy you and trusting they won't use it which I love I think it's the same in business when we give when we make ourselves vulnerable even to our own employees to our own partners to our own colleagues then we give them the power to destroy the business and trust that they won't you know you know in other words we give people responsibility yeah and we we don't double check their work and if they take a few extra dollars from the cash register then it's on them um you know in highly trusted and trusting organizations that doesn't happen I was hanging out with some of the folks at some of the senior folks from container store recently and I know it's a well-run organization I know they take care of their people I know their people feel safe and they like working there and so I asked a question I knew what the answer is but I wanted to hear from the horse's mouth I I said do you check people's bags on when they leave you know the people who work in your retail operations do you check their bags before they leave at night and they looked at me said what why would we need to do that you compare that to a lot of other retail enterprise whole body scans you have to you have to check the bags to see that they're not you know in other words when we treat people with respect and we hire people who believe what we believe and we treat people like human beings do there other people who steal of course there's always bad eggs of the horse but does that mean everybody steals of course not so why do we treat everybody like criminal you know but it became a culture I spent time in Japan and I was amazed see thousands and thousands and thousands of bikes yeah with no unlock or or decorative locks yeah yeah we're people who walk into a coffee shop and put their phone in their wallet on the table to hold the table when they go to the bathroom as opposed to your jacket which we could lose but not the wallet or phone right so what do you say to people that that would push back and just say you know that's a really great notion very romantic thought it is idealistic isn't but I've given so much and all everyone seems to do is just take and if that doesn't pay the bills well those are those there's a lot of there's a lot of different thoughts going on in there right which is I think when somebody says all I do is give and all others ever do is take AI would question the nature of how they're defining giving you know I keep paying the more I keep paying the more they that's not what people want people want to feel safe remember where they want to be treated like human being they want to be given responsibility and opportunity they want to feel valued and valuable they want our time they want us to help them grow it also may be that there were some bad choices made that you you hired people or chose to give to people for your expediency and not because they actually believe what you believe ah your resume is brilliant you've worked for my biggest competitor you've grown you know how to build a business you're hired but you never actually got to know them and find out who they are if you actually get along with them you don't know if they're a good fit culturally so that was a that was a selfish hire so I think some there's some accountability it's if somebody actually says everybody always takes from me you know I like to joke there's only one common factor in all my failed relationships me right so it's the same thing that everyone's always taking from you there's only one common factor and all of these experiences which is you so maybe a little introspection so and does it pay the bills in the short term you can bash people over the head and treat them like numbers and in the short term you will gain over the long term it doesn't work what I talk about is idealistic absolutely but it works over time if you want to build a fast growth business ignore everything I'm telling you if you want to build a stable business you want to build the build a business that lasts that potentially could outlast you and most importantly that if you took a vacation and you didn't check your phone or your computer everything would work fine while the cat's away the mice won't play yeah exactly right in fact exact in fact while the cat's away the mice will work harder because they don't wanna let you down they want to make you proud they want to prove to you that you're all of your sacrifice and belief in them was worth it it's it's a it's an amazing feeling when that happens but like any kind of relationship it doesn't happen overnight so where does change happen faster or better more effectively do you start at the top let it trickle down do you aim for the middle you hit the bottom first work up it doesn't matter all all can be effective you know when you have buying at the top it's more efficient obviously because decisions can be made that will just go top down but but the tail can wag the dog you can come into dysfunctional organizations with poor leadership and you don't necessarily need the top guy to to affect the change if that person is dysfunctional Seletar and if you get enough remember though leaders may have authority though they have title power always belongs to the people this is why dictators were afraid of the people this is why in dictatorship dictatorships they keep the people far away with big barriers and you know armed keep them hungry you and you and you have you know fake elections to give the the appearance of even in dictatorships they fear the people yeah so the people always have the power and that's why bad leaders that's why dictators keep the people divided because as long as the people are divided I keep my authority if the people come together it's over the same is true in a business the power still belongs to the people the leaders responsibility is to take care of those people so that the people take care of the business so you're doing a lot of speaking you're going into companies big companies small companies what are some of the classic mistakes that these companies are making when it comes to leadership or getting people to make change I think one of the biggest mistakes is just the definition of leader people think leadership happens as you gain rank nothing could be further from the truth a leadership is a practice and leadership is a choice and it's the choice to look after those around us that's what leadership is I know many people who sit at the highest levels of companies who have authority but they're they're not leaders we do as they tell us because they have authority over us but we wouldn't follow them that sounds like stewardship call it whatever you want it's what it is and one of the biggest failings in most organizations is we don't teach people how to be leaders it's a skill and it requires education some people of natural capacity like some people of natural capacity to play basketball but it still requires a lot of hard work parenting is a skills the same thing so when someone's jr. in a company we give them training how to do their job right lots of training here's how we do it in our system some people go get degrees and how to do the job right and if you're good at doing the job because when you're jr. only responsibility is to do a good job that's your only responsibility and if you do a good job we will promote you and if you continue to do a good job we'll continue to promote you until you get to the point where you're now in a position where you're going to be responsible for people who do the job that you used to do right and it's called manage and and the reason these people who have the opportunity become leaders become managers is because now they've made this transition they're no longer responsible for doing the job they're responsible for others who are doing the job but we don't teach them how to do that we just expect that they're good at it which is unfair we set them up for failure or we set them up to become managers and the reason they become managers is because very often they do know how to do the job better than the others that's what got them promoted and there's this fascinating transition that people have to make where we have to make the transition where we are no longer responsible for the results we are no longer responsible for the work we are now responsible for the people who are responsible for the results we were now responsible for the people who are responsible for the work and we don't teach people how to go through that transition and we don't give them the skill set as they make their way higher and higher up the ranks and and then what you end up with is CEOs who say my number one responsibility or the results really really because you don't do anything that affects the result well the excuse is well the stakeholders require me to do it that way that's just the lack of courage that's that's that's so let's let me it's a compound that's a cover so what you're saying is you will take advice from a disinterested outside constituency that has no loyalty to you whatsoever and if your company does well they're investing you anyway regardless of what you say or do so yeah it's not sales but what's that flying from King Lear those who put out our eyes reprove us for our blindness No you know it's that whole notion that it's it's just my job or it's not my fault or it's not have no control it's not a good interview until recording Shakespeare the the yeah it's it's it's nonsense I'll tell you I here's my my my my my opinions of the analyst community were formed by personal experience you know it's not just some bluster I was working with a public company and there are you know billion plus dollar company and they are they don't know if they still are but they were the largest land-based well services company I think in the world right in the in the oil and gas chair right and I got to go to their analyst meeting and I'd say about 80% of the analysts that track them came to this meeting and the information that they presented about their technology and their innovation and their planning and their safety all of the stuff that was presented that the analyst meeting I'd say 80 to 90 percent of the information that was presented at the annals meeting was public information and most of it was available on their website okay I would go on to say about 80 to 90 percent of the analysts that were in the room acted like this was the first time they had learned this information like this stuff's incredible and I'm thinking myself you're paid to track this industry this is the largest player in the industry what do you do on your daily you know what do you do at the office yeah you know and so just for fun I pulled out you know I tracked my my clients stock price with their largest competitor stock price was the price of oil and a-three just went together you know the price of oil was high they said by I'm on the price of lawyer oak and had nothing to do with how good the quote the company was how well-run it was how well they employed their people how well they looked and had nothing to do with the technology or the real competitive advantages that this company offered in other words mass laziness mass irresponsibility because the incentives asked for at the analyst side that what gets them bonuses and their jobs usually are inconsistent with what it takes to run a good business yeah well I now testify from this side to you know having visited a lot of brands and seen the interworkings pulled back the curtain a lot of that's going on everywhere yeah of course so when some CEO says you know I have to you know it's incumbent upon me to do this the pressures in the analyst community you know some 26-year old who's never run a business in his life and you're taking his advice on how to run your multi-billion dollar corporation okay that should tell you something about short-term gains the great CEOs the great CEO is the ones who build really high performing long lasting successful companies you know such as Costco you know these kinds of companies Southwest Airlines you know Barbra Starbucks Polo Ralph Lauren you know a lot of these guys ignore the wall street like normal Street what's what you said at the beginning it's it's it's shun the non-believers shun the non-believers and they have courage they have courage they have courage and if you compare you know a leader like Jim Senegal is the founder of Costco and you compare him to somebody like a Jack Welch who's hailed is a great leader just let's let's talk shareholder value you know Costco went public I think in 1984 Jack Welch had been on the job about three or four years if you bought a dollar in both those companies GE looks like this right because they're playing to the short-term gains it's literally a roller coaster and if you're lucky enough to sold it exactly the right time you could have made fourteen hundred percent of your money was it madness right and Costco is the slow boring flat looking stock and for years the analyst community criticized Costco quote when will you stop giving to your customers and your employees and start giving to your shareholders and Senegal always ignored them and if you look at it on an annualized or a quarterly basis it looks flat yeah but if you pull back the lens a little bit you look after 20 or 30 years it's not flat it's perfect beautiful steady upwards growth like this right if you invested a dollar in Costco and auth and a dollar in G the year that Costco went public the same year to this day you would have made six hundred percent on your money in GE you would have made six hundred percent on your money in the S&P 500 and you would have made twelve hundred percent on your money in Costco you want to talk shareholder value right not to mention the fact that Jack Welch left the company started have trouble they needed three hundred billion $300 billion bailout in 2008 that's not a stable company right right Costco needed nothing and you look at the value even doing recessionary times and it just has this little little little bump in other words one company was built for short-term gains called gambling and the other one was built for long-term survivability and success it's called an investment we invest in things like our children we invest in things like education we invest in things that just state over the course of time if we are looking for in out that is gambling that is scratch off tickets that is money down on a roulette table and I'm fine with that model right but let's just call it what it is as long as you know what gaming let's just call it what it is and not call it investing and the problem is a disproportionate number I think of the companies run who are public companies unfortunately follow a gambling model rather than investment model they don't ask people to believe in them they done ask people to to to have faith in the vision in the cause in their model and give us the the investment and you will see your return grow over time that's not the model that's there's too much there's too much imbalance like I said I'm fine with the gambling model but it has to remain balanced too much imbalance creates situations like 2008 or create situations like the Great Depression you know that after the Great Depression they passed the what was the act that's going to kill me I've forgotten it anyway they passed whatever act it was right after the Great Depression glass-steagall to prevent the Great Depression I was just going to say that yeah they passed the glass-steagall to prevent conditions that created the Great Depression from happening again things like not allowing investment banks and retail banks to be the same organization short-term thinking stuff like that for 50 years we had you ready for this zero stock market crashes zero and in the 1980s for short-term reasons lobbyists and those in charge started dismantling glass-steagall and they started allowing things like retail banks and investment banks to be the same organization and other things and we've had three stock market crashes since then we had a we 2008 most recently we had the dot-com boom and we had 1987 right three significant stock market crashes in the in recent history as we undid the the safety that dissolute that created the the Great Depression we had zero in fifty years and so if these are the people giving the advice I'd rather not follow their advice how does this relate to your new book so my new book is called leaders eat last and it's about how great teams come together and how some teams don't come together and it's very simply a study of trust and cooperation and we all know that trust and cooperation is essential for productivity innovation it's essential for sustainable growth you know if we don't trust the people we work with it's not going to work it's also essential for some very human needs like just being inspired to go to work feeling safe when were there and feeling fulfilled when we come home at the end of the day and and yet the problems with these these concepts of trust and cooperation is they're not instructions they're feelings I can't tell you trust me and you will it's intangible it's intangible and I can't simply order two people to cooperate you know and so I wanted to understand the the underpinnings the the anthropology the biology of trust and cooperation and once why some organizations seem to be so trusting and works so well together and some organizations don't and what you find out if there's some very clear and common patterns which are it goes back to this idea of safety when when the leaders accept that their responsibility is to create what I call a circle of safety in other words that the people inside the organizations don't fear each other there's enough badness going on outside the uncertainty of the economy your competition trying to put you out of business and steal your clients and frustrate your growth your new technologies that render your business model obsolete of overnight there's enough but when we come to work and fear the people we work with then we retreat into ourselves just like we went before there's fear and so you put the walls up and you think you have to do everything yourself and fundamentally it's bad for the organization so is that why you put optimist out there first well that's who I am people always want me to define myself by the work that I do I have written books that technically makes me an author I get invited to speak that technically me makes me a speaker but if I cease to do those things anymore I don't want to be defined by the work that I do on I mean defined by the the way I am with this idea of putting people first or is the model behind the most successful sustainable businesses out there and I wanted to make that case and it's always based on this circle of safety I think it's a really important message maybe look in this camera or my shoulder yeah and let's have a little heart-to-heart with the audience you know people watch the show our entrepreneurs small business peeps and you know working at maybe large companies know what great advice would you give them if they're currently in charge or thinking about starting something new getting off on the right foot or getting back on track mm-hmm there is no single human being on the planet that I ever achieved any kind of great success or achieved anything of value by themselves success is a team sport failure we can do alone but success takes the help of others and if you're going to start something by yourself make sure at least you have a mentor or friend someone near you who believes in you and who has your back and if you start hiring people and actually bringing people on to help you make sure you take care of them and understand their ambitions and desires as well because they're going to be the ones who are going to see that your vision comes to life and if they feel taken care of they'll take care of you perfect we've been spending a few minutes with optimist author and speaker simon Sinek Simon thanks so much to be on the show thanks for having me I really appreciate it

Channel: Behind the Brand

Views: 498,922

Rating: 4.8621101 out of 5

Keywords: simon sinek, simon sinek behind the brand, Simon Sinek TED talk, Behind the Brand, Simon Sinek Start With Why, business, education, entrepreneur, sinek, simon sinek (author), leadership (quotation subject), simon sinek interview, simon sineck, simonsinek, Simon Sinek Leaders Eat First, Simon Sinek The Golden Circle, Simon Sinek books, Simon Sinek talk, Bryan Elliott

Id: yNiWviKEoa8

Length: 41min 28sec (2488 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2015