Andrew Kesterson

"Love God. Live Righteously. Die Well."
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# Start with Why

2024-01-29 Books Leadership 799 words

# Start with Why

Rating: 10/10
Amazon Link: click here
TL;DR : An exploration of different types of leaders (“how” types vs “why” types), how the two motivate differently, which ones tend to be the most effective at motivating their organizations and their customers, and how the two need each other. It is also an exploration of why, for you as a person, it is so important to understand not just what you do, but why. You can get pretty much the same information from Sinek’s Ted talk - which is the whole point, he’s trying desperately to give this information away, and the book is just one place to find it. The TED talk is embedded at the bottom of the page.

I started this book because I had been steeped in theology, doctrine and dogma of the church for the last several books I had read. I was coming off of the catholic Catechism and was in the middle of St John of Damascus’ Orthodox exposition, and I needed a break. I said, “I should listen to something that will help me in business, something that will let my brain focus on something aside from my religious preoccupations for a while”.

This was not the first time I had heard from Simon Sinek. He’s pretty much everywhere in the motivational speaking or business leading or decision making or leadership training circles. His TED talks are great, and will give you the same information as the book. And he won’t be upset if you don’t buy the book; he wants to get his personal discoveries about the reasons people do what they do and how to do greater things, in front of as many people as possible. Because the book is not what Simon does - it is just another manifestation of why he does what he does.

That’s the central thrust of the book, and Simons philosophy overall: start by understanding WHY you want to do anything. Before you engage in any kind of how or what, discover why. Because people - including yourself - don’t follow you or buy from you or get discipled by you because of WHAT you are offering, but WHY you are offering it. He goes into great detail in this in the book and uses plenty of corporate examples, and I believe it’s true. It’s what makes great companies and great leaders stand out from the rest, because their values are genuinely woven into everything they do and they aren’t asking you to buy a product or join a club, they are asking if you see the world the way they do and have the same values as them. And he posits that, when once great leaders and companies fail, it’s because they experience a “split” between their Why and their How, and they move away from their identity driving what they do, and they move away to what they do being driven by profit, chasing their competitors to the bottom line.

What I found really interesting about the book was that I read this book because I viewed it as a softball - I already basically knew what he was going to say. So I thought I could sort of coast and it wouldn’t make me do the kind of wicked introspection I had been going through with other titles recently. Ironically, it did the exact opposite; it helped me to see that, in my pursuit of Christ and my investigations of the Church, I have become so wrapped up in the what and the how that I have lost track of the why. I realized that I was having so much trouble partially because I had undergone a split and didn’t realize it. What I was doing and how I was doing it was no longer strongly connected to my why - and I wasn’t even really sure I could define my why anyway. The simplicity of the realization was like catching a falling feather, but the comprehension of what I had to do was like holding heavy stones: I had to remember why God and Church were important to me in the first place, WHY I was engaged in any of it at all, and to fully commit myself to ensuring everything else about me was in radical alignment with that why, and the how and what would naturally follow.

It’s a really simple premise. But like all good advice, it isn’t easy. And it involves seeking ultimate truth about yourself and your beliefs - and that may involve burning away some portions of yourself that aren’t worthy of that truth, as Jordan Peterson said. But it’s absolutely critical, and it’s absolutely worth it

Start with Why.

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