Book Review: Start With Why

Start With Why by Simon Sinek is not a very well known book. But I’m here to tell you that it should be a world-renowned book in the business world.

This book simply should be in the hands of any business owner who is serious about growing their business.

About the author

Simon Sinek is a motivational speaker, author, and marketing consultant. The first thought that crossed my mind when I picked up this book was that it was a leadership book. Because right on the cover it says “How great leaders inspire everyone to take action.” I was like ok, this book is going to tell me how to properly lead a team. Man was I wrong. It was a lot more than that.

It turns out that this book is about marketing, how to properly run a business, how to manage a team, and what people look for in a company. I’ll be the first to tell you, Sinek nails every single one of these aspects.

Let me jump right in with my review of this book. I hope this review can help persuade some of you to read this book. Without further ado, let’s get this show on the road.

My biggest takeaway from the book was how the “why” of the business is the most important aspect in determining if customers will remain loyal. Or if they will leave you in the dust.

Before reading this book, I never knew the “why” of a business. Sinek laid out 3 different levels called “The Golden Circle” (chapter 3):

1. What

Every company knows what they do. To provide a clearer example of this, I will take a paragraph out of the book from page 39: “Every single company and organization on the planet knows WHAT they do. This is true no matter how big or small, no matter what industry. Everyone is easily able to describe the products or services a company sells or the job function they have within that system.WHATs are easy to identify.”

I couldn’t agree with this more. Company’s and organizations put everything into displaying to their customers of what they sell. They don’t focus on the WHY which is the most important aspect of a business, which I quickly learned from this book. Don’t get me wrong, you have to have an exceptional product or service in order for customers to be attracted to your business/brand.