Start with Why: The Golden Circle
One of the best TED Talks we’ve seen is Simon Sinek’s How Great Leaders Inspire Action. He references the Wright Brothers, Apple, and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Sinek also speaks about Samuel Pierpont Langley–a name that most of us probably have never heard. Langley was a highly educated, well-connected, and well-funded inventor who worked to develop an airplane in the same years that the Wright brothers were falling from roofs and financing their flying efforts with shoe-string profits from their bicycle shop.
The Wright brothers succeeded, and Langley died a disappointed man. The difference, Sinek says, is because the Wright Brothers accomplished things that others (who seemed to have all the right stuff) could not do.
How is it, he asked, that the Wrights, and others like Dr. King and Apple, achieve things that defy assumptions.
“I made a discovery,” Sinek says, “that changed my view of how the world works and of my way of operating.”
The Golden Circle
Sinek calls his model the Golden Circle. Inspired leaders of the world, he says, think, act, and communicate in the same way—from the outside in.
Inspiring action is what being an entrepreneur is all about. That’s especially true when it comes to building your culture. In great cultures, employees are 20 percent more productive. Their relationships and camaraderie with peers are the reason they go the extra mile. In poor cultures, the turnover rate is 50 percent.
Which kind of company do you want to build? If your answer is that you want to be a Wilbur Wright or a Dr. King instead of a Samuel Pierpont Langley, Rev1 can help.
Start by listening to Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk. It will be the best 15 minutes you spend today. Then use our Start with Why tool to figure out your company’s WHY.
