Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action is one of those books that sticks with you long after you finish it. Simon Sinek does a great job breaking down what separates average leaders from the ones people actually want to follow. The whole concept of starting with “why” sounds simple, but it really changes how you think about leadership, decision making, and even communication.

What I liked most is that it’s not just theory. Its’s practical and easy to apply whether you’re running a business, leading a crew, or just trying to improve yourself. It makes you take a hard look at your purpose and how you present it to others, which is something a lot of people overlook.

This is a great read for leaders at any level, but honestly, it’s just as valuable for anyone wanting to become a more effective and intentional leader.

THIS IS THE GREATEST BOOK EVER PUBLISHED IN THE LAST 10 YEARS!!!

If I could give this book 10 stars, I would! This book beats many other books. This book is so exciting to read that I read it three times! The beginning of the book said it extremely well -- This book is about an unique kind of leadership that has the natural recurring pattern of inspiring, influencing and affecting people. It is about a very small group of leaders that achieve disproportionate amount of influences in their industries/areas compare to other leaders. The most prominent example is, of course, Steve Jobs who displayed a recurring pattern of changing one industry after another.

(Of all the books that study Steve Jobs, this is probably the best one although it is not a book on Jobs' biography. However, this book offers the best angle to understand his motivation and influence.)

The core of this book is about the kind of WHYs that a special kind of leaders has that enable them to have the natural recurring pattern of inspiring, influencing and changing people and industries. The prime examples of this kind of leaders quoted in this book are Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Wright Brothers.

This book is revolutionary. All the top business schools should reevaluate their curriculum based on this book! All the top business consultants should reconsider their theories and recommendations based on this book! All the writers on leadership should read this book and revise their theories! All political leaders in the world should read this book! All board of directors of corporations should read this book and learn how to select the next CEOs! ...

This book can be considered the MASTER book to be read before reading books like "From Good to Great", "Stall Points", "The Innovator's Dilemma" and the follow-on books, "Crossing the Chasm" ...

The central theme of this book is WHY -- the essence, the core, the purpose of a person's life, of leadership, and the starting point of a corporation. Without the clarity of this WHY, the life of a person, the leadership, and the products and services offered by a corporation are all fuzzy and treated as commodities. This is so very true. Look around us: Though we (persons, organizations and corporations) are special in some ways, yet we are almost all commodities -- except the very few that display the recurring pattern of major changes and influences such as Jobs, Apple and Google. These are the ones that have the clarity of WHY and the discipline of diligently and strictly enforcing their HOWs (principles, methods, criteria) in producing the WHATs (behaviors, products and services).

There are three views of WHY + HOW + WHAT presented in this book:

1. Looking from the top -- the WHY in the center, the HOW in the middle and the WHAT in the outer layer form a GOLDEN CIRCLE.

2. Looking from the side -- the WHY at the top layer, the HOW in the middle layer and the WHAT in the bottom layer form a cone.

3. Viewing in three dimensions -- with the external world attached to the base of WHAT, the whole thing is a megaphone for the leader or corporation to sound out its WHY.

These views are wonderful ways for us to look at leadership, to understand the life cycle of a corporation, and summarily see why companies thrived and why they died. These views can even be applied to our personal lives.

Of course, this book has some blemishes. But these defects do not distract from its greatness.

1. The grammar is terrible. The whole book should be reviewed by a competent editor.

2. The WHYs are not strictly examined and evaluated. This book treats all WHYs from leaders, entrepreneurs and corporations as equal when in fact they are not. Probably most of the WHYs are the rewording of WHATs in disguise. Maybe a lot of WHYs are re-branded HOWs. Perhaps only a small number of WHYs can have the recurring pattern of inspiration and influence. I hope the future editions of this book can elucidate this point.

3. The HOWs gets much less treatment than the WHYs and WHATs in the book. It would be great if this topic is covered in more detail.

4. Maybe 60% of this book is about corporations and not on leadership as claimed in the beginning of the book. I hope the author can focus more on the recurring pattern of inspiration and influence of leadership.

5. Not everything stated in this book is correct. The points discussed in this book about Jobs and Apple are good examples. Please read "Inside Apple" and Jobs biographies for more correct views on Jobs and Apple.

At the first reading, the book seems repetitious. The WHY, HOW and WHAT get repeated over and over. However, on the 2nd and 3rd reading, this apparent repetition disappears and you can see the different points that the author was trying to emphasize.

I would like to recommend some future topics or books for Simon Sinek:

a) Qualify and rank levels of WHYs -- not all WHYs are equal. Probably some are top-notch while most are mediocre. Also, tell us how to construct best kinds of WHYs.

b) Compare the WHYs to big tech companies, the WHYs of big Wall Street firms (if they have any???) and the WHYs of big retail companies.

c) Compare the WHYs of big empires in history

d) Compare the WHYs of nations in WWI and WWII

e) Compare the WHYs of great leaders in history

f) Compare the WHYs of great geniuses

g) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into Teachers' College (Ed College). It is the teachers who educate our future generations. They need to be thoroughly immersed in the understanding of The Golden Circle, The Cone and The Megaphone.

h) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into the K-12 and the college education

g) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into and how HOWs can be enforced in our political systems. We have far too many politicians and not enough true leaders

i) Consider how WHYs can be incorporated into our law schools. Our lawyers really need a strong dose of treatment.

In summary, this book is dynamic. It's a dynamite! It's the best book I have read in the last 10 years!

Great book. I’m giving this 4 stars because while the message is powerful, I wish there had been more diversity in the stories shared. That said, I really appreciated the perspective and the way the author encourages readers to think deeper about purpose, motivation, and intention. The concepts are practical, thought-provoking, and easy to apply to everyday life. Overall, a worthwhile read that offers valuable insight and inspiration.

Start with Why surprised me. I expected a typical business book, but it actually changed how I think about leadership and getting people to buy in. The core idea is simple: start with why you do something, then explain how you do it, and only then what you do.

Once you see it that way, you realize a lot of companies communicate in the wrong order. The examples make it feel real. I also liked that you can use it right away, whether you’re leading a team, trying to motivate people, or just trying to get someone to actually listen. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to communicate more clearly and get people to truly care about the message.

Brilliant Book.

I recently read a book that had a simple message that basically could be told in half a page worth of words – and as it happens it actually was. But then the author kept on going and going and going and filled up a book in excess of 200 pages just on the very same idea seen from different angles and with different examples.

In truth I found that book was boring indeed and found I’m, not a subscriber of a book that basically has just one idea.

Now, Simon Sinek’s book “ Start With Why” is actually also about just one idea and like the other book that one idea is really told in less than half a page worth of words and yet this book too extends beyond 200 pages. But this book I loved. It’s a brilliant book indeed. Yes, possibly a little too labored and long at times, but with speed-reading, you are soon past those passages and back into the great stuff again.

The difference is that the book uses so many great explorations of the importance and the applications of his idea. It brings anecdotes and references to stories of successful companies from their usage their “why” and how they turned not so successful when they swayed away from their “why”.

The idea is greatly exemplified in the book by references to Apple and Steve Jobs, to Richard Branson and Virgin, to Helb Kelleher and SoutWest Airlines, to Bill Gates and Microsoft, Walt Disney and Disney, Martin Luther King and “I have a dream”, Howard Schultz and Starbucks, Michael Dell and Dell Computer and several more.

You probably already know the stories of what happened to the companies when Steve Jobs left Apple (was ousted), when Howard Schultz left Starbucks and Michael Dell left Dell Computer – and then you probably know how these companies started to perform again once they came back.

It contains great lessons for the rest of us who hold aspirations of leadership and entrepreneurial success and who are trying to build businesses. In other words this book is a great book along the lines of the best books on Mission and Visions. In addition, however, it also spells of the how and shows the importance of the people behind the visionary leader who have been instrumental in making the how work out for the companies – like Steve Wozniak of Apple and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft just to name two of them.

Then there’s the “what” – which honestly I didn’t focus on too much when reading the book – or was it because the book didn’t focus much on it either? Either way, the why is the important and the interesting part (great to have a good “how” along the way too – as even I have experienced in at least one of my previous companies).

There’s much more I could say about this book, but then I would rather just say: “Just go get it and read it for yourself”.

Too much valuable stuff in there for you not to read it. Especially if you wish to lead people and/or if you wish to build a grand company, cause or spread a worthwhile idea.

In closing, however, I must say, I also love the brutally honest way Simon Sinek shares his thoughts. He even calls Bill Gates a social misfit (but have no doubt, retains utmost respect for him and his brilliance).

Mikkel Pitzner, Serial Entrepreneur, multiple best-selling author and author of forthcoming book: “The Automated Millionaire”.

I loved this book, very inspiring! It delves deep into various facets of ‘great leadership’ and offers a wealth of actionable insights. All centered around one core theme, “start with WHY”. In fact, I loved it so much that I ordered three copies of this book to gift to my close friends.

Addressing some of the comments from the other reviewers, I mainly see two concerns:

1. All the concepts are presented in the TED talk already, so we can skip reading this book.

2. There is a lot of repetition in the book - repetition of the same examples/concepts over and over again.

I have seen Mr. Sinek’s famous TED talk before as well as after reading this book and here is how I compare them. The TED talk is an excellent trailer for the material offered in this book. Mr. Sinek (in this book) presents the “WHY concept” as a framework and then shows how this framework can be applied to different phases/aspects of leadership. “Decision making”, “Trust”, “Authenticity”, are a few leadership aspects that he expands on. Since the same framework is applied to many different aspects and scenarios, we do find that some text and examples are repeated. However, if we patiently continue, we’d find that there is a new, different point being made in every chapter. Overall, regarding the above two concerns - I disagree with the first, while I do have to partially agree with the second.

The book teaches a lot about leadership. Here is what you’d learn in each chapter. In other words, here is my ‘why list’ for this book:

1. Why ‘decision making’ can’t always be data-driven?

2. Why leaders who choose to inspire (as opposed to those who manipulate) command ‘loyalty’?

3. WHY is the center of the ‘golden circle’. Introduction to the golden circle.

4. Why does the human brain/thinking align with the golden circle? The biology of it.

5. Why and how good leaders achieve ‘authenticity’?

6. Why and how good leaders manage to earn the trust of their followers/team?

1. Why good leaders hire for culture-fit rather than for mere skill?

7. Why do greater leaders have this charisma, due to their ability to communicate ‘their why’ clearly?

1. Why focusing on early adopters is important? Law of diffusion of innovations.

8. Why and how good leaders build partnerships with (how-to) people who can execute the vision to reality?

9. Why good leaders should do ‘what they do’ (your actions/results) to reflect their ‘WHY’ (vision)?

10. Why leaders use their ‘WHY’ (vision) to filter their decision making?

11. Why and how good leaders are successful (and feel successful) every day?

12. Why good leaders/companies impart their ‘sense of why’ into their culture?

13. WHY of an individual depends upon his past and upbringing. Mr. Sinek’s WHY.

14. WHY can keep you going on a long journey in-spite of failures.

I really had to struggle with what rating to give this. Simon Sinek's idea is astoundingly insightful, very helpful, and definitely worth the price of this book let alone the Kindle price. I'm inclined to think that the world would be considerably better off if more people lived by Sinek's simple idea.

On the other hand, the book is agonizing in its redundancy, often repeating the same examples many times over to make precisely the same point as the first time the example was used. I'm inclined to think that virtually everything Sinek wrote could have been stated in a 20-page article without leaving out anything important. I daresay it might be possible to do it in five pages. That's part of the beauty of the idea: it's incredibly simple while still being astoundingly powerful. But Sinek doesn't seem to have bothered taking the time to distill the idea down into its essence for straightforward presentation in this book. It reads a little bit like he took articles from his blog, stuck them in a large word-processing document, did some minor editing, and submitted the thing as-is for publication in order to create this book.

So, the idea is worth the cost of the book and the time to read it, but the book itself is, in my humble opinion, very poorly organized and needlessly long.

I would advise those who are interested in Sinek's ideas save themselves a great deal of time and a little expense by first watching his TED Talk:

[...]

This covers virtually all the core ideas involved. The one thing Sinek never does either in this presentation or in his book is spell out what "HOW" is. It's a bit confusing in large part because it's different for each of the two communication structures. In the "WHAT --> HOW" structure, "HOW" is "how we're different"; for instance, Dell has to argue that its computers are somehow better than (say) HP's and therefore specifies HOW they're better in order to compete against HP. On the other hand, in the "WHY --> HOW --> WHAT" structure, "HOW" is "how we enact our purpose (i.e. our 'WHY')".

As far as I can tell, if you're reasonably intelligent you can glean pretty much everything essential to Sinek's idea based on his TED Talk together with this understanding that "HOW" means something different in each of the two contexts he contrasts.

What you WON'T get from that is his rather in-depth, incredibly clear exposé of why the "WHAT --> HOW" communication pattern requires manipulating people to some degree or another and why that is by necessity unsustainable in the long run. That's not core to his point but it's certainly a nice supplement.

So in short, the book is a reasonable buy, certainly at the Kindle price, but do consider benefitting from Sinek's wisdom for free in 20 minutes first by watching his TED Talk. If you want more details, you can get the book, but understand that you're not likely to learn much more than what you could have figured out on your own between the talk and what I mention above.

This is a great book for all leaders to read. Learned lot and got some good tips from this book. It is an interesting read and keeps you engaged through the stores Simon shares in the book.

لسى ما قريته بس الجوده حلوه مره والكاتب سايمون يعني اكيد الكتاب رهيب وفيه رسومات بالكتاب حبيت مره

Simon Sinek shows us how to lead and communicate with purpose. We need a clear purpose —our own WHY— to attract those who believe what we believe and to inspire them to do things better and better in business, in leadership, and in life.

Fast delivery, as usual :) the only issue I have is there is a slight dent on the cover, apart from that all is good.

Start With Why is an insightful and compelling book that challenges conventional thinking about leadership, purpose, and success. Simon Sinek presents a clear and powerful framework that explains why some individuals and organizations consistently inspire loyalty, innovation, and long-term impact while others struggle to do so.

Through well-structured arguments and real-world examples, Sinek emphasizes the importance of understanding and communicating purpose—the “why”—before focusing on strategy or execution. His ideas are articulated with clarity and supported by practical insights that are highly relevant for leaders, managers, and professionals across industries.

Overall, Start With Why is a thoughtful and inspiring read that offers lasting value. It is highly recommended for anyone seeking to lead with greater clarity, authenticity, and impact.

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