start with why by simon sinek ‘Start with Why’ is an inspirational book by Simon Sinek that centers on asking yourself deep, meaningful questions that help you understand your purpose in life and exactly why you wish to actualize it. It talks about how you can achieve truly remarkable things by simply focusing on the ‘why’ associated with things. You can get this book for free with a trial of audible using the link in the description of this video. Subscribe and turn on the notification bell so you don’t miss any future summaries. The five main ideas proposed in the book include the following: Figuring out your core beliefs in life, your purpose in life and why you ought to nurture those principles and pursue that direction in life. All the inspirational leaders and successful organizations in the world always begin their journey with ‘why.’ To inspire others, you need to show people why you are doing certain things a certain why. It is not always your actions, but why you implement them that inspire people. To achieve lasting success, stick to your goals and always be motivated to do something extraordinary, you MUST know your why and this applies to every aspect of your life. To sustain and skyrocket your growth, you must always keep focusing on the ‘why’ associated with your goals and you need to keep revisiting your goals and the ‘whys’ so you stay focused on what you must do and keep your goal in sight. Chapter 1: Assume You Know The first chapter of the book talks about the different assumptions we make about different aspects of our life including our goals and often it is these assumptions that adversely affect our life Chapter 2: Carrots and Sticks In this chapter, Sinek talks about the 2 commonly employed methods to draw customers to make a purchase: inspiring the carrots wherein someone is inspired to make a purchase or manipulating sticks wherein different promotional and advertising tactics are used to manipulate customers into performing the desired call to action. Chapter 3: The Golden Circle This chapter discusses the core message of the book: the golden circle. According to Sinek, the golden circle is the right strategy every company and individual should exercise to achieve their goals and become successful in life. It has the ‘why’ at its core, which means one should first figure out their core purpose in life then move on to ‘how’ to achieve that purpose and then work on the ‘what’ part which encompasses the tasks one should carry out to achieve the why. Chapter 4: This is Not Opinion, This is Biology The fourth chapter sheds some light on human biology and describes how we are designed to follow the golden circle because we have a desire to belong to something and fulfill our purpose in life. Chapter 5: Clarity, Discipline and Consistency In the fifth chapter, Sinek discusses the importance of following the Golden Circle strategy and highlights how it adds clarity, discipline and consistency to our lives. Chapter 6: The Emergency of Trust This chapter highlights the importance of building trust with your clients, which can happen when organizations are motivated by compelling reasons to follow their purpose and focus more on serving their target market. Chapter 7: How a Tipping Point Tips In this chapter, Sinek focuses on how companies can achieve their tipping point. He discusses the bell curve of product adoption and shows how a company needs to be aware of the laggards- customers who are never really satisfied and loyal to a business so the company can stop impressing them and focus more on the early adopters and early majority as they bring in business. Chapter 8: Start With Why But Know How The eighth chapter highlights how one should focus on discovering their whys to understand their goals. Chapter 9: Know Why. Know How. Then What? The ninth chapter focuses on creating the action plan so one knows what to do to fulfil the why and how. Chapter 10: Communication is about Listening This chapter highlights the significance of communicating effectively with your clients by listening to their demands. It also talks about how symbols add value to a company. A logo that people can associate a meaning with starts to inspire them because it speaks to them and when they feel connected to it, they use it to identify the company and become drawn to make a purchase from it. Chapter 11: When Why goes Fuzzy This chapter talks about how companies experience setbacks when their why becomes fuzzy. Sinek discusses the example of Volkswagen to explain how one should never forget their why because that then leads to failure. Chapter 12: Split Happens In the twelfth chapter, Sinek discusses how a company needs to be passionate about its work and how their passion must have a structure so it keeps on growing. Chapter 13: The Origin of a Why Sinek talks about how to find your why, you must look inside you and not just rely on market research because your why always comes from within. Chapter 14: The New Competition In this chapter, Sinek discusses how one should compete with his/ her own self because that’s when you can set higher benchmarks for yourself. Also, when you compete with yourself people are ready to help you. You miss that help when people see you competing against them. Simon Sinek reminds the reader time and again how imbalance and chaos in our lives is a result of the absence of the clear why in your life.