Start With Why, Simon Sinek – Book Review

The Golden Circle

If you have read a few of my recent blog posts – you will have noticed that I have been reading the book – “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek. You will also know that I have made a few references to how it has helped me with a few things – so, the bottom line is, I like this book.

There is one caveat – it is way too long.  I found myself getting a little bored in sections, so I would skip over them. This is the only thing that I didn’t like about it mind you, and it was easy enough to skip the sections that I didn’t connect with.

Rating

It’s a definite read that is for sure, and it should be on your book list. If you have a few speed reading skills, it will help you through various sections – but don’t let that stop you from buying it.

What the book is about

Sinek spends a lot of the book looking at the above diagram – the Golden Circle.

WHAT: Every single company and organization on the planet knows WHAT they do.

HOW: Some companies and people know HOW they do WHAT they do. Whether you call them a “differentiating value proposition,” “proprietary process” or “unique selling proposition,” HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better.

WHY: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. When I say WHY, I don’t mean to make money—that’s a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

If you watch this video that Sinek did at TED recently – you’ll get a good overview. This video as actually the reason that I purchased the book.

What I learned

I find that when I read books like this – I often enjoy them and, at that moment in time, have a moment of revelation and learning. The problem is – I often don’t do anything after that. There can be little action.

I have started to combat this by making notes on each book that I read (easy to do with the Kindle, as long as you don’t mark too much). On this book, I have three sides of typed notes, but I also have some actions from it.

So here are the key points:

  • We have a good purpose (or WHY) with our company. I just need to make sure that we keep focusing on putting that message across.
  • This book, along with a few others, caused me to think a lot about how we do marketing as a company. If you haven’t read my musings, have a look at the following post: a new definition of marketing.
  • I want to look at our company values based on the following statements from the book:

Making it even more difficult for ourselves, we remind ourselves of our values by writing them on the wall . . . as nouns. Integrity. Honesty. Innovation. Communication, for example. But nouns are not actionable.

It’s nearly impossible to hold people accountable to nouns.

For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it’s “always do the right thing.” It’s not “innovation,” it’s “look at the problem from a different angle.” Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea . . . we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation. We can hold each other accountable to them measure them or even build incentives around them.

  • The simplicity of understanding WHY and making sure your HOW and WHAT connect with that has really helped me with communication in all the various ventures that I am involved in. I am asking the question “WHY” a lot. For example, I do some coaching with some community leaders in the church – and we started to look at a slightly adapted model of this – it was a great session that should hopefully make things clear.
  • People have to connect with your “WHY”. A lot of companies have a purpose (WHY) that has come from the leader, which is how it should be – but, and this is a big but, people have to connect to that WHY. If your WHY is to build a large, profitable and successful company – people won’t connect with that. People aren’t interested in helping you to build a company and become more successful. WHY has to connect with their heart.
  • Sinek validated my views on authentic selling! I love it when I am on the right path. According to Sinek, authenticity is proven in WHAT you do – which  is something that I totally agree with. This causes you to examine what you do through the lens of authenticity.
  • My views on competition have changed due to one of the last paragraphs in the book.

Now think about how we do business. We’re always competing against someone else. We’re always trying to be better than someone else. Better quality. More features. Better service. We’re always comparing ourselves to others. And no one wants to help us. What if we showed up to work every day simply to be better than ourselves? What if the goal was to do better work this week than we did the week before? To make this month better than last month? For no other reason than because we want to leave the organization in a better state than we found it?

Have you read the book – what did you think?
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Chris Evans – It’s not what you think review

Chris Evans book cover its not what you think

Like many folks, I grew up with Chris Evans on the Tele. A northern lad done good-done really stupid-done good again. “It’s Not What You Think” is a great biography – very honest (and funny!) and almost inspiring (not something that I thought I’d say about Chris Evans in the early days). The audiobook is brilliant as Chris himself tells you his story. It is incredibly captivating (so glad he didn’t get someone else to read it!)

This book is exactly what it says on the tin: it’s not what you think. It really isn’t.

Rating

This definately gets a major thumbs up as one of the best books this year! Highly recommend you order from Amazon (or your local bookstore) right now.

Top Tens

Throughout the book – Chris, in true DJ style, gives you his top tens. You can listen to his top ten school boy errors from his audiobook version. So, I’ll follow his example!

Top 10 things I like about Chris Evan’s biography: It’s not what you think

10. Chris’ admittance of his own failings “so far up my own back passage”
9. Setting fire to the radio stage
8. Stalking Timmy Mallet.
7. His top tens in DJ style
6. The balls required to buy Virgin Radio
5. His unbelievable work ethic
4. his views on reality TV
3. the Can Do attitude
2. Kim Wilde in the big breakfast tent
1. Smacking his science teacher over the head with a chair.

What are your top-ten school boy errors?
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My 7 Christmas discoveries: books, gadgets and iPhone Apps

iPhone Apps

  1. New Software: Evernote. A great place to store notes (privately and public to share to collaborate with your Team members – another great feature), whether text, photo, file or Audio. It works on my iPhone and syncs everywhere. It will even search the text (typed or handwritten) on images. I haven’t got the scanner that syncs with it yet – but it is a strong possibility as I head down the paperless route!
  2. New gadget: Amazon Kindle – it has to be. What a great thing this is! Love it! Love it! Love it! Saves carrying loads of books – all in one place. Easy to ready, search, highlight and make notes (all of which sync with your PC for more editing). I love reading (and note taking when reading) and this makes the whole process so easy and paperless! There is even a free app for the iPhone that will sync the books, so if I don’t have the kindle, I can carry on reading on my phone from where I left off, and pick up at the right place on my Kindle later.
  3. Favourite Pressie: has to be my Gerber CLUTCH Multi Tool for my key ring (I have a normal sized one like a leatherman, but that is bulky to carry every where). Comes with Pliers, knife blade, tweezers and screwdrivers. It also came with a powerful torch. Very cool indeed.
  4. New iPhone Apps: Some great apps to try on your iPhone that I have been playing with over Christmas: Evernote (see above), Kindle, Xpense Trkr, Sky TV (you get 3 months free!), Photoshop (great for creating online photo and video galleries – although you can’t send video from your iPhone yet, you have to do that through the website), CoPilot UK sat nav – although don’t reckon much to the traffic update services as it missed a major traffic delay on the M6), WordPress 2, RadioBox (you can listen to your favourite radio station on the iPhone using Wi-Fi or 3G, awesome!).
  5. New business book: Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish. He has a great website too and seems to be connected to some interesting people. I’m a third of the way through the book – and it is a great read, full of practical and helpful stuff for running a business. Got some interesting ideas (and confirmation that I am on the right track with some that we are doing now).
  6. New non-business book: The Voice New Testament (Thomas Nelson) and Seth Godin’s free eBook: What Matters Now.
  7. Latest productivity time: RescueTime. Will let you know how this goes – but interested to see if this actually works for me.

The Goal book review

I got a copy of this book in Waterstones. It was one of those books that you randomly pick up in the business section and the description of the book intrigued me. It was a management book written as a novel – and it also had great endorsements so I purchased it. An impulse buy to be sure but one that I have not regretted.

The Goal is 20 years old and introduces a concept called Theory of Constraints (TOC). The story is about Alex Rogo, a plant manager given 3 months to turn his plant around or it closes. He meets his “business coach” (a physics professor) accidentally and the story unfolds the interactions between the two as well as Alex and his team (and wife).

The professor challenges all of Alex’s assumptions and asks him to think about things differently.

The back of the book promises a “fast paced thriller style”. This is not how I would describe it but I was captivated and wanted to finish the book. It was written well and for me, it was a good style.

The first riddle to solve: the goal. What is the goal of any organisation? The answer: make money. Anything and everything a company does then should help them achieve this goal. The story is about how he takes his failing company and makes money. As I said, it is a great read that I recommend. Also, if you like this book – the sequel – It’s Not Luck is also a good read and deals more with TOC for sales and marketing.

Both books together caused me to buy some other books on TOC to get a better understanding on the whole thing. All of it is money well spent. Today – we received their CD Rom for kids to help them describe conflict and find solutions.

Mind Manager Pro from Mindjet

There are few pieces of Software that I would recommend for your computer – but this would definately be one of them (along with Photoshop, the whole Microsoft Office suite (I don’t care Mac Users!), iTunes (if you have an iPod), Adobe Lightroom and Anti Virus software if others will use your computer).

Mind Manger is a great tool for brainstorming, gather ideas, putting thoughts down on paper quickly, project management (when used along with MS Project). I use it to create outlines for all our meetings, and then take notes during our TEAM meetings.

The software company claim that you could save upto 3 hours a week. Not sure about that claim – but I definately enjoy using it that is for sure. You can, along with all good software, is download a free trial. It is fairly easy to get the basics quickly once installed and you can also get it for the Mac too.

If remember – I’ll upload a few maps of mine that you can download and view (there is also a free viewer that you or your TEAM can use to view the maps).

Honestly – try it with whatever you are working on, including that novel that is in each and everyone of us, you should enjoy it if your brain works like mine!

Book Review (Part 2): Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Robert Scoble: Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

Robert Scoble: Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

OK it is time for part 2 of my review of the book: Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Well, as they say – the proof of the pudding is in the eating – and for me – this book has proven what it says.

If you read my part 1 review – you will notice that a comment has been posted about the review. It was posted 2 days after I posted the review and it was posted by the author of the book.

Impressive. Very impressive indeed.

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Book Review (Part 1): Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Robert Scoble: Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

Robert Scoble: Naked Conversations : How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

This is part 1 of my review of this fascinating and insightful book on blogging.

Read More