Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Simon Sinek

English Author, Leadership Expert

"If we don?t understand the cause, then even the right answers will always steer us wrong ? eventually. The truth, you see, is always revealed ? eventually."

"Set out to change the conditions in which their employees operate. To create cultures that inspire people to give all they have to give simply because they love where they work."

"100% of customers are people. 100% of employees are people. If you don?t understand people, you don?t understand business."

"Great companies don?t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. People are either motivated or they are not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you?ll be stuck with whoever?s left."

"A boss wants to pay for results, an employee wants recognition for effort. If a boss recognizes effort, they will get even better results."

"A good leader shares information, even if they don't know the whole story. Without any information, people create their own, which causes fear and paranoia."

"A five minute call replaces the time it takes to read and reply to the original email and read and reply to their reply... or replies. And I no longer spend 20+ minutes crafting the perfect email - no need to."

"A friend is an emotional bond, just like friendship is a human experience."

"2011 study conducted by a team of social scientists at the University of Canberra in Australia concluded that having a job we hate is as bad for our health and sometimes worse than not having a job at all."

"A leader must be inspired by the people before a leader can inspire the people."

"A sour corporate culture can actually make an entire society unhappy. This means that a strong corporate culture can have a positive impact on a society."

"A star wants to see himself rise to the top."

"A leader's job is not to do the work for others, it's to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible."

"A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other."

"All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year. Those who forget WHY they were founded show up to the race every day to outdo someone else instead of to outdo themselves. The pursuit, for those who lose sight of WHY they are running the race, is for the medal or to beat someone else."

"Addicted to the short-term results, business today has largely become a series of quick fixes added on one after another after another. The short-term tactics have become so sophisticated that an entire economy has developed to service the manipulations, equipped with statistics and quasi-science. Direct marketing companies, for example, offer calculations about which words will get the best results on each piece of direct mail they send out."

"All the perks, all the benefits and advantages you may get for the rank or position you hold, they aren?t meant for you. They are meant for the role you fill. And when you leave your role, which eventually you will, they will give the ceramic cup to the person who replaces you. Because you only ever deserved a Styrofoam cup."

"Actions speak louder than words. All companies say they care, right? But few actually exercise that care."

"Academic experts may not be good at doing what they are experts in themselves, but they are good at explaining the subject matter to others. They write books, teach courses and offer lessons and give steps others can follow."

"According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2013 called State of the American Workplace, when our bosses completely ignore us, 40 percent of us actively disengage from our work. If our bosses criticize us on a regular basis, 22 percent of us actively disengage. Meaning, even if we?re getting criticized, we are actually more engaged simply because we feel that at least someone is acknowledging that we exist! And if our bosses recognize just one of our strengths and reward us for doing what we?re good at, only 1 percent of us actively disengage from the work we?re expected to do."

"And that?s what trust is. We don?t just trust people to obey the rules, we also trust that they know when to break them."

"All the great organizations in the world, all have a sense of why that organization does what it does."

"And when a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers, then people will follow, solve problems and see to it that that leader?s vision comes to life the right way, a stable way and not the expedient way."

"Any parent who tells their kids that they can't attend a school play or go to a soccer match because they have to work is kidding themselves. It's OK to miss a game or two or a performance here and there, but it's not all right to miss the majority of them."

"Anyone who achieves any kind of success, however you want to define it, sometimes can't let go of it."

"Anyone can sell product by dropping their prices, but it does not breed loyalty."

"As the Zen Buddhist saying goes, how you do anything is how you do everything."

"August 5, 1981. That?s the date it became official. It?s rare that we can point to an exact date when a business theory or idea becomes an accepted practice. But in the case of mass layoffs, we can. August 5, 1981, was the day President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers."

"At the end of the day, humans are social animals and we are at our best when we get to do things with others who appreciate and enjoy what we enjoy. It's what keeps us human."

"As anyone who starts a business knows, it is a fantastic race. There is a statistic that hangs over your head - over 90 percent of all new businesses fail in the first three years. For anyone with even a bit of competitive spirit in them, especially for someone who defines himself or herself as an entrepreneur, these overwhelming odds of failure are not intimidating, they only add fuel to the fire. The foolishness of thinking that you're a part of the small minority of those who actually will make it past three years and defy the odds is part of what makes entrepreneurs who they are, driven by passion and completely irrational."

"Babe Ruth was not afraid to strike out. And it was this fearlessness that contributed to his remarkable career."

"Average companies give their people something to work on. In contrast, the most innovative organizations give their people something to work toward."

"Bad leaders believe that they have to project control at all times."

"Be the leader you wished you had."

"Because the work we?re doing now is better than the work we were doing six months ago. And the work we?ll be doing six months from now will be better than the work we?re doing today."

"Believe it or not, the success of alcoholics anonymous, for example, talks about the twelve step program. We all joke about the first step, which is to admit you have a problem. But it is the twelve steps that really matter. If you master eleven steps in alcoholics anonymous, which has been successfully doing this for eighty years or something, but not the twelfth, the odds are very high that you will start drinking again. But if you master the twelve steps the odds are that you will beat the disease, so the twelfth step is to help another alcoholic. It is to commit to helping another alcoholic, in other words, it comes from service, and we are all so preoccupied with ourselves. How can I get happy, how can I find the job I love, how can I become a millionaire, how can lose weight. Yet, the reality is that fulfillment, success and all of these good things comes from trying to help those that we care about to achieve those things. How can I help somebody I care about find the job they love? How can I help somebody I care about find happiness in their work? And when we commit to service it actually biologically and anthropologically is more likely to lead to our own success and our own happiness."

"Believing that your competition is stronger and better than you pushes you to better yourselves."

"Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you?not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to."

"But when a company clearly communicates their WHY, what they believe, and we believe what they believe, then we will sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to include those products or brands in our lives."

"Champions are not the ones who always win races - champions are the ones who get out there and try. And try harder the next time. And even harder the next time. 'Champion' is a state of mind. They are devoted. They compete to best themselves as much if not more than they compete to best others. Champions are not just athletes."

"Change the world."

"Children are better off having a parent who works into the night in a job they love than a parent who works shorter hours but comes home unhappy."

"Bottom line. All companies are in business to make money, but being successful at it is not the reason why things change so drastically. That only points to a symptom. Without understanding the reason it happened in the first place, the pattern will repeat for every other company that makes it big. It is not destiny or some mystical business cycle that transforms successful"

"Contents Introduction: Why Start with Why? PART 1: A WORLD THAT DOESN?T START WITH WHY 1. Assume You Know 2. Carrots and Sticks PART 2: AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE 3. The Golden Circle 4. This Is Not Opinion, This Is Biology 5. Clarity, Discipline and Consistency PART 3: LEADERS NEED A FOLLOWING 6. The Emergence of Trust 7. How a Tipping Point Tips PART 4: HOW TO RALLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE 8. Start with WHY, but Know HOW 9. Know WHY. Know HOW. Then WHAT? 10. Communication Is Not About Speaking, It?s About Listening PART 5: THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS SUCCESS 11. When WHY Goes Fuzzy 12. Split Happens PART 6: DISCOVER WHY 13. The Origins of a WHY 14. The New Competition"

"Corporate culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything - for better or for worse."

"Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first."

"Don?t forget, the superior Betamax technology did not beat out the substandard VHS technology as the standard format for videotape in the 1980s."

"Directions are instructions given to explain how. Direction is a vision offered to explain why."

"Don't quit. Never give up trying to build the world you can see, even if others can't see it. Listen to your drum and your drum only. It's the one that makes the sweetest sound."

"Dr. King gave the ?I have a dream? speech not the ?I have a plan? speech. It?s our dreams that change the course of history."