start-with-why.md

start-with-why.md

Preface:

• leaders vs those who lead
  • leader: holds a position of power
  • those who lead: inspire us, we follow them because we want to, we follow them for ourselves
• discovering why can make you much more passionate about life

Introduction:

• this book covers a way of thinking, acting and communicating that gives you the ability to inspire those around you. this is something you can learn with some discipline.
• wright brother beat more funded teams to building the flight? the only reason is because they started with why: they were able to inspire their team and those around them to develop "a tech that changes the world"
• woz designed the apple to give power to the people, instead of huge orgs and govt. jobs was able to scale incredibly fast. because apple starts with why
• having a why is more importnat than a degree or huge funding.
• one way to inspire is external incentives. but great leaders are able to inspire without external incentives. people act because they're inspired. they're ready to act by sacrificing things, when inspired. they've the most loyal teams.
• 80% of people are unhappy with their jobs, we need leaders to start with why, so that they inspire more people.
• if you want to create lasting success, and if the success depends on the aid of others, you should start with why

Chapter 1: more information is not good enough

• we tend to assume things instead of actually seeing if they're true or not. don't assume you know why orgs succed.
• we tend to assume the right data solves things (eg. extensive market research). logic dictates that infomration and data are the key to get repeatable success. we seek this information in the form of reading books, asking friiends, etc. but still things don't work. so we go back and seek more information.
• in contrast, sometimes things work out well when you just go by your gut.
• you can either rework the current details of the business to achieve the metrics you want to acheive, or start at a completely different place that directly gets you where you want to be. you need to start with why to do the later.

Chapter 2: the problem with standard marketing

• there are multiple products on the market with the same quality, price and features. even if some companies have a first movers advantage, it's lost in a matter of months. even if you build something novel, someone else will come up with something better in a matter of months.
• orgs argue they have customers because of superior quality -- that's deluded.
• two ways to modify customer behavior: manipulate it or inspire it.
  • manipulation: dropping the price, using fear, peer pressure, promise innovation, etc. when companies can't inspire, they need to completely rely on manipulation.
    • price: playing the price game is risky, once the customers get used to paying less, it's hard to convince them to pay more.
    • promotion: eg. cashback, can temporarily drive up sales, but might reduce in long term.
    • fear: if you don't buy this, you'll lose out on something valuable.
    • aspirational: "six steps and you'll have a happier life", quick solutions
    • data based marketing: AB testing to find the right words that get people to buy
    • peer pressure: argues that majority of the customers prefer their product, celebrity endorsements
    • novelty: additional features (different from innovation where you're not just adding feature, but completely changing how the industry works / their business model)
  • manipulations work in the short term. they don't build lasting relationships / loyalty. but they do lead to transcations.
  • manipulations increase the stress. it builds a undesirable dynamic which might not be good for either companies or customers.
  • inspiration: people are willing to take a personal cost to support you

Chapter 3: start with why when you're selling your company

• inspiring leaders communicate through the golden circle, it can be used to improve all aspects of the business
• Golden circle: why, how, what
  • what they do?
  • how they do what they do? generall through differentiating value proposition, unique selling proposition,proprietory process, etc. "We make computers, they're less expensive than competitors, so buy."
  • why they do what they do? few companies can explain this. why do you exist? why should anyone care? "We want to challenge the status-quo through innovation. We challenge by making our products increadibly simple to use. We just happen to make computers."
  • just reversing the why? how? what? make it a much more convincing pitch.
• all the product then look like a furtherance of their cause, not just another product on the market. even if someone copies everything, they still wont perform as well.
• the focus on why someone needs it (eg. iPod's a 1000 in your pocket) was more impactful than the features themselves.
• when you define yourself by the why, you don't have to stick to a narrow market. you're free to enter / disrupt any market.
• if you're competing based on just price, features, quality, etc., it's hard to sustain for long time. and it's stressful to compete that way. you're always vulnerable to being out of the market if there's a key change in the industry.
• people who believe in similar why as your company states would be drawn to you
• knowing your why is the only way to lasting success; this will keep to motivated to build things once the environment changes

Chapter 4: the biological justification

• we have a deep sense to belong and feel accepted as part of the community. we trust people with common values and beliefs when in novel environments. we go out of our way, spend money to have this feeling.
• when a company communicates their why, and if we believe in similar things, we have an urge to support them further.
• we are drawn to leaders and orgs who can communicate what they believe well
• the limbic brain is influenced by the why and how, the neocortex is influenced by the what.
• the problem with market research is that people's neocortex talks to you; you don't know how their limbic system reacts
• asking the customer what they want is not good enough, they don't know what they want exactly. you need to figure out what they want by trusting your gut feeling, with your whyand how.
• people don't buy what you do, but why you do it.

Chapter 5: how starting with why can inspire others

• you need to start with why, balance all pieces and in the right order for true effectiveness.
• why: you need to be able to explain why extremely clearly.
• how: the next quesiton is how you'll do it. HOWs are your values and priciples that guide how to bring your cause to life. eg. understanding how helps you hire the right people who will naturally thrive working for you.
  • our guiding principles need to be verbs, not nouns. use "always do the right thing" instead of "integrity". use "look at the problem from a different angle" instead of "innovation"
• what: everything you do has to prove what you believe.
• why is a belief. how is the action you take to realize the belief. what is the result of those actions. you're seen as authentic when all of these are inline.
• the why must come first, and the what should follow inline with the why. that's how you can inspire. not by starting with what and constructing a why to justify the what.
• if you don't know why, you can't know how.
• southwest airlines didn't compete with other airlines, they competed with car and bus. this guided how they wanted to approach it. they made a simple plan: X$ for daytime, Y$ for nights/weekends.
• simply creating a better product with more features doesn't garauntee success.
• even when you're dating, the same principles apply. first talk about why you do what you do, and all the accomplishments just happen to fall in place. but that your core is the why and that's what inspires you. not what you get out of it.
  • same when you're pushing your business
• when you're doing business, do it only with people who share your why. that's when trust emerges.

Chapter 6: how to build trust

• you trust other people when you see them espousing a cause that's beyond their personal gains.
• act like a family with you employees, be open and approachable. design incentives for them aligned well with the companies how; give collective incentives so everyone's well aligned and working together.
• america has a clear why "the american life: independent, entrepreneurial, any one who works hard can succeed, the land of opportunities" -- reason why many immigrants want to come here.
• hire people who believe what you beleive, to keep everything aligned. success just happens then. the skillsets should only be evaluated after
• wright brother focused on how the flight could change the world, and improve the lives of so many people. competitors focused on themselves, while wright brothers focused on the benefits for humanity.
• when a team of experts are together, they often work for themselves, not the good of the whole. when you're offering a big salary, you're more likely to get people who care about money more than the cause. so don't use this manipulation for finding people. they'll be less likely to stick to you when things get hard.
• constantly tell the team about the why, and ask them to take actions to realize this why, they'll do more than what the job demands. trust the people to do the job.
• colgate works on getting the best working toothpaste, rather than trying to make people confident about themselves.
• prioritize your employees before customers.
• you need to keep reminding your employees of the why. bonuses and incentives must revolve around how much they are contributing to this why.
• we trust people more when they share our beliefs and values. so one way to publicize is getting people with similar beliefs share their experience about your company.

Chapter 7:

• when you're selling, be aware of the law of diffusion: innovation, early adopters, early majority, later majority and laggards.
• if you tagert the middle of the curve, you might fail to impress the innovators and early adopters -- leads to failure. early majority only take things up once early adopters try it and make a recommendation.
• don't try to see people who want what you produce, instead sell to people who believe in what you believe (your why). they'll be loyal customers.
• find influenecers who beleive in what you believe, get them to try your product.

Chapter 8: how to inspire

• you don't need energy to inspire, you need ot have the right why and communicate it effectively. an absolute conviction on the importance of that why.
• have a strong why for your life, and let all the projects you take up fall out of this why.
• once you have a strong why, you'll need someone to support turning this vision into actionable steps (eg. MLK). so if you know why, you also need to know people who know the how.
• generally people who grew up in similar backgrounds can better help you with the how.
• if you do public good without the why, it's more likely for people to take this as a publicity stunt.
• if you're not looking for a high standard, don't use these concepts. it requires the discipline to consistnetly remind everyone about the why, and keep people accountable to the how. this takes effort.

chapter 9, 10:

• the primary goal of the leader who found his why, is to inspire his team to come up with the how.
• to communicate, listening > speaking.
• what works in another top-performing organization might not working yorus because your why is different
• don't build products that don't fit your why (or worse go against your why), it shows that the why is not really that important
• it's easy to convey your why when all your actions are inline with the why
• as soon as you tell the why, all the employees must be able to make clear decisions on what the organization cares about
• if you try to exploit market trends that aren't inline with your why, your brand will deteriorate.

chapter 11, 12, 13, 14:

• the moment your why becomes fuzzy, is the start of the downfall
• once your why is fuzzy, even if the company is doing well, you won't be as satisfied.
• we need to be passionate while being structured. the structure of keeping why first.
• when big companies have new CEOs, the company goes downhill when the new CEO doesn't understand the why as well
• looks after your people. if they're working on the weekends, turn up for them on the weekends too.
• why needs to be inspired from your personal experience in life
• never lose sense of why you're competing, keep the why in perspective, and compete only with yourself. don't compete with others. then others will support you. only try to beat your previous performance.

The why of my life:

• I want to be in a position to help people, once AI inevitably takes away more jobs. To do this, I should first be in a stable enough place myself, and have good enough skills myself. That's why I'm current working at an MNC. That's why I'm trying things on the side. Once something works, I want to teach people on how to get thigns to work too.