Simon Sinek
Author · Start with WHY
Author and speaker on leadership. The 2009 TED talk that introduced the Golden Circle made his name, along with the book that followed it, Start with WHY. Leaders Eat Last and The Infinite Game came later. Both make the same case. A leader's job is to make people feel safe and to play for staying in the game rather than for this quarter. He hosts A Bit of Optimism, runs The Optimism Company and publishes other authors through Optimism Press. Trained as an ethnographer, he works often with branches of the US military.
- Entries
- 25
- Does
- 5
- Recommends
- 18
- Discusses
- 2
Books
9 books in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Find Your WHY
The companion he co-wrote with David Mead and Peter Docker for readers who wanted the steps: a guide to digging through your own past until you can state a purpose in one sentence.
Source: simonsinek.com: Find Your WHYVisit simonsinek.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
A parenting manual from 1980 that he calls one of the best leadership books, on the grounds that leading resembles good parenting. It teaches you to ask open questions such as what do you love, he says, and he recommends it all the time.
Source: The Optimism Company: 5 Life-Changing Leadership Books That Aren't Actually Leadership BooksView item: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will TalkOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Leaders Eat Last
Written after Start with WHY to answer why some organizations hold together and others do not. A leader has to understand the organization's true purpose, he says, then use it in looking after the people in their charge.
Source: simonsinek.com: Leaders Eat LastVisit simonsinek.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Start with WHY
The first of his books, built on the Golden Circle, and the one that turned a 2009 TED talk into a career. His site frames it as an argument. Leaders with the greatest influence all think, act and communicate the same way, and that is the opposite of what everyone else does.
Source: simonsinek.com: Start with WHYVisit simonsinek.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Infinite Game
Sinek takes James Carse's finite and infinite games and applies the split to business. Football or chess has known players, fixed rules and a clear endpoint. Business, politics and life have none of the three, which is the case his site makes for the book.
Source: simonsinek.com: The Infinite GameVisit simonsinek.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Together is Better
A short illustrated fable he designed as a giveaway, either to somebody you want to inspire or to somebody who inspired you. The reminder he built it around is to ask for help, and to help other people find their own courage.
Source: simonsinek.com: Together is BetterVisit simonsinek.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Unreasonable Hospitality
Will Guidara's account of turning Eleven Madison Park around by over-serving guests. Sinek published it under his Optimism Press imprint, and on the podcast he calls himself its proud publisher. Guidara is a returning guest there and a close friend.
Source: A Bit of Optimism: AI Can Do Everything Except This, with restaurateur Will GuidaraVisit simonsinek.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookDiscusses$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Atomic Habits
James Clear came on A Bit of Optimism in January 2024, and the two of them went through how better habits form and bad ones break. Sinek framed the episode around the New Year, when everyone aspires to a better version of themselves.
Source: A Bit of Optimism: Atomic Habits with author James ClearVisit jamesclear.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 recommend it, 1 has discussed it - BookDiscusses$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt came on the podcast to argue that the Gen Z mental health crisis traces back to growing up with smartphones and social media. Sinek says Haidt believes it is solvable, and asked what he would tell worried parents.
Source: A Bit of Optimism: The Anxious Generation with social psychologist Jonathan HaidtView item: The Anxious GenerationOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it, 1 has discussed it
Protocols
5 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
For the conversation you have been avoiding with a boss: name the feeling, then the behavior that produced it, then the impact. He stresses being very specific, with dates and meeting notes, not you always.
Source: The Optimism Company: Simon's 3 Simple Ways to Get Ahead at WorkIn his own teaching, five practices sit under the mindset: advance a Just Cause, build trusting teams, study worthy rivals, prepare for existential flexibility, demonstrate the courage to lead. The claim the class page makes is that people who adopt it build stronger and more inspiring teams and careers.
Source: The Optimism Company: The Infinite Game private classTell yourself to remember your lines rather than not to forget them. A negative instruction keeps your attention on the thing you want to avoid, he says. His illustration is skiers looking for the path between the trees instead of at the trees.
Source: The Optimism Company: Simon's Mental Trick to Beat Self-SabotageSay why before how before what. He demonstrates it on his own biography, giving the same facts in both orders, and says that talking about what he believes is what attracts the people who believe the same thing.
Source: CNBC Make It: This one easy trick can help you nail your next job interviewSit with a close friend and ask why the two of you are friends. Keep pushing past the cliches until they start describing how you make them feel. He tells people to avoid running the exercise with a spouse or a family member, since those relationships are often too close to give an objective view.
Source: The Optimism Company: Learn Simon's Simple Exercise for Finding Your WHY
Habits
11 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
Somebody once told him to buy a coffee, sit on a bench in Central Park and watch people for an hour. No agenda, no notes. It sounded absurd at the time and the person was right, he says. He also credits a walk in New York, plus a friend's call, with getting him through the writing of Leaders Eat Last.
Source: The Optimism Company: Why Boredom Is a Leader's Best FriendBefore he walks on stage he says one line out loud to himself: he is here to give. That is his one rule for public speaking, show up to give, and he says an audience can sense whether you turned up wanting nothing from them.
Source: The Optimism Company: Simon's #1 Rule of Public SpeakingThe story starts with a heating pipe in an old studio apartment that he could not remove or hide. He painted it red, and everyone who visited loved it. These days, he says, he talks openly about his social awkwardness and his ADHD as assets rather than things to cover up.
Source: The Optimism Company: Why You Should Celebrate the Things You HateSinek calls the confidence to say I don't know the single best thing he ever learned, after years of believing a leader had to have every answer. He ties it to psychological safety: if the boss can admit it, so can everyone else.
Source: Simon Sinek: The Three Simple Words That Could Elevate Your CareerHe picked this up from military friends who ended phone calls with I love you, brother, and he says he now does the same, calling his friends brother or sister. Friends of his who are emotionally distant started saying it back. His one condition is not to use the words lightly.
Source: The Optimism Company: One Really Simple Way You Can Be a Better FriendHis site describes a text reading do you have eight minutes as a code between him and the chef Christina Tosi. Eight minutes is short enough that any of us can pause a movie or step out of a meeting, he says. That is the point of picking that number.
Source: The Optimism Company: The Incredible Power of an Eight-Minute Catch-Up with a FriendAdvice he gives to people early in a career who are thinking of quitting. Sit down with your boss regularly. Go looking for the negative feedback as well as the good. Negative feedback is how we learn, he says, and going in acting like you already have every answer can tell a boss you are not willing to learn.
Source: CNBC Make It: How to avoid the biggest career mistake young people makeCan you help me out is the question he suggests, on the argument that people trust you more once you ask, not less. He tells the story of a friend who went quiet for weeks and then admitted he had been struggling. His own reaction: hiding it had denied him the chance to be there.
Source: CNBC Make It: Simon Sinek on how asking for help can get people to trust youYou cannot stop the critical voice, in his view, but you can manage it, and the way in is to give it a name. Call it Bob. Or Stacey. Its arrival turns into something you notice instead of something you take at face value.
Source: The Optimism Company: One Effective Way to Silence Your Inner CriticWhen somebody walks into your office, put the phone out of sight, not face down. He files it with saying good morning in the hallway: small things that add up more than the big ones.
Source: The Optimism Company: Want Better Teams? Put Your Phone Down FirstOpen by announcing that the conversation is going to be uncomfortable, which he says lets the other person take a breath and be less defensive. Running from the tension only prolongs it or breaks the relationship. The way to practice these, he says, is to have them.
Source: CNBC Make It: The skill of having an uncomfortable conversation is essential
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“I have one very important rule in public speaking, and that’s that you have to show up to give … Very often, before I walk out on stage, I will say to myself out loud, ‘You’re here to give.’”
The Optimism Company: Simon's #1 Rule of Public Speaking (opens in a new tab) · 15 Dec 2023 “Now, I say “I love you” to my friends and call them brother or sister … When I started saying “I love you” to them on the phone, they started saying it back.”
The Optimism Company: One Really Simple Way You Can Be a Better Friend (opens in a new tab) · 8 Jul 2024 “I now regularly talk about my social awkwardness or the unique qualities that come as a result of my ADHD as assets that I’m proud of. I love that I go to a party and stand by myself with a drink in the middle of the room. I’m the observer.”
The Optimism Company: Why You Should Celebrate the Things You Hate (opens in a new tab) · 27 Mar 2024 “I don’t have to know all the answers and I don’t have to pretend that I do. The single best thing I ever learned was the confidence to say, ‘I don’t know.’”
Simon Sinek: The Three Simple Words That Could Elevate Your Career (opens in a new tab) · 18 Mar 2025 “I once got advice to go to Central Park, grab a coffee, sit on a bench, and just watch people for an hour. No agenda, no notes. It sounded absurd at the time, but he was right.”
The Optimism Company: Why Boredom Is a Leader's Best Friend (opens in a new tab) · 9 Jan 2026
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