Why did you start your business? Not what you sell, or how you deliver it, but why it exists at all. It sounds like a simple question, yet most business owners find it surprisingly hard to answer. In Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, author and speaker Simon Sinek argues that this question is the key to inspiring customers, staff and yourself.
In this article we summarise the main ideas from Sinek’s book and his famous talk, and explain how they apply to small businesses, including our own.
About Start with Why
Simon Sinek published Start with Why in 2009. The same year he gave a short talk at TEDx Puget Sound, How great leaders inspire action, which went on to become one of the most-watched TED talks of all time. The book asks why some people and organisations consistently inspire loyalty and outperform others, even when they have no obvious advantage in money, talent or resources.
His answer is that these leaders all think, act and communicate in the same way, and it is the opposite of how most businesses operate. In his words:
People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
Simon Sinek, Start with Why
The Golden Circle
At the heart of the book is a simple model Sinek calls the Golden Circle: three rings, one inside the other.
- What (the outer ring): the products you sell or the services you offer. Every business knows what it does.
- How (the middle ring): the way you do it, the processes, values or methods that you believe set you apart. Some businesses know this.
- Why (the centre): your purpose, cause or belief. Not making a profit, which Sinek describes as a result, but the reason the business exists and why anyone should care. Very few businesses can put this into words.
Most organisations communicate from the outside in. They start with what they do, explain how they are different, and hope that is enough to win the sale. Sinek’s observation is that inspiring organisations do the reverse. They start with why they exist, then explain how they bring that belief to life, and only then talk about what they sell.
The Apple example
Sinek’s best-known illustration is Apple. A typical computer company might say: we make great computers, they are well designed and easy to use, do you want to buy one? It is accurate, but uninspiring.
Sinek suggests Apple’s message works the other way round. It starts with a belief in challenging the status quo and thinking differently. It explains that it does this by making products that are beautifully designed and simple to use. And then, almost as an afterthought, it mentions that it happens to make great computers. Because people buy into the belief, Apple can sell phones, music players and watches as easily as computers, while competitors with similar products struggle to move beyond their original category.
The biology behind it
Sinek argues the Golden Circle is not just a marketing idea; it mirrors how our brains work.
- The neocortex, the newer outer part of the brain, handles rational, analytical thought and language. It corresponds to what: facts, features and figures.
- The limbic brain handles feelings such as trust and loyalty, and drives behaviour and decision-making, but has no capacity for language. It corresponds to why and how.
This, Sinek says, is why people sometimes make a decision that “just feels right” even when they cannot fully explain it, and why a long list of features rarely wins loyalty on its own. When you communicate your why, you speak to the part of the brain that makes decisions, and let people use the facts to justify a choice they already feel good about.
Manipulation versus inspiration
Sinek points out that there are only two ways to influence behaviour: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it. Manipulations are the familiar tactics of business: price cuts, promotions, fear, aspirational messages, peer pressure and novelty. They work, and they can drive a sale, but they rarely create loyalty. Customers who came for a discount will leave for a bigger one elsewhere, and the cost of winning each sale keeps rising.
Inspiration works differently. People who share your belief come back again and again, recommend you to others, and are less sensitive to price, because they are choosing you for reasons beyond the transaction.
Clarity, discipline and consistency
Knowing your why is only the start. Sinek describes three things an organisation needs to keep the Golden Circle in balance:
- Clarity of why: the leader must be clear about the purpose and able to put it into words.
- Discipline of how: the values and principles that bring the why to life must guide decisions, including the hard ones, such as who you hire and which work you turn down.
- Consistency of what: everything you say and do, from your products and service to your website and invoices, should be visible proof of what you believe.
Sinek also offers a practical check he calls the celery test. If your why is clear, it acts as a filter: when advisers suggest a dozen things you “must” do, you only pick the ones that fit your purpose. Your choices then make sense to anyone looking in, because they all point the same way.
Why it matters when you grow
Sinek draws on Everett Rogers’ Law of Diffusion of Innovations, which divides a market into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. He argues that you cannot reach the mass market by targeting it directly. You first need the innovators and early adopters, roughly the first 15 to 18% of the market, who buy into your why. Their belief and recommendations then carry your business to the majority.
He also warns of what he calls “the split”. In the early days the founder’s why is obvious to everyone. As a business grows and the founder is less involved day to day, the why can fade, and the business starts to compete only on what and how. Writing your why down, and hiring people who share it, helps prevent this.
Finding your why: questions for business owners
In his follow-up book, Find Your Why (written with David Mead and Peter Docker), Sinek suggests looking back at your own story to find the thread that connects the moments you are proudest of. A few questions to get started:
- What made you start or take over this business, beyond earning a living?
- Which pieces of work or customer stories make you proudest, and what do they have in common?
- What do your best customers say when they recommend you?
- What would be lost if your business disappeared tomorrow?
- Can you finish the sentence: “We exist to … so that …”?
Once you have a draft, test it. Does it explain how you hire, price, market and serve customers? Would your team recognise it? If not, keep refining.
Putting your why to work
- Marketing: lead your website, proposals and social media with your belief, then show how you deliver it, then what you offer.
- Hiring: look for people who share your why, not just people with the right skills. Skills can be taught; belief cannot.
- Customers: focus on the customers who value what you believe in, rather than chasing every sale on price.
- Decisions: use your why as the filter for new products, partnerships and investments.
- Measurement: track the numbers that show whether your how and what are delivering on your why, such as customer retention, referrals and repeat business, alongside profit.
Our why at Taxlab
Applying the Golden Circle to ourselves, our why is to make our clients’ business processes more efficient and empower them to excel in business and personal life. Our how is to use cloud accounting, automation and proactive advice, with fees agreed in advance. Our what is the accounts, tax returns, VAT, payroll and advisory work you would expect from your accountant. You can read more about us, or see related reading on the five parts of any business.
Good financial information is one of the best ways to check that what you do is delivering on why you do it. If you would like help turning your purpose into a plan, with forecasts and management reports to measure your progress, see our forecasting and budgeting service, contact us, call 0845 862 6009 or message us on WhatsApp.
Credits and further reading
This article summarises and discusses ideas from Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009), his TED talk How great leaders inspire action, and Find Your Why (2017, with David Mead and Peter Docker). The Golden Circle and the ideas described above are Simon Sinek’s work, and all credit goes to him. Taxlab is not affiliated with Simon Sinek. To learn more, visit simonsinek.com or read the book.