Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by
Simon Sinek
My rating:
3 of 5 stars
All in all a good book. Basically base your product/service/business around WHY, more so than what or how.
Notes:
- "There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.... Typical manipulations include: dropping the price; running a promotion; using fear, peer pressure or aspirational messages; and promising innovation to influence behavior—be it a purchase, a vote or support."
- price/promotion play is not good for the brand and playing that game will hurt the reputation
- using Fear - "The idea is that if you don't buy the product or service, something bad could happen to you."- inspiration is the opposite than fear
- peer pressure - "When marketers report that a majority of a population or a group of experts prefers their product over another, they are attempting to sway the buyer to believing that whatever they are selling is better"
- novelty (aka innovation) - Real innovation changes the course of industries or even society. The light bulb, the microwave oven, the fax machine, iTunes. These are true innovations that changed how we conduct business, altered how we live our lives, and, in the case of iTunes, challenged an industry to completely reevaluate its business model...Motorola had successfully designed the latest shiny object for people to get excited about ... at least until a new shiny object came out. And that's the reason these features are more a novelty than an innovation. They are added in an attempt to
differentiate, but not reinvent."
- "I cannot dispute that manipulations work. Every one of them can indeed help influence behavior and every one of them can help a company become quite successful. But there are trade-offs. Not a single one of them breeds loyalty. Over the course of time, they cost more and more. The gains are only short-term. And they increase the level of stress for both the buyer and the seller."
- "There is a big difference between repeat business and loyalty. Repeat business is when people do business with you multiple times. Loyalty is when people are willing to turn down a better product or a better price to continue doing business with you. Loyal customers often don't even bother to research the competition or entertain other options. Loyalty is not easily won. Repeat business, however, is. All it takes is more manipulations."
- "Manipulations are a perfectly valid strategy for driving a transaction, or for any behavior that is only required once or on rare occasions."
- "It is the feeling of "we're in this together," shared between customer and company, voter and candidate, boss and employee, that defines great leaders."
- the need to belong, ever human feels it, we crave and seak it out, makes us feel safe - you connect with people with the same common values or beliefs, you trust them
- "Everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe. A WHY is just a belief. That's all it is. HOW's are the actions you take to realize that belief. And WHAT's are the results of those actions — everything you say and do: your products, services, marketing, PR, culture and whom you hire."
- achievement is the what, success is the why
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