Simon Sinek Quotes
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I never imagined working with CEOs, congressmen or the military, yet I make regular visits to the Pentagon, stop by the Capitol now and then and sit down with leaders of all kinds of companies.
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Notoriously outspoken, his sentences always punctuated with profanities, General George S. Patton was the epitome of what a leader should be like - or so he thought. Patton believed a leader should look and act tough, so he cultivated his image and his personality to match his philosophy.
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Leadership is absolutely about inspiring action, but it is also about guarding against mis-action.
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Because a true sense of purpose is deeply emotional, it serves as a compass to guide us to act in a way completely consistent with our values and beliefs. Purpose does not need to involve calculations or numbers. Purpose is about the quality of life. Purpose is human, not economic.
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We must all try to empathize before we criticize. Ask someone what's wrong before telling them they are wrong.
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The ad industry thinks their clients are their customers. They think the companies who pay for the production are the ones they are supposed to serve. So the ads they produce make their clients happy... but infuriate the rest of us.
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If our leaders are to enjoy the trappings of their position in the hierarchy, then we expect them to offer us protection. The problem is, for many of the overpaid leaders, we know that they took the money and perks and didn’t offer protection to their people. In some cases, they even sacrificed their people to protect or boost their own interests. This is what so viscerally offends us. We only accuse them of greed and excess when we feel they have violated the very definition of what it means to be a leader.
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The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.
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A boss wants to pay for results, an employee wants recognition for effort. If a boss recognizes effort, they will get even better results.
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We can rationalize anything and easily quit on ourselves. Leadership is refusing to quit on others.
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We crave explanations for most everything, but innovation and progress happen when we allow ourselves to embrace uncertainty.
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I look for the hotels that have figured out the comfortable balance - a modern room that is well designed, and really clean sheets.
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Corporate culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything - for better or for worse.
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In the 1980s America reacted to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. We supported a war that left a nation torn to pieces. And as the last Soviet tank left the country, so did we.
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Anyone can sell product by dropping their prices, but it does not breed loyalty.
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Authorities act with themselves in mind. Leaders act with others in mind. Authorities take. Leaders give. Authorities die. Leaders live on.
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Remaining calm in times of desperation makes way for opportunity.
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Leave America and you'll find that the consumers in many other countries enjoy watching advertising. Not because the products are better, but because the ads are produced to be entertaining. Sometimes they are funny. Sometimes they are dramatic. Sometimes they are just beautiful.
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I don't have to convince everybody in the room. I just need a critical mass of the people in the room.
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I'm interested in the innovator and the early adopter.
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True love exists in business. It's when Employee and Employer are amazingly grateful to have each other. We should all have true love at work.
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Leaders are the ones who have the courage to go first, to put themselves at personal risk to open a path for others to follow.
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New ideas need audiences like flowers need bees. No matter how bright and colorful, they will die unless others work to spread them
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It doesn't matter how much we know, it matters how clearly others can understand what we know.