Start With Why (31 page)

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Authors: Simon Sinek

BOOK: Start With Why
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I want to especially thank all those people who have joined this cause and actively work to inspire those around you. I am grateful for all the e-mails and notes you send me, I save them all as a reminder that it takes lots and lots of people, standing shoulder to shoulder, to have a real impact.
And finally, to all those who read this book and pass it on to someone you believe it will inspire, thank you. I know that if enough of us learn about the existence of the WHY and work hard to start everything we do with WHY, we can and will change the world.
NOTES
Chapter 1: Assume You Know
14
In the United States, a line worker would take a rubber mallet and tap the edges of the door
: Norman Bodek, “What is Muda?”
Manufacturing Engineering
, July 2006,
http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/find-articles.pl?&ME06ART40&ME&20060709&SME
.
Chapter 2: Carrots and Sticks
19
By 2007, Toyota’s share had climbed to 16.3 percent
: Tom Krisher, “GM, Toyota in virtual tie on 2007 sales,”
USA Today
, January 23, 2008,
http://www.usatoday.com/money/topstories/2008-01-23-434472425_x.htm
.
19
In 2007, GM lost $729 per vehicle
: Oliver Wyman’s Harbour Report 2008,
http://www.oliverwyman.com/content_images/OW_EN_Automotive_Press_2008_HarbourReport08.pdf
.
20
nearly 40 percent of those customers never get the lower price
: Brian Grow, “The Great Rebate Runaround,”
BusinessWeek
, November 23, 2005,
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2005/nf20051123_4158_db016.htm
.
22
“Quitting smoking is the easiest thing I’ve ever done”
: American Cancer Society Guide to Quitting Smoking,
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_13X_Guide_for_Quitting_Smoking.asp
.
24
a Tag Heuer watch designed “especially for the golfer”
:
http://www.tagheuer.com/the-collection/specialists/golf-watch/index.lbl
.
24
Nike’s “I wanna be like Mike” campaign
: “The Allure of Gatorade,”
CNN Money
, November 22, 2000,
http://money.cnn.com/2000/11/21/deals/gatorade/
.
25
“In a major innovation in design and engineering”
: “Introducing the Motorola RAZR V3,”
http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=4485_3818_23
.
26
Less than four years later, Zander was forced out
: “Motorola’s Zander out after 4 rocky years,” MSNBC, November 30, 2007,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22040026/
.
29
Samsung, the electronics giant
: “Samsung’s American Unit Settles Rebate Case,”
New York Times
, October 21, 2004,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E3DD113AF932A15753C1A9629C8B63
.
33
Rather, Whybrow says, it’s the way that corporate America has developed
: Peter C. Whybrow,
American Mania: When More Is Not Enough.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.
Chapter 3: The Golden Circle
37
the golden ratio—a simple mathematical relationship
: Wolfram Mathworld, “Golden Ratio,”
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoldenRatio.html
. Also
http://goldennumber.net/
.
38
John F. Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon
: “The Decision to Go the Moon: President John F. Kennedy’s May 25, 1961 Speech before a Joint Session of Congress,” NASA History Office,
http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html
.
44
“1,000 songs in your pocket”
: “Apple Presents iPod,”
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/oct/23ipod.html
.
44
The multigigabyte portable hard drive music player was actually invented by Creative Technology Ltd.
: “The Nomad Jukebox Holds a Hefty Store of Music,”
New York Times
, June 1, 2000,
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/01/technology/news-watch-the-nomad-jukebox-holds-a-hefty-store-of-music.html?scp=1&sq=creative+nomad&st=nyt
.
46
Apple even changed its legal name in 2007
: “Apple Debuts iPhone, TV Device, Drops ‘Computer’ From Name,”
Foxnews.com
, January 11, 2007,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242483,00.html
.
Chapter 4: This Is Not Opinion, This Is Biology
52
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches
: Dr. Seuss,
The Sneetches and Other Stories.
New York: Random House, 1961.
54
U2 and Apple belong together
: “Apple Introduces the U2 iPod,”
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/oct/26u2ipod.html
.
54
“I’m a Mac and I’m a PC”
: “Get a Mac,”
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
.
57
Richard Restak, a well-known neuroscientist
: Richard Restak, MD,
The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neurosociety Is Changing How We Live, Work and Love.
New York: Harmony, 2006.
Chapter 5: Clarity, Discipline and Consistency
70
to take what Pacific Southwest was doing in California
: “PSA: Catch Our Smile
;
The Story of Pacific Southwest Airlines
,”
http://catchoursmile.com/
.
70
In nearly every way, King and Kelleher were opposites
: Matt Malone, “In for a Landing,”
Portfolio.com
, August 2008,
http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/07/16/Q-and-A-with-Southwest
CEO-Kelleher; Joseph Guinto, “Rollin On,”
Southwest Airlines Spirit
, June 2006,
http://macy.ba.ttu.edu/Fall%2006/SWA%20Rollin%20On.pdf
; Katrina Brooker, “The Chairman of the Board Looks Back,”
FORTUNE
, May 28, 2001,
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/05/28/303852/index.htm
; “We Weren’t Just Airborne Yesterday,”
http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/airborne.html
.
71
In the early 1970s, only 15 percent of the traveling population traveled by air
: Brian Lusk, Southwest Airlines manager of customer communications, personal correspondence, February 2009.
72
Howard Putnam, one of the former presidents of Southwest
: Howard Putnam, personal interview, October 2008.
Chapter 6: The Emergence of Trust
83
Throughout the 1980s, this was life at Continental Airlines
: Gordon Bethune,
From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental’s Remarkable Comeback.
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1999.
83
Happy employees ensure happy customers
: Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg,
Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.
New York: Broadway, 1998.
85
“You don’t lie to your own doctor”
: Gordon Bethune, personal interview, January 2009.
91
The cost... would be about $250,000
: “Shackleton Plans Record Polar Trip,”
New York Times
, December 30, 1913.
91
Donations from English schoolchildren paid for the dog teams
: “Ernest H. Shackleton, 1874–1922,”
South-Pole.com
,
www.south-pole.com/p0000097.htm
.
91
Just a few days out of South Georgia Island
:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/timeline.html
.
91
“like an almond in a piece of toffee”
: Paul Ward, “Shackleton, Sir Ernest (1874–1922),” Cool Antarctica,
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/Ernest%20Shackleton_Trans-Antarctic_expedition2.htm
.
92
“Men wanted for Hazardous journey”
: Nova Online,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/team.html
.
94
In the 1970s, Southwest Airlines decided to put their flight attendants in hot pants
: Howard Putnam, personal interview, October 2008.
96
Langley assembled some of the best and brightest minds of the day
: James Tobin,
To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight.
New York: Free Press, 2004.
97
Langley saw the airplane as his ticket to fame and fortune
: Tobin, personal interview, February 2009.
97
“Wilbur and Orville were true scientists”
: Tobin, personal interview, February 2009.
98
He found the defeat humiliating
: Tobin,
To Conquer the Air
.
101
Southwest Airlines is famous for pioneering the ten-minute turnaround
: Paul Burnham Finney, “Loading an Airliner is Rocket Science,”
New York Times
, November 14, 2006,
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/business/14boarding.html?pagewanted=print
.
103
“People at the London end of Barings”
: Nick Leeson and Edward Whitley.
Rogue Trader: How I Brought Down Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World.
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1996.
105
Southwest will not tolerate customers who abuse their staff
: Freiberg and Freiberg,
Nuts!
106
A one-star general, John Jumper was an experienced F-15 pilot
: General Lori Robinson, personal interview, October 2008.
108
he served as chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force from 2001 to 2005
:
http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=5986
.
108
Now herself a brigadier general in the Air Force
:
http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=10439
.
Chapter 7: How a Tipping Point Tips
115
In 2000, Malcolm Gladwell created his own tipping point
: Malcolm Gladwell,
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
New York: Back Bay Books, 2002.
116
Everett M. Rogers was the first to formally describe how innovations spread through society
: Everett M. Rogers,
Diffusion of Innovations.
New York: Free Press, 2003.
116
Geoffrey Moore expanded on Rogers’s ideas to apply the principle to high-tech product marketing
: Geoffrey A. Moore,
Crossing the Chasm.
New York: Collins, 2002.
122
In 1997, TiVo was racing to market with a remarkable new device
: John Markoff, “Netscape Pioneer to Invest in Smart VCR,”
New York Times
, November 9, 1998,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE0D6133EF93AA35752C1A96E958260
.
123
TiVo sold about 48,000 units the first year
: Roy Furchgott, “Don’t People Want to Control Their TV’s?”
New York Times
, August 24, 2000,
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/24/technology/don-t-people-want-to-control-their-tv-s.html
.
123
“More U.S. Homes Have Outhouses than TiVos”
: Bradley Johnson, “Analysts Mull Future Potential of PVR Ad-Zapping Technology,”
Advertising Age
, November 4, 2002,
http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Courses/StratTech09/Lectures/Networks/Articles/tivo-losing-money.html
.
128
“There are two types of laws”
: Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,”
http://www.thekingcenter.org/prog/non/Letter.pdf
.
Chapter 8: Start with Why, but Know How
133
Steve Ballmer, the man who replaced Bill Gates as CEO of Microsoft
: “Steve Ballmer Going Crazy,” March 31, 2006,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc
.
134
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx
.
135
Raised in Ohio, sixty miles from Dayton, Neil Armstrong grew up
: Nick Greene, “Neil Armstrong Biography: First Man of the Moon,”
About.com
,
http://space.about.com/od/astronautbiographies/a/neilarmstrong.htm
.
138
What Ralph Abernathy lent the movement was something else
: “Abernathy, Ralph David (1926–1990),” Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute,
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/abernathy_ralph_david_1926_1990/
.
140
The pessimists are usually right
: Thomas Friedman,
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
140
“If it hadn’t been for my big brother”:
Bob Thomas,
Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire.
New York: Disney Editions, 1998.
142
Herb Kelleher was able to personify and preach the cause of freedom
: Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg,
Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.
New York: Broadway, 1998.
142
Steve Wozniak is the engineer who made the Apple work
: Steve Wozniak, personal interview, November 2008.
143
Bill Gates and Paul Allen went to high school together in Seattle
: Randy Alfred, “April 4, 1975: Bill Gates, Paul Allen Form a Little Partnership,”
Wired
, April 4, 1975,
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayintech_0404
.
145
Oprah Winfrey once gave away a free car
: Ann Oldenburg, “7M car giveaway stuns TV audience,”
USA Today
, September 13, 2004,
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-09-13-oprah-cars_x.htm
.
150
the Education for Employment Foundation
:
http://www.efefoundation.org/homepage.html
; Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, “Gainful Employment,”
Time
, September 20, 2007,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1663851,00.html
; Ron Bruder, personal interview, February 2009.

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