Summary
I’m not writing about the Icelandic Golden Circle, but about Simon Sinek’s theory and how it relates to me.
In my post about synchronicity, I mentioned a TED talk that came to me at just the right moment. That talk was Simon Sinek’s famous talk called The Golden Circle.
Simon Sinek – How great leaders inspire action
There are many good summaries of this presentation, so I don’t want to write it myself, I chose one, I copied it here:
The secret of Apple’s success
Do you know what distinguishes those organizations and leaders who are able to inspire others from others? For example, they have realized that people don’t buy what they do, but what they buy because they do it. In his TED video, renowned management and marketing consultant Simon Sinek explains why some people succeed while others fail in similar circumstances. The key is in reversing the way you think. Martin Luther King, the Wright brothers, and Apple also succeeded.
In today’s video post, I brought a TED talk by Simon Sinek, who highlights the cornerstones of a successful business. He presents the situations that can make a company a followable opinion leader in the eyes of many.
- During the video, think about your own motivation in relation to your company and your work. It is worth answering questions such as these:
- For example, do you know why you do what you do?
- What is the purpose of getting up in the morning and running your company?
- Do you have clients who believe in what you believe in?
- What do you believe in?
- …
The Golden Circle is about: Why? How? What?
People don’t buy a product or service for what it is, but for the values behind it that make the product come to life. Customers don’t buy what you do, they buy what you do for. So whoever finds the answer to the why behind their product will be able to inspire people, and they will follow.
The point is to reverse thinking!
Apple’s success is also based on this reverse communication. If they were to move from the outside in, their motto could be: “We make great computers with beautiful design and user-friendly features. Would you like to buy one?”
It provides all the main information, but it is not inspiring or stimulating to action. In fact, Apple’s motto is translated into Hungarian as: “We believe that everything we do is to serve change. We believe in thinking differently. We serve change by making our products beautiful, easy to use and user-centric. The fact that we make such great computers is just a circumstance. Would you like to buy one?”
Nothing proves the success of the slogan better than the company’s decades of unbroken success.
Source: https://365letszikra.hu/inspiracio-siker-simon-sinek-arany-kor/
What is really important to me about this?
The part that was interesting to me and really got me started at 5:41 of this video.
This whole idea is based on biology, specifically the structure of the brain. The outer, why layer is the cerebral cortex. It is responsible for thinking, rational and analytical thinking, and speech. The two middle parts of the brain make up the limbic system, which is responsible for all our feelings, for example, trust and loyalty. It is also responsible for our behavior and decision-making, but it has no effect on our speech. This means that if we communicate from the outside in, the other person will understand our thoughts, but they will not understand our feelings. If we communicate from the inside out, they will understand our words differently.
This is the part of the brain where intuition comes from. If I don’t speak from here, then although the other person may understand what I’m saying, they will say that it doesn’t feel right. Because this is the part of the brain that controls decision-making and cannot speak.
The really valuable sentences for me were these: “Because you don’t know why you do what you do, people are influenced by why you do what you do… The goal is to sell it to someone who believes in what you believe in.”
And by that I don’t mean that, for example, in a relationship that was important to me, fate didn’t connect me with someone who didn’t believe in what I believed in. Because although that’s true, that’s not the part of my story that’s interesting to me here.
Much more important was my realization that for months I’ve been preoccupied with why I do what I do, why I do it that way? Where are those blockages in me that are still unknown to me now that prevent me from acting differently. It was interesting to realize that the functioning of the cerebral cortex has not been in question for me my entire life. That is, I do not consider myself a stupid person and I can proudly say that many others do not either. I have been consciously dealing with the level of feelings for about seven years, so I can say that knowing my feelings is not such an unknown area anymore. But the coincidence (synchronicity) that the question of why has been preoccupying me for some time now points to the very innermost part of the brain really surprised me…
This lecture had such a big impact on me because it showed me at the right moment that I was on the right track!