When Simon taught me 5 pearls of life!

First of all my sincere gratitude to Simon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Sinek). Those who have not heard his name, he has a TED talk which features in all time most watched TED video. The talk is about, starting with why & his compelling narrative around why the world’s best always start with asking ‘why’ before getting to what and how. From there, he has moved on to write two bestsellers, ‘Start with why’(https://www.startwithwhy.com/) & ‘Leaders eat last’(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16144853-leaders-eat-last), both absolute must for anyone who wants to see & live a meaningful life.

So, when I requested him for an interview, despite his busy schedule, he agreed to spend some time with me, ready to help someone else find his why, something he feels is why he lives.

I asked several questions during my discussion with him and he was very candid in all his answers. They were though provoking without being dramatic. There were so many things to learn from this interaction. I have put down 5 of them for those who want to dig into Simon’s wisdom & get benefited. It’s also an act of gratitude for me to pass on these pearls of wisdom to others so that others too be part of the uplifting feeling I had, after speaking to him.

Learning no 1.

Choose the way to Change: Simon told me that there are two ways in which people can bring a change. One is through Revolution, other is through evolution. While Revolution is sudden, abrupt and can be engineered, evolution can’t. It’s a gradual process. What is needed is the firm belief on what you stand for and continuously moving through the path. When you evolve into something else is something you don’t even realize. According to him, evolutionary change are there to stay and doesn’t wear away with time. Gandhiji’s struggle towards awakening the mind of his countrymen was an evolutionary process and that’s one of the reason why it could achieve so much.

Now putting this learning into context, he said, Indian mind has conditioned under a ‘clerk’ mentality because of long period of being ruled by others. This mind was conditioned to take orders and just deliver and the large population and generations have evolved into a mind where we are good at being behind and executing. At the same time, he said another India lives and strives to come out of this and proof of the same is many inventive minds giving so much to the world. India of today has to nurture these mind and provide them with an opportunity to express and then only another evolution of ‘discovering’ will come which will not only change the country but will change the world. What India needs is next level of ‘evolution’

Learning No. 2

Parents are easy role models:

Simon mentioned that he believed that lot of values to kids come from the background and context of one’s parent and he was sure that kids imbibe a lot of values from their parents. But he said, when he started researching on the genesis of values in human being, he realized that this notion might not be true in totality. Why then same parents raise kids of completely different value system if everything was same. He summarized that kids learn a lot from observing their parents in two ways:

1.      How they treat themselves

2.      How they treat others

A kid’s observation in these two areas gives rise to the belief system the kid has. Hence a very important parenting lesson I learnt was setting right examples in front of your kids around treating everyone around you with respect, empathy & dignity and that includes yourself.

Learning no 3

We need to care for our teachers – much more than what we do currently

Teachers, Simon mentioned are the forgotten lot. They might have forgotten their why and we need to teach them to their own why so they can go back to their kids keeping that purpose in mind. Since we spend our valuable years in schools and teachers are the role models we look up to in our growing phase, it would be a disaster if they aren’t in the right frame of mind while dealing with the future generations. Administrators, principals needs to realize the important role they play in bringing that environment in their schools. Like their corporate counterparts, they need to go for leadership development programs and run their schools in a manner in which it promotes greatness. Schools need to realize that they are dealing with human beings and they need to be instilled with vision, dreams and a clear why before they step out to the real world. That according to Simon would be the real value addition of the school going forward.

Learning  No 4:

Biggest lesson to Leaders: Take care of your people

While lot of leaders say this that people are their greatest assets, there are very few who actually live it. According to Simon, the thing is that running business is not difficult as long as people have genuine interest in others. Once you take care of the people who come to work and show them that you value their contribution and are really interested in their success, they will be the real role models for the next level and so on. The thing is, CEO’s responsibility should be to take care of the people, who take care of the people who in turn take care of the customers. If we look at businesses from this perspective then ‘people’ in reality becomes the most important element of sustainable business development. Zappos as an example comes into mind, when I was listening to this. Don’t they exist to create wow for their customer and that can never happen, if the people serving them aren’t super excited about what they do.

Learning no 5:

Aligning the values and action is tough but worth the effort

On my question around how values can be lived, Simon had a very simple answer around it. Values should be the guiding torch for what we do at work. It’s the way in which we behave irrespective of our short/long term gain/loss. It’s something which should be the integral part of how the firm should operate. It’s something leaders should be extremely proud to uphold and all the process/policy should help/aide people to live it, if it is allowed to be one of the things to do and live by then it becomes one of the things by which people will live. He gave an example of CBS stores in US who sell medicines and also use to sell cigarettes which kills. When someone noticed this and told the leadership team about it they realized selling cigarettes doesn’t fall in the bracket of health & wellbeing and they decided NOT to sell it going forward even though it contributed significantly to the top and bottom lines. It was a bold decision and they suffered in the short term but in the long term stakeholders, society rooted for them and their stock prices raised much more than without cigarettes. At the same time it sent a message to everyone that the firm is firm on the values it stands for.

The discussion ensured that I went to reflect my why once again and aligned my resources towards pursuing them with more dedication. In the end, it’s the simplicity yet the powerful message delivered by Simon with such a nice way is what makes him so profound. He told me, that he is not in the business of convincing people to buy his ideas, he is here to inspire people to find their own why? If they feel that this is something which can help them look at life differently and meaningful.

It did for me Simon, for sure.

To watch Simon’s TED video click the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action