TED Talks Daily
TED Talks Daily Book Club: Start With Why, 15th Anniversary Edition | Simon Sinek
18 May 2025
Simon Sinek is an inspirational speaker and author of the bestselling book, “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.” In this TED Talks Daily Book Club interview, with host Elise Hu, Simon reflects on his message 15 years later and explains why it’s important to stay true to your why, both in the short- and long-term. He also tells us how to identify purpose-driven leaders and shares actionable steps you can take to find your own why. The TED Talks Daily Book Club series features TED speakers discussing their latest books and exploring their ideas beyond the page. Stay tuned to our feed for more interviews like this one and for special live book club events open exclusively to TED members. For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
Today, we're bringing you a new installment of our Book Club series, where we check out new books from TED speakers that will spark your curiosity all year long. Author and leadership expert Simon Sinek is no stranger to TED.
He's given some of the most watched TED Talks of all time, including his 2009 TEDx Talk that has completely changed the game around leadership and what it means to lead a purposeful life. His first book, Start With Why, How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, which came out just months after his TEDx talk, quickly became a bestseller.
And just a week ago, the 15th anniversary edition of Start With Why was released. So we invited Simon to come on TED Talks Daily for a conversation about what's changed for him, his outlook on the state of things today, and how his theory of Start With Why... has not only withstood the test of time, but may actually be more relevant now than ever before.
And just a heads up, this conversation took place over video chat online, so you may hear some background noise throughout the conversation. Sorry about that. Simon Sinek, thanks for sitting down with us.
Thanks for having me.
Well, you're a longtime friend of TED, and we are now kind of looking back at Start With Why. It's the 15th anniversary. Given the extraordinary success of not only your TED Talks, but just your work generally, the idea of starting with why has clearly stood the test of time. So what was it like for you to update this book for this edition?
When I first articulated the concept of why in The Golden Circle, it was never supposed to be a commercial exercise. I treated it like a scientific experiment, which is I had this little theory that seemed to have, and the reason I called it The Golden Circle is inspired by the golden ratio. This one concept that seems to have sort of
you know, unlimited applications from architecture to understanding snowflakes, you know, understanding the Mona Lisa, like this one golden ratio. And so that's what inspired me. That's like I had this little concept that seemed to have unbelievable ability to help you, you know, better write a speech or better marketing or direct your career and decision making.
Yeah.
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