Top 77 Simon Sinek Quotes

Bad leaders believe that they have to project control at all times.

I find, when you’re an optimist, life has a funny way of looking after you.

Spending too much time focused on others’ strengths leaves us feeling weak. Focusing on our own strengths is what, in fact, makes us strong.

The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.

Actions speak louder than words. All companies say they care, right? But few actually exercise that care.

Leadership is absolutely about inspiring action, but it is also about guarding against mis-action.

Though there are lessons that can be learned about becoming a great leader, most exist inherently in the bellies of those who lead.

Some would argue that you’re as successful as the company you keep. Certainly there is a connection between our friends and who we are.

There is no decision that we can make that doesn’t come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.

Most politicians are not authentic.

In this age of omniconnectedness, words like ‘network,’ ‘community’ and even ‘friends’ no longer mean what they used to. Networks don’t exist on LinkedIn. A community is not something that happens on a blog or on Twitter. And a friend is more than someone whose online status you check.

I have friends who are majorly into the cosplay culture and have urged me to go to a convention for no other reason than to meet others like me.

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Anyone who achieves any kind of success, however you want to define it, sometimes can’t let go of it.

If you look at the average age of a company on the Dow Jones index, it’s something like 35 years or younger. In other words… success is no indication of longevity.

There are two types of claims: those based on hard numbers and those based on slippery numbers.

Don’t quit. Never give up trying to build the world you can see, even if others can’t see it. Listen to your drum and your drum only. It’s the one that makes the sweetest sound.

Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year. I have a strict rule: I don’t work on Halloween and I won’t travel on Halloween. Not for any reason.

There is a difference between vulnerability and telling people everything about yourself. Vulnerability is a feeling. Telling everyone about yourself is just facts and details.

Leadership is not about the next election, it’s about the next generation.

A five minute call replaces the time it takes to read and reply to the original email and read and reply to their reply… or replies. And I no longer spend 20+ minutes crafting the perfect email – no need to.

The U.S. Constitution protects our privacy from the prying eyes of government. It does not, however, protect us from the prying eyes of companies and corporations.

Humility, I have learned, must never be confused with meekness. Humility is being open to the ideas of others.

My sister made certain choices about the life she wanted. Those choices include a steady job, a husband and children. But balance and stability come at a cost. It is harder for her to be spontaneous. It is harder to just up and leave.

In the military, they give medals for people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may survive. In business, we give bonuses to people who sacrifice others.

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.

The trick to balance is to not make sacrificing important things become the norm.

Spending time with the military certainly lends itself to some remarkable experiences, and I’ve been privileged to have had my share.

When I was a kid, I was a bit of a space geek. I loved the space program and all things NASA. I would read books about our solar system; I had pictures of the Space Shuttle on my bedroom wall. And yes, I even went to Space Camp.

It’s important to slow down, every now and then, for no other reason than to call someone to say ‘Hi.’ It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. Just calling out of the blue does more to let someone know you still care about them than nearly anything else.

Offer someone the opportunity to rebuild a company or reinvent an industry as the primary incentive, and it will attract those drawn to the challenge first and the money second.

Corporate culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything – for better or for worse.

Over 90% of people go home at the end of the day feeling unfulfilled by their work, and I won’t stop working until that statistic is reversed – until over 90% of people go home and can honestly say, ‘I love what I do.’

All the great organizations in the world, all have a sense of why that organization does what it does.

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.

I’d rather play in the major leagues and have some bad games than play consistently good ball in the minors.

Babe Ruth was not afraid to strike out. And it was this fearlessness that contributed to his remarkable career.

Starbucks was founded around the experience and the environment of their stores. Starbucks was about a space with comfortable chairs, lots of power outlets, tables and desks at which we could work and the option to spend as much time in their stores as we wanted without any pressure to buy. The coffee was incidental.

If you want to be a great leader, remember to treat all people with respect at all times. For one, because you never know when you’ll need their help. And two, because it’s a sign you respect people, which all great leaders do.

Great leaders don’t need to act tough. Their confidence and humility serve to underscore their toughness.

Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.

I love science fiction – always have.

It is only from the people I’ve had the good fortune to meet that I am learning the lessons to guide me. Baz Luhrmann, director of ‘Moulin Rouge,’ for example, has a childlike curiosity about the world. He doesn’t pretend to know all the answers – quite the opposite, in fact. He asks loads of questions of everyone.

No matter when or where, always bring your ‘A’ game, because you never know when it will open doors for you.

A friend is an emotional bond, just like friendship is a human experience.

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.

The strong bond of friendship is not always a balanced equation; friendship is not always about giving and taking in equal shares. Instead, friendship is grounded in a feeling that you know exactly who will be there for you when you need something, no matter what or when.

The lives we live are a bit of a straight-hair vs. curly-hair thing. We often want what we don’t have. In reality, it’s not about better or worse; it’s just perception.

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.

I have been inspired by Martin Luther King and how he inspired a movement. I have learned that a cause must be organic; if it is to have an impact it must belong to those who join the movement and not those who lead it.

Pilots have their names painted just beneath the canopy of their aircraft. This gives the pilot a sense of ownership for his or her jet. What’s more, like cars, each aircraft has its own personality, so it’s important for a pilot to get to know and love his aircraft.

A leader’s job is not to do the work for others, it’s to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible.

To become an academic expert takes years of studying. Academic experts are experts in how and what others have done. They use case studies and observation to understand a subject.

TiVo and other digital recording devices have confounded advertisers. The ad industry sees the technology as a threat to their product.

The challenge of the unknown future is so much more exciting than the stories of the accomplished past.

If no one ever broke the rules, then we’d never advance.

My concern is that we live in an economy in which stabbing someone and waiting for them to complain before we remove the knife has become the normal way of doing business. When did we lose sight of the fact that it’s not nice to stab people in the first place?

The single best machine to measure trust is a human being. We haven’t figured out a metric that works better than our own sort of, like, ‘There’s something fishy about you.’

If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood, sweat, and tears.