Simon Sinek Quotes Page 5

“To succeed takes more than the desire to win. It also takes the acceptance that we could fail.”

“Too many people confuse being rich or famous with being a leader. Wealth and fame are byproducts not qualifications to lead.”

“True love is when both people think they have the better half of the deal.”

“Trust is not formed through a screen, it is formed across a table. It takes a handshake to bind humans and no technology yet can replace that. There is no such thing as virtual trust.”

“Under poor leaders we feel like we work for the company. With good leaders we feel like we work for each other.”

“Value is not determined by those who set the price. Value is determined by those who choose to pay it.”

“Vision is the ability to talk about the future with such clarity it is as if we are talking about the past.”

“We can teach only if we are willing to learn.”

“We crave explanations for most everything, but innovation and progress happen when we allow ourselves to embrace uncertainty.”

“We don’t learn much when everything goes right. We learn the most when things go wrong.”

“We have no choice, we must all die. How we live, however, is entirely of our choosing.”

“We last longer if we compete against ourselves for the good of others instead of competing against others for the good of ourselves.”

“We must all try to empathise before we criticise. Ask someone what’s wrong before telling them they are wrong.”

“We should invest in people not ideas. A good idea is often destroyed by bad people and good people can always make a bad idea better.”

“We should never let reality interfere with our dreams. Reality can’t see what we can see.”

“What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.”

“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.”

“When we break eye contact to check our phones we degrade trust. Let’s keep our phones away from meals & meetings.”

“When we have a clear sense of our destination, we can be flexible in the route we take to reach it.”

“When we help ourselves, we find moments of happiness. When we help others, we find lasting fulfillment.”

“When we point to obstacles we inhibit progress. When we offer solutions we advance.”

“When we try to please everyone, we end up pleasing no one. Least of all ourselves.”

“When you explain to people what you’re trying to do, as opposed to just making demands or delegating tasks, you can build instant trust, even if it’s just for that short time you’re on the phone.”

“Would anybody be offended if we gave a $150 million bonus to Gandhi? How about a $250 million bonus to Mother Teresa? Do we have an issue with that? None at all. Great leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers. They would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the people.”

“The goal is not simply for you to cross the finish line, but to see how many people you can inspire to run with you.”

“The greatest contribution of a leader is to make other leaders.”

“As the Zen Buddhist saying goes, how you do anything is how you do everything.”

“Children are better off having a parent who works into the night in a job they love than a parent who works shorter hours but comes home unhappy.”

“I know of no case study in history that describes an organization that has been managed out of a crisis. Every single one of them was led.”

“If our leaders are to enjoy the trappings of their position in the hierarchy, then we expect them to offer us protection. The problem is, for many of the overpaid leaders, we know that they took the money and perks and didn’t offer protection to their people. In some cases, they even sacrificed their people to protect or boost their own interests. This is what so viscerally offends us. We only accuse them of greed and excess when we feel they have violated the very definition of what it means to be a leader.”