Simon Sinek recounts falling out of love with his work despite external success, the embarrassing secrecy around that struggle, and how a friend’s support allowed him to confess and redirect his energy toward finding a solution. He discovered a biologically grounded insight he calls "the why," became obsessed with it, began teaching it informally in living rooms (charging about $100), and built his work and books around these autobiographical insights.
Chapters
I fell out of love with my own work many, many years ago. And it was traumatic because superficially, my life was good. I owned my own business, made a decent living, did amazing work, had amazing clients, but I didn't want to wake up and go to work every day. I hated it, but I kept it a secret because I was embarrassed. And so all of my energy went into pretending that I was happier, more successful, and more in control than I felt. That is not a good way to live a life.
What made it more complicated is people gave me stupid advice. Do what you love. Thank you.
I'm doing the same thing, and I don't love it anymore. Nothing's changed. Follow your bliss. Got it. Like, what the hell am I supposed to do with that? You know? And so it wasn't until a dear friend of mine came to me and said, I'm worried about you. Something's wrong, Something's different. And I came clean. I told her exactly what I was going through. And it was that supportive environment that made me feel safe to come clean. And a weight was lifted off my shoulders. And all of the energy that I was using to lie, hide, and fake every day could be used to invest in finding a solution. And the solution that I found was this thing called the why. I knew what I did, and I knew how I did it, but I didn't know the why. And it was based on the biology of human decision making. It was not my opinion. This was how people work. I had to find that out. I became obsessed about it. It's all I talked about. It's all I wanted to talk about. And I shared it with my friends. My friends started making crazy life changes. They invited me to their homes to share it with their friends. So I literally started by standing in somebody's living room talking to a room of people sitting on the floor of a living room. That's how it started. And people just kept asking me, and I would help people find their why for $100 on the side.
True story.
My work is all semi autobiographical. It's all my own struggles. All of it. All the books that I write are about me.
And the things that I'm struggling with and the solutions that I find to those struggles. And when I find a solution, I share it with my friends. And when my friends say, wow, this is really powerful, then I think about writing it down and sharing it with others.
