My Origin Story | Simon Sinek

My career is an accident.

I am living proof that not having a plan for life works out just fine.

But I think what happened to me is what happens to a lot of people who discover a calling, right? My, my origin story is not dissimilar to probably a lot of people in the room. I started a small business.

And I know what the statistics are that well over 90% of small businesses fail in the first three years. And if you're an A type personality with a little bit of a competitive spirit, that's kind of fun and exciting because to go against those odds, quite frankly, is stupid. And so you have to have something that drives you other than rational thought.

And it was exciting for the first few years. We made it past those three years. I joined a very small group of people in America who made it made it past three years. And my fourth year in business was completely different. The excitement had worn off, the passion had declined. And now I had to face building the structure of a business that I had established. And it wasn't the same. And my desire to go to work every day completely dried up. But because I had built this on force of personality, not being excited to go to work was embarrassing. Being depressed was embarrassing. Having no passion was humiliating. And so I faked it. I pretended that I had more passion than I did. And I was pretended that I was more in control, more successful, and more sure than I really was. And for anyone who's ever been in a dark space, when you keep that to yourself, it gets darker, which is exactly what happened to me. And it wasn't until a very, very dear friend of mine came to me and said, something is wrong. I don't know what it is, but something is wrong. And she created a safe space for me to come clean, which is what I did. And that weight that was on my shoulders and the energy that was going to lying, hiding and faking every day went away. And so all of that energy was now invested into finding the solution to regaining my passion. And the solution that I discovered was based on the biology of human decision making, which is that I knew what I did and I knew how I did it, but I didn't know why. And I realized that's the thing I needed. I found my why. But more important, I learned how to help others find theirs. And I would share with my friends, and I'd help my friends find their why. They found new passion for their jobs. Some of them started businesses, they invited me to share it with their friends. I would help people find their why for A hundred bucks on the side. And I saw the same thing. And when you get to have an impact in the lives of others that you can see and that you can feel, it's intoxicating. And it's all I wanted to do and it's all I wanted to talk about. And everything that happened following that was because other people said, there's someone I need you to meet. And I just kept saying yes. I never wanted to be a public speaker. I never wanted to stand on a stage. It's not my thing. I like being behind the scenes. I never was one of those people who thought I had a book in them. And after my first one, I was like, all right, I'm done.

But when you realize that you can give something to the world that is bigger than yourself, you find yourself giving up and sacrificing whatever plan you had or ideals. Not ideals, but whatever plan or goals you had. Because this is just more exciting. And the thing that I've learned is that well run businesses and well led businesses give that to people. And just to go off on a tangent for a moment, you know.

A business is like a car. You don't buy a car simply so that you can buy gas. That's not the reason you buy a car. You buy a car so that you can go somewhere. That's what you do. Well, it's the same for business. You don't start a business simply to make money, right? You start a business to do something, contribute to something, go somewhere. And you need money to fuel that business. It's essential. And when your friends get into the car, they go, where are we going? Nobody gets into the business and says, so how much gas are you going to give me? How much gas are you going to put in this thing? Right, you can fill it up with gas, but you don't know where you're going. And I think that's one of the problems with a lot of businesses. And you see it in a lot of successful businesses. They might make a lot of money, but the people who work there, they'll leave in a heartbeat if you offer them more money because they're doing it for the gas, not for the destination. And so I think great businesses, it becomes a calling, it becomes a thing that you. And the leader is looking out the front window going, look where we're going, look where we're going. And it's super exciting.