Short excerpt from a Simon Sinek talk arguing that organizations must prioritize people’s will (motivation, loyalty) slightly above resources (money). Sinek frames the trade-off as two "currencies" — will and resources — and uses a hypothetical pair of CEOs (one prioritizing growth, one prioritizing people) to show why leaning toward people yields better long-term outcomes. The piece emphasizes that money is necessary but should not outrank people in priority decisions.
Chapters
There are two currencies in the infinite, will and resources. Resources is money. You need money to stay in the game, but you need the will of the people as well. And the problem is that when we organize to win, that means the score is more important than the inspiration and motivation than people have to give their blood, sweat and tears. And when we prioritize resources before will, that's a problem. I've never met a CEO that doesn't believe their people are important. The problem is where on the priority list, you know, been to any number of presentations where they put their priorities on the wall. You know, number one, growth. Number two, shareholder value. Number three, our customer. Number four, our employees. There it is. See, I do care about our people. And the reality is, as social animals, we want to work for. And we're willing to give our blood, sweat and tears to leaders who understand that the balance of those two essential currencies, the balance of those two things is will has to come before resources. And that doesn't mean 90, 10. When I talk about putting people before profit, you know, people freak out, which is ridiculous. You need fuel for the car to go. Money is fuel for the organization. Of course, even if there's a leaning, it's 51, 49. There has to be a slight leaning towards people because there will always be decisions that a company has to make in which those two cannot both be supplied and one will have to be sacrificed. The question is, which will you always prioritize? Let me give you a hypothetical example to make my point. Two CEOs. The first CEO says our number one priority is growth. And of course, our people are important because if we take care of our people, we will meet and exceed our financial goals. Second CEO says our number one priority is our people. And if we take care of our people, we will always meet and exceed our financial goals. Which one would you rather work for? I don't want to prioritize. I mean, it's obvious. Right? It's obvious. So this is what it means to prioritize will of resources. Of course, money matters, but the people matter more.
