A short transcript of Simon Sinek expressing his optimism about humanity and the future. Sinek argues people are fundamentally good, that incentive structures can corrupt behavior, and that caring for one another and creating belonging will help societies emerge stronger from difficult times.
Chapters
I think people tend to good, right? I'll give you a silly example. So there's an app that you can download called Apple Store, right? Not the App Store, but Apple Store, okay? And you can go into any Apple Store retail outlet. You can pull out your phone. You can't do with a computer or a phone, but you can do with a pair of $300 headphones. You can do with cables, plugs, whatever you need. You can scan the item on your phone and you can walk out, right? No bag, no nothing, Just walk out. And I. When it first came out, after a few months, I pulled one of the managers aside. I'm like, I'm dying to know what's happened to your shoplifting numbers. And he's like, they're exactly the same. I'm like. He says people who steal steal, and people who don't steal don't steal. And most people don't steal. People tend to good, right? Most people are good people. Sometimes we struggle to communicate. Sometimes we're bad under pressure, but people tend to good. And so if we accept that people tend to good, that means the world tends to good, right? And incentive structures that we work in and the environment we work in can hijack. Can hijack us and make us operate at our worst selves. But people want to feel like they belong. People want to be seen. People want to feel like they matter. People want to feel like their work matters. It's pretty consistent around the world. We want to feel safe wherever we are. We want our kids to feel safe wherever they are. Pretty much it. I want to make a living, and I want my kids to get an education. It's pretty much it around the whole world. And so my optimism is not naive. We can be in darkness. I can be like, this is horrible, and I am stressed, and I don't know where we're going, and I am uncertain. And this is the worst time we've ever been in. But I know one thing. I know that if we take care of each other and we look after each other, I know we will get through this and come through this better than where we are now. We will come out of this even stronger than we went in. And that's what optimism is for me. It's the undying belief that the future is bright. And I believe that the future is bright because I think people are fundamentally good.
