The Playbook

Simon Sinek: 'What's Your Company's Purpose?'

Simon Sinek, who writes about leadership and "the why," explains how you can identify yours.

Finding Your Company's Purpose

Eboo Patel, an American Muslim, is one of America's most prominent religious-thought leaders. His organization, Interfaith Youth Core, has a worldwide mission.


Video Transcript

00:12 Simon Sinek: Every organization on the planet knows what they do. Some know how they do it, the things that you think make you different or special or stand out from the crowd, but very, very few people and very, very few organizations can clearly articulate why they do what they do, that purpose, cause, or belief that drives everything you do. And that's really essential. All the great organizations in the world, all have a sense of why that organization does what it does.

00:34 Sinek: So, here's a way you can find your "why". Here's a way you can understand what makes you at your best. If you simply take a look at your career, your past, and you sort of plot the times where you were naturally at your best, where everything went perfectly. Even if it wasn't a commercial success, you loved, and that's the important part, you loved being a part of it, and you'll find that there is a pattern. You'll find that the thing that was driving you in each of those times was exactly the same. That's because that was your "why". In those particular cases it was an accident, but when you know that cause, when you know that "why", you can now do it prescriptively in the future.

Last updated: Nov 28, 2012