Simon Sinek

Sinek was born in Wimbledon, England, in 1973 and later moved to the United States.⁠[1]

He is a 1995 graduate of Brandeis University, where he majored in cultural anthropology; he recalls writing several research papers on the leadership styles of student government members while serving on the Student Union’s Allocations Board.⁠[2]

He has said he chose anthropology because it let him study both the individual and the group, and in college he did fieldwork with the Massachusetts State Police.⁠[3]

He recalls wanting to be a lawyer, dropping out of law school and becoming a marketer in advertising until he fell out of love with it.⁠[1]

He then ran a marketing consultancy that grew for more than three years before running into trouble; he began sharing his ideas in friends’ apartments for about a hundred dollars a time and did so for three years before his book deal and TED talk. His first book deal came from a meeting with the editor Adrian Zackheim.⁠[4]

In September 2009 he gave the talk “How great leaders inspire action” at TEDxPuget Sound, presenting a model of inspirational leadership built on a golden circle and the question “Why,” with examples including Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers.⁠[5]

On October 29, 2009, Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, published Start With Why; the publisher describes the book as arguing that the most influential leaders all think, act and communicate in the same way, a framework Sinek calls the Golden Circle.⁠[6]

On January 7, 2014, Portfolio published the hardcover of Leaders Eat Last.⁠[7]

The publisher’s description says the title came from a conversation with a Marine Corps general who told him “Officers eat last”; the book argues that leaders should build a “Circle of Safety” in which team members trust one another.⁠[8]

He first spoke at the U.S. Air Force Academy at its 2015 National Character and Leadership Symposium, where he discussed the millennial generation; he returned in November 2017 to spend time with cadets.⁠[9]

In March 2017 he held leadership forums in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. An interview in which he discussed millennials had been viewed more than 60 million times online, drawing both praise and criticism.⁠[1]

On September 5, 2017, Find Your Why, written with David Mead and Peter Docker, was published as a practical follow-up to Start With Why to help individuals and teams discover their “Why.”⁠[10]

On November 15, 2018, Penguin Random House announced that Sinek and his longtime publisher, Portfolio, would launch a new imprint, Optimism Press, with his editor and Portfolio president Adrian Zackheim as publisher and Sinek as founder and “Chief Optimist,” starting with three to five books in 2019.⁠[11]

Books later published by Optimism Press include Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality, Matthew Barzun’s The Power of Giving Away Power and Jean Oelwang’s Partnering.⁠[12]

On October 15, 2019, Portfolio published The Infinite Game, which offers a framework for leading with an “infinite mindset” and committing over the long term to a “Just Cause.”⁠[13]

On March 21, 2020, he appeared on episode 82 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast; the outline covers the meaning of life as an infinite game, optimism, mortality, hard work, and Elon MuskElon MuskElon Musk is an entrepreneur who founded SpaceX and has long served as chief executive of Tesla; he also took part in creating PayPal, OpenAI, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and xAI. He acquired Twitter in 2022, and his businesses span spaceflight, electric vehicles, energy, artificial intelligence, and social media.Open the full entry, Steve JobsSteve JobsSteve Jobs (1955–2011) was a technology entrepreneur, Apple co-founder, NeXT founder, and investor and former CEO of Pixar. His career spanned personal computing, digital music, smartphones and animated films, with an emphasis on product design, user experience and multidisciplinary teams.Open the full entry and leadership.⁠[14]

In 2021 he founded The Curve with active-duty police chiefs and sheriffs to help leaders in policing modernize leadership culture from within.⁠[15]

In a Zoom conversation hosted by Brandeis University on February 28, 2023, he distinguished optimism from blind “toxic positivity” and described The Curve’s work training leaders for police departments.⁠[2]

His official bio says he is the founder of The Optimism Company, a leadership learning and development company, and an adjunct staff member of the RAND Corporation; his TED talk on “Why” has been viewed more than 60 million times, and his video on millennials in the workplace reached 80 million views in its first week.⁠[16]

The Optimism Company offers Leaderful, a leadership app with short lessons from Sinek and his network of experts.⁠[17]

He hosts the weekly podcast A Bit of Optimism, in conversation with a range of guests; in the show description he says his career began when he set out to rediscover a passion he had lost.⁠[18]

The company also runs WHY School, a program training coaches to facilitate the WHY Discovery process.⁠[19]

Personal website: Public link: https://simonsinek.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

X: Public account: https://x.com/simonsinek (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsinek/ (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/simonsinek (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

The Optimism Company: Official website: https://simonsinek.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[16]

RAND Corporation: Official website: https://www.rand.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[9]