When your college days are coming to a close and you’re getting ready to enter the job force in your chosen profession, a lot of questions naturally go through your mind. Will I find a job I like? When will I start working? What will be expected of me? Where will my workplace be?

According to inspirational speaker and author Simon Sinek, the first group of questions you ask yourself should all begin with the word “why.” Why am I seeking the job that I am? Why do I get out of bed to look for the job? Why should anyone care?

Sinek is not talking about the fact that you need to have a job to make money and survive. Start With Why is a guide to training yourself to think in a manner so that everything you do is clearly articulated as to why you do it.

As an example Sinek points to Apple, saying that its massive success is not a result of what it does (sell computers, etc.) but of why it does it (to strive for excellence by challenging the status quo). Other examples that Sinek lays out similarly come mostly from the world of big business, but he makes it clear that leadership comes not from a faceless corporation but from the right-thinking individuals behind it who apply the Start With Why philosophy to their personal lives as well. Sinek’s book is not preachy or New Age-y, but ultimately, the reader realizes that a slight change of mindset can have an immediate and profoundly positive effect.

Grade: A



Start With Why is currently available.