Simon Sinek
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
The reason you have a car is so you can go places.
So I started a company, I meaning generic I, somebody started a company to make our lives a bit better, to offer some entertainment, to solve a problem, to go somewhere, to do something, to achieve something, to advance something.
Right?
That's where we're going.
And we need money to make this thing that we're trying to give to the world go.
But you can't have a gas-filled car with no compass, no GPS, no direction, no destination, and no map.
You're just going to squirrel around saying, how do we get more gas?
How do we get more gas?
Which is kind of the way companies look these days.
The most beautiful companies, they have a plan.
They have a map.
They've got a compass.
They're looking out the front window.
And of course, they're looking at the gas gauge.
And we follow the stupid Milton Friedman definition of the purpose of a company is to maximize profit within the bounds of the rules.
In other words, don't break the law.
That's a pretty low standard, right?
Ethics is a much higher standard than the law.
So companies do unethical things all the time.
And the CEOs go in front of Congress and say like, well, we didn't break the law.