Start with Why revisited

Next week I am starting in my new position as an associate at the Pinhoe Dental Centre. This feels like such a positive step for me and it is one of the most exciting things to happen in my professional life to date. But for obvious reasons the move also comes with some trepidation seeing as I have worked only in one practice since qualifying 8 years ago.

So in preparation for the move I have been re-reading or re-listening to some of the books that have most influenced my thinking over the last year to make sure I am as mentally prepared as I can be to make the most of the new opportunities ahead. And top of that list (probably in joint first place with productivity ninja which can be found here: http://www.drchrisharper.co.uk/blog/productivity-ninja-revisited) is Simon Sinek’s seminal book “Start with Why”.

In Start with Why the author explains his concept of the golden circle in which an individual‘s or organisation’s actions can be broken into 3 categories. There is What you do, How you do those things and then in the middle is Why. Sinek states his Why as “To inspire others to do the things that inspire them”. And boy does he come good on that promise in this book. The concept and delivery is so fantastic that I would be surprised if anybody can digest this and not feel motivated to take action on it. And if you happen to own a practice or any other business then you would be crazy not to at least hear what Sinek has to say. The Why influences hiring, strategy, advertising (to such a huge extent), how to turn down good opportunities to follow better ones, succession of one CEO to another and how to stay true to guiding principles as a business scales.

When I first listened to Start with Why it helped me to realise my driving motivation “To help and inspire others to become better versions of themselves”. Understanding this Why has massively helped to guide my decisions on what opportunities to pursue to ensure not only that I can achieve a lot but more importantly to feel successful in what I achieve.

The only criticism I can offer of this book is that the importance of the Why is made very clear, but What to do to work out your own Why is less obvious. For that I would strongly suggest you follow this book up by delving into the second book on this topic aptly called Find your Why. That book helped me to fill out the extra details of my own golden circle and really helped to add extra layers of depth to this idea. If you are interested, my golden circle can be seen above.

Normally I like to try to share snippets and learning ideas from books, but the only recommendation I can give is to read the whole book. It really is worth it. You can get either the physical version or audible version here: https://amzn.to/2HwguOY