The story of why - by Nick Asbury - Thoughts on Writing

What follows is an excerpt from my new book The Road to Hell, tackling the case of Simon Sinek and his 2009 book Start With Why.

In other news, I’ve appeared on three podcasts recently, all quite different in tone and content. Check out The Marketing Book Podcast, In Clear Focus and the Fuel Podcast for some interesting conversations.

At the turn of the century, Simon Sinek was an adman, working at Euro RSCG (now Havas Worldwide) and Ogilvy & Mather, before launching his own consultancy in 2002.

It’s common practice in adland to come up with proprietary models that capture the way a brand works. On whiteboards from London to New York, you will find brand onions, brand pyramids, brand houses and brand doughnuts. Sinek’s version was three concentric circles: with the ‘why’ of the brand at the core, circled by the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.

In an ambitious reference to the golden ratio, he dubbed this the Golden Circle and pondered whether it might be the hidden pattern underlying all successful brands and leaders. It lay on the shelf for a while, but then Sinek describes a eureka moment when he realised this model might have echoes in neurobiology.

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