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Simon Sinek: Leadership, Hard Work, Optimism and the Infinite Game

第82期2020-03-21English

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§01Transcript · 00:00–09:02

00:00The following is a conversation with Simon Sinek,

00:02author of several books, including Start With Why,

00:06Leaders Eat Last, and his latest, The Infinite Game.

00:11He's one of the best communicators

00:12of what it takes to be a good leader,

00:14to inspire, and to build businesses

00:16that solve big, difficult challenges.

00:21This is the Artificial Intelligence Podcast.

00:23If you enjoy it, subscribe on YouTube,

00:25review it with five stars on Apple Podcast,

00:28support it on Patreon, or simply connect with me on Twitter,

00:31at Lex Friedman, spelled F R I D M A N.

00:35As usual, I'll do one or two minutes of ads now,

00:38and never any ads in the middle

00:39that can break the flow of the conversation.

00:42I hope that works for you,

00:43and doesn't hurt the listening experience.

00:46Quick summary of the ads.

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03:45And now, here's my conversation with Simon Sinek.

03:50In the Infinite Game, your most recent book,

03:53you describe the finite game and the infinite game,

03:56so from my perspective of artificial intelligence

03:58and game theory in general, I'm a huge fan of finite games

04:03from the broad philosophical sense,

04:05it's something that in the robotics,

04:07artificial intelligence space, we know how to deal with,

04:09and then you describe the infinite game,

04:11which has no exact static rules,

04:13has no well defined static objective,

04:17the players are known, unknown, they change,

04:19there's the dynamic element,

04:21so this is something that applies to business, politics,

04:26life itself, so can you try to articulate

04:30the objective function here of the infinite game,

04:33or in the cliche, broad philosophical sense,

04:39what is the meaning of life?

04:41Go for the, start with a softball.

04:44Yep, easy question first.

04:48So James Kars was the philosopher

04:50who originally articulated this concept

04:52of finite and infinite games,

04:54and when I learned about it,

04:56it really challenged my view of how the world works, right?

05:00Because I think we all think about winning

05:02and being the best and being number one,

05:04but if you think about it,

05:06only in a finite game can that exist,

05:07a game that has fixed rules, agreed upon objectives,

05:11and known players, like football or baseball,

05:14there's always a beginning, middle, and end,

05:15and if there's a winner, there has to be a loser.

05:17Infinite games, as Kars describes them,

05:20as you said, have known and unknown players,

05:22which means anyone can join,

05:24it has changeable rules,

05:26which means you can play however you want,

05:27and the objective is to perpetuate the game,

05:29to stay in the game as long as possible.

05:32In other words, there's no such thing

05:33as being number one or winning

05:34in a game that has no finish line.

05:36And what I learned is that when we try to win

05:40in a game that has no finish line,

05:42we try to be number, we try to be the best

05:44in a game that has no agreed upon objectives

05:46or agreed upon metrics or timeframes,

05:49there's a few consistent and predictable outcomes,

05:51the decline of trust, the decline of cooperation,

05:54the decline of innovation.

05:57And I find this fascinating because so many of the ways

06:01that we run most organizations is with a finite mindset.

06:04So trying to reduce the beautiful complex thing

06:06that is life or whatever, politics or business,

06:09into something very narrow,

06:12and in that process, the reductionist process,

06:14you lose something fundamental

06:16that makes the whole thing work in the long term.

06:20So returning, not gonna let you off the hook easy,

06:24what is the meaning of life?

06:26So what is the objective function

06:28that is worthwhile to pursue?

06:31Well, if you think about our tombstones, right?

06:34They have the date we were born and the date we died,

06:36but really it's what we do with the gap in between.

06:39There's a poem called The Dash.

06:41You know, it's the dash that matters.

06:44It's what we do between the time we're born

06:45and the time we die that gives our life meaning.

06:47And if we live our lives with a finite mindset,

06:50which means to accumulate more power or money

06:52than anybody else, to outdo everyone else,

06:54to be number one, to be the best,

06:55we don't take any of us with us.

06:56We don't take any of it with us.

06:58We just die.

06:59The people who get remembered the way we wanna be remembered

07:04is what kind of people we were, right?

07:06Devoted mother, loving father,

07:08what kind of person we were to other people.

07:10Jack Welch just died recently,

07:13and the Washington Post,

07:14when it wrote the headline for his obit,

07:18it wrote, he pleased Wall Street and distressed employees.

07:23And that's his legacy.

07:24A finite player who is obsessed with winning,

07:27who leaves behind a legacy of short term gains for a few

07:32and distress for many.

07:33That's his legacy.

07:34And every single one of us gets the choice

07:37of the kind of legacy we wanna have.

07:39Do we wanna be remembered for our contributions

07:41or our detractions?

07:43To live with a finite mindset,

07:45to live a career with a finite mindset,

07:47to be number one, be the best, be the most famous,

07:53you live a life like Jack Welch, you know?

07:56To live a life of service, to see those around us rise,

07:59to contribute to our communities, to our organizations,

08:01to leave them in better shape than we found them,

08:04that's the kind of legacy most of us would like to have.

08:07So day to day, when you think about

08:09what is the fundamental goals, dreams,

08:17motivations of an infinite game,

08:20of seeing your life, your career as an infinite game,

08:24what does that look like?

08:26I mean, I guess I'm sort of trying to stick

08:29on this personal ego, personal drive,

08:32the thing that the fire, the reason we wanna wake up

08:35in the morning and the reason we can't go to bed

08:37because we're so excited, what is that?

08:39So for me, it's about having a just cause.

08:41It's about a vision that's bigger than me,

08:44that my work gets to contribute

08:45to something larger than myself, you know?

08:48That's what drives me every day.

08:51I wake up every morning with a vision of a world

08:53that does not yet exist, a world in which the vast majority

08:55of people wake up every single morning inspired,

08:58feel safe at work and return home fulfilled

09:01at the end of the day.

§02Transcript · 09:02–17:45

09:02It is not the world we live in.

09:03And so that we still have work to do

09:06is the thing that drives me.

09:08You know, I know what my underlying values are.

09:10You know, I wake up to inspire people

09:12to do the things that inspire them.

09:13And these are the things that, these are the things that I,

09:16these are my go tos, my touch points

09:20that inspire me to keep working.

09:21You know, I think of a career like an iceberg.

09:24You know, if you have a vision for something,

09:27you're the only one who can see the iceberg

09:28underneath the ocean.

09:30But if you start working at it, a little bit shows up.

09:33And now a few other people can see what you imagine,

09:35be like, oh, right, yeah, no,

09:36I wanna help build that as well.

09:37And if you have a lot of success,

09:39then you have a lot of iceberg

09:40and people can see this huge iceberg

09:41and they say, you've accomplished so much.

09:43But what I see is all the work still yet to be done.

09:47You know, I still see the huge iceberg underneath the ocean.

09:49And so the growth, you talk about momentum.

09:52So the incremental revealing of the iceberg

09:56is what drives you.

09:58Well, it necessarily is incremental.

10:00What drives me is that, is the realization,

10:03is realizing the iceberg, bringing more of the iceberg

10:06from the unknown to the known,

10:08bringing more of the vision from the imagination to reality.

10:12And you have this fundamental vision of optimism.

10:15You call yourself an optimist.

10:17I mean, in this world, I have a sort of,

10:20I see myself a little bit as the main character

10:23from The Idiot by Dostoevsky,

10:25who is also kind of seen by society as a fool

10:29because he was optimistic.

10:32So one, can you maybe articulate

10:35where that sense of optimism comes from?

10:37And maybe also try to articulate your vision of the future

10:41where people are inspired, where optimism drives us.

10:46It's easy to forget that when you look at social media

10:48and so on, where the word toxicity and negativity

10:51can often get more likes,

10:53that optimism has a sort of a beauty to it.

10:56And I do hope it's out there.

10:58So can you try to articulate that vision?

11:00Yeah, so I mean, for me, optimism and being an optimist

11:04is just seeing the silver lining in every cloud.

11:08Even in tragedy, it brings people together.

11:11And the question is, can we see that?

11:12Can you see the beauty that is in everything?

11:15And I don't think optimism is foolishness.

11:20I don't think optimism is blindness,

11:23though it probably involves some naivete,

11:27the belief that things will get better,

11:29the belief that we tend towards the good,

11:33even in times of struggle or bad.

11:39You can't sustain war, but you can sustain peace.

11:42I think things that are stable are more sustainable,

11:46things that are optimistic are more sustainable

11:49than things that are chaotic.

11:53So you see people as fundamentally good.

11:54I mean, some people may disagree

11:56that you can't sustain peace, you can't sustain war.

12:00I mean, I think war is costly.

12:03It involves life and money,

12:06and peace does not involve those things.

12:08It requires work.

12:09I'm not saying it doesn't require work,

12:11but it doesn't drain resources,

12:14I think the same way that war does.

12:17The people that would say that we will always have war,

12:19and I just talked to the historian of Stalin,

12:22would say that conflict and the desire for power

12:27and conflict is central to human nature.

12:30I concur.

12:32But something in your words also,

12:34perhaps it's the naive aspect that I also share,

12:38is that you have an optimism

12:39that people are fundamentally good.

12:41I'm an idealist, and I think idealism is good.

12:44I'm not a fool to believe that the ideals

12:46that I imagine can come true.

12:48Of course, there'll never be world peace,

12:50but shouldn't we die trying?

12:53I think that's the whole point.

12:54That's the whole point of vision.

12:55Vision should be idealistic,

12:56and it should be, for all practical purposes, impossible.

13:02But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try,

13:03and it's the milestones that we reach

13:06that take us closer to that ideal

13:09that make us feel that our life and our work have meaning,

13:12and we're contributing to something bigger than ourselves.

13:14You know, just because it's impossible

13:17doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

13:19As I said, we're still moving the ball down the field.

13:21We're still making progress.

13:23Things are still getting better,

13:24even if we never get to that ideal state.

13:27So I think idealism is a good thing.

13:30You know, in the word infinite game,

13:34one of the beautiful and tragic aspects of life,

13:37human life at least, at least from the biological

13:39perspective, is that it ends.

13:43So sadly, it's.

13:44To some people, yeah.

13:46Fine, it's tragic to some people, or is it ends, it ends?

13:50I think some people believe that it ends on the day you die,

13:53and some people think it continues on.

13:54There's, and there's a lot of different ways

13:56to think what continues on even looks like.

13:58But let me drag it back to the personal.

14:01Sure.

14:02Which is, how do you think about your own mortality?

14:06Are you afraid of death?

14:07How do you think about your own death?

14:10I definitely haven't accomplished everything

14:12I want to contribute to.

14:15I would like more time on this earth

14:17to keep working towards that vision.

14:20Do you think about the fact that it ends for you?

14:22Are you cognizant of it?

14:23Of course I'm cognizant of it.

14:24I mean, aren't we all?

14:27I don't dwell on it.

14:30I'm aware of it.

14:32I know that my life is finite,

14:33and I know that I have a certain amount of time left

14:36on this planet, and I'd like to make that time be valuable.

14:40You know, some people would think that ideas

14:42kind of allow you to have a certain kind of immortality.

14:46Yeah.

14:52Maybe to linger on this kind of question.

14:54So first to push back on the,

14:56you said that everyone's cognizant of their mortality.

14:58There's a guy named Ernest Becker who would disagree,

15:02that you basically say that most of human cognition

15:05is created by us trying to create an illusion

15:09and try to hide the fact from ourselves,

15:11the fact that we're gonna die,

15:13to try to think that it's all gonna go on forever.

15:17But the fact that we know that it doesn't.

15:19Yes, but this mix of denial.

15:21I mean, I think the book's called Denial of Death.

15:24It's this constant denial that we're running away from.

15:30In fact, some would argue that the inspiration,

15:33the incredible ideas you've put out there,

15:35your TED Talk has been seen by millions

15:37and millions of people, right?

15:38It's just you trying to desperately fight the fact

15:41that you are biologically mortal.

15:45Your creative genius comes from the fact

15:48that you're trying to create ideas

15:49that live on long past you.

15:52Well, that's very nice of you.

15:53I mean, I would like my ideas to live on beyond me

15:57because I think that is a good test

15:59that those ideas have value in the lives of others.

16:03I think that's a good test.

16:05That others would continue to talk about

16:08or share the ideas long after I'm gone,

16:12I think is perhaps the greatest compliment

16:16one can get for one's own work.

16:20But I don't think it's my awareness of my mortality

16:23that drives me to do it.

16:25It's my desire to contribute that drives me to do it.

16:30It's the optimist vision.

16:32It's the pleasure and the fulfillment you get

16:36from inspiring others.

16:38It's as pure as that.

16:42Let me ask, listen, I'm rushing.

16:43I'm trying to get you to get you into these dark areas.

16:47Is the ego tied up into it somehow?

16:50So your name is extremely well known.

16:54If your name wasn't attached to it,

16:56do you think you would act differently?

16:58I mean, for years, I hated that my name was attached to it.

17:02I had a rule for years that I wouldn't have my face

17:06on the front page of the website.

17:09I had a fight with the publisher

17:10because I didn't want my name big on the book.

17:14I wanted it tiny on the book.

17:15Because I kept telling them it's not about me,

17:17it's about the ideas.

17:18They wanted to put my name on the top of my book, I refused.

17:20None of my books have my names on the top

17:22because I won't let them.

17:25They would like very much to put my name

17:26on the top of the book,

17:27but the idea has to be bigger than me.

17:30I'm not bigger than the idea.

17:32That's beautifully put.

17:32Do you think ego?

17:34But I also am aware that I've become recognized

17:38as the messenger.

17:39And even though I still think the message is bigger than me,

17:41I recognize that I have a responsibility as the messenger.

§03Transcript · 17:45–25:50

17:45And whether I like it or not is irrelevant.

17:47I accept the responsibility, I'm happy to do it.

17:53I'm not sure how to phrase this,

17:54but there's a large part of the culture right now

17:58that emphasizes all the things that nobody disagrees with,

18:03which is health, sleep, diet, relaxation,

18:07meditation, vacation, are really important.

18:10And there's no, it's like,

18:11you can't really argue against that.

18:13In fact, people.

18:14Less sleep.

18:16Less.

18:16Just, I'm joking.

18:17Yes, well, that's the thing.

18:18I often speak to the fact that passion

18:23and love for what you're doing and the two words hard work,

18:28especially in the engineering fields,

18:30are more important than,

18:32are more important to prioritize than sleep.

18:35Even though sleep is really important,

18:38your mind should be obsessed with the hard work,

18:40with the passion, and so on.

18:41And then I get some pushback, of course, from people.

18:44What do you make sense of that?

18:46Is that just me, the crazy Russian engineer,

18:49really pushing hard work?

18:50Probably.

18:52I think that that's a short term strategy.

18:55I think if you sacrifice your health for the work,

18:57at some point, it catches up with you.

19:00And at some point, it's like going, going, going,

19:02and you get sick.

19:03Your body will shut down for you

19:04if you refuse to take care of yourself.

19:07You get sick.

19:09It's what happens.

19:09Sometimes, more severe illness

19:12than something that just slows you down.

19:14So I think taking, getting sleep,

19:17I mean, there have been studies on this that,

19:20executives, for example, who get a full night's sleep

19:24and stop at a reasonable hour,

19:26actually accomplish more, are more productive

19:29than people who work and burn the midnight oil

19:31because their brains are working better

19:33because they're well rested.

19:35So, you know, working hard, yes,

19:37but why not work smart?

19:41I think that giving our minds and our bodies rest

19:45makes us more efficient.

19:47I think just driving, driving, driving, driving

19:49is a short term, it's a short term strategy.

19:52So, but to push back on that a little bit,

19:54the annoying thing is you're like 100% right

19:57in terms of science, right?

19:58But the thing is, because you're 100% right,

20:02that weak part of your mind uses that fact

20:07to convince you, like what, so, you know,

20:10I get all kinds of, my mind comes up

20:12with all kinds of excuses to try to convince me

20:14that I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

20:16To rationalize. To rationalize.

20:18And so what I have a sense,

20:21I think what you said about executives and leaders

20:23is absolutely right, but there's the early days.

20:26The early days of madness and passion.

20:29For sure.

20:29Then I feel like emphasizing sleep,

20:33thinking about sleep is giving yourself a way out

20:37from the fact that those early days,

20:39especially, can be suffering.

20:42As long, it's not sustainable.

20:45You know, it's not sustainable.

20:46Sure, if you're investing all that energy in something

20:50at the beginning to get it up and running,

20:52then at some point you're gonna have to slow down.

20:55Or your body will slow you down for you.

20:57Like, you can choose or your body can choose.

21:01I mean.

21:02So, okay, so you don't think, from my perspective,

21:04it feels like people have gotten a little bit soft.

21:07But you're saying, no.

21:08I think that there seems evidence

21:11that working harder and later have taken a back seat.

21:16I've taken a back seat.

21:21I think we have to be careful with broad generalizations.

21:24But I think if you go into the workplace,

21:28there are people who would complain

21:29that more people now than before,

21:33you know, look at their watches and say,

21:34oops, five o clock, goodbye.

21:36Right?

21:37Now, is that a problem with the people?

21:39You're saying it's the people giving themselves excuses

21:41and people who don't work hard.

21:42Or is it the organizations aren't giving them something

21:45to believe in, something to be passionate about?

21:46We can't manufacture passion.

21:48You can't just tell someone, be passionate.

21:51You know, that's not how it works.

21:52Passion's an output, not an input.

21:55Like if I believe in something

21:56and I wanna contribute all that energy to do it,

21:58we call that passion.

22:00You know, working hard for something we love is passion.

22:02Working hard for something we don't care about

22:04is called stress.

22:05But we're working hard either way.

22:07So I think the organizations bear some accountability

22:10and our leaders bear some accountability,

22:11which is if they're not offering a sense of purpose,

22:13if they're not offering us a sense of cause,

22:15if they're not telling us that our work is worth more

22:17than simply the money it makes,

22:19then yeah, I'm gonna come at five o clock

22:21because I don't really care about making you money.

22:23Remember, we live in a world right now

22:24where a lot of people, rather a few people,

22:26are getting rich on the hard work of others.

22:29And so I think when people look up and say,

22:33well, why would I do that?

22:34I'll just, if you're not gonna look after me

22:36and then you're gonna lay me off at the end of the year

22:38because you missed your arbitrary projections,

22:40you know, you're gonna lay me off

22:41because you missed your arbitrary projections,

22:43then why would I offer my hard work and loyalty to you?

22:47So I think, I don't think we can immediately blame people

22:50for going soft.

22:51I think we can blame leaders for their inability

22:56or failure to offer their people something bigger

22:59than making a product or making money.

23:02Yeah, so that's brilliant.

23:04And start with why, leaders eat less, your books.

23:07You basically talk about what it takes to be a good leader.

23:13And so some of the blame should go on the leader,

23:15but how much of it is on finding your passion?

23:19How much is it on the individual?

23:21And allowing yourself to pursue that passion,

23:24pushing yourself to your limits,

23:26to really take concrete steps

23:30along your path towards that passion.

23:33Yeah, there's mutual responsibility.

23:34There's mutual accountability.

23:35I mean, we're responsible as individuals

23:37to find the organizations and find the leaders

23:39that inspire us.

23:41And organizations are responsible for maintaining

23:43that flame and giving people who believe

23:46what they believed, you know, a chance to contribute.

23:50Sort of to linger on it,

23:51have you by chance seen the movie Whiplash?

23:54Yes.

23:56Again, maybe I'm romanticizing suffering.

23:59Again. It's the Russian in you.

24:00It's the Russian. Yeah.

24:01The Russians love suffering.

24:03But for people who haven't seen,

24:07the movie Whiplash has a drum instructor

24:10that pushes the drum musician to his limits

24:16to bring out the best in him.

24:18And there's a toxic nature to it.

24:20There's suffering in it.

24:21Like you've worked with a lot of great leaders,

24:24a lot of great individuals.

24:25So is that toxic relationship as toxic

24:29as it appears in the movie?

24:30Or is that fundamental?

24:31I've seen that relationship,

24:33especially in the past with Olympic athletes,

24:36especially in athletics, extreme performers

24:39seem to do wonders.

24:40It does wonders for me.

24:42There's some of my best relationships,

24:44now I'm not representative of everyone certainly,

24:47but some of my best relationships for mentee and mentor

24:51have been toxic from an external perspective.

24:56What do you make of that movie?

24:57What do you make of that kind of relationship?

25:00That's not my favorite movie.

25:04Okay, so you don't think that's a healthy,

25:06you don't think that kind of relationship

25:08is a great example of a great leader?

25:11No, I think it's a short term strategy.

25:13I mean, short term.

25:13I mean, look, being hard on someone

25:15is not the same as toxicity.

25:18If you go to the Marine Corps,

25:21a drill instructor will be very hard on their Marines.

25:26And then, but still, even on the last day of bootcamp,

25:29they'll take their hat off and they'll become a human.

25:32But of all the drill instructors,

25:34you know, the three or four main drill instructors

25:38assigned to a group of recruits,

25:40the one that they all want the respect of

25:42is the one that's the hardest on them.

25:44That's true.

25:45And you hear, you know,

25:47there's plenty of stories of people

25:48who want to earn the respect of a hard parent

§04Transcript · 25:50–34:14

25:50or a hard teacher.

25:53But fundamental, that parent, that teacher,

25:55that drill instructor has to believe in that person,

25:57has to see potential in them.

25:58It's not a formula,

25:59which is if I'm hard on people, they'll do well,

26:01which is there has to still be love.

26:04It has to be done with absolute love.

26:05And it has to be done responsibly.

26:08I mean, some people can take

26:09a little more pressure than others,

26:11but it's not, I think it's irresponsible

26:13to think of it as a formula

26:15that if I'm just toxic at people, they will do well.

26:20It depends on their personalities.

26:21First of all, it works for some, but not all.

26:23And second of all, it can't be done willy nilly.

26:27It has to still be done with care and love.

26:29And sometimes you can get equal or better results

26:36without all of the toxicity.

26:37So one of the, I guess toxicity on my part

26:41was a really bad word to use,

26:43but if we talk about what makes a good leader

26:46and just look at an example in particular,

26:49looking at Elon Musk,

26:51he's known to push people to their limits

26:54in a way that I think really challenges people

27:01in a way they've never been challenged before

27:03to do the impossible.

27:04But it can really break people.

27:07And jobs was hard and Amazon is hard.

27:11But the thing that's important is none of them lie about it.

27:15People ask me about Amazon all the time.

27:16Like Jeff Bezos never lied about it.

27:18Even the ones who like Amazon don't last

27:20more than a couple of years before they burn out.

27:22But when we're honest about the culture,

27:25then it gives people the opportunity

27:26who like to work in that kind of culture

27:28to choose to work in that kind of culture,

27:29as opposed to pretending and saying,

27:31oh no, this is all, it's all lovey lovey here.

27:34And then you show up and it's the furthest thing from it.

27:37So, I mean, I think the reputations

27:41of putting a lot of pressure on people to,

27:44jobs was not an easy man to work for.

27:48He pushed people, but everyone who worked there

27:50was given the space to create and do things

27:52that they would not have been able to do anywhere else

27:54and work at a level that they didn't work anywhere else.

27:56And jobs didn't have all the answers.

27:58I mean, he pushed his people to come up with answers.

28:02He wasn't just looking for people to execute his ideas.

28:07And people did, people accomplished more

28:09than they thought they were capable of, which is wonderful.

28:12How do you, you're talking about the infinite game

28:16and not thinking about too short term.

28:19And yet you see some of the most brilliant people

28:22in the world being pushed by Elam us

28:24to accomplish some of the most incredible things.

28:27When we're talking about autopilot,

28:28when we're talking about some of the hardware engineering,

28:32and they do some of the best work of their life

28:35and then leave.

28:37How do you balance that in terms of what it takes

28:40to be a good leader,

28:41what it takes to accomplish great things in your life?

28:44So I think there's a difference between someone

28:49who can get a lot out of people in the short term

28:52and building an organization

28:53that can sustain beyond any individual.

28:57There's a difference.

28:58When you say beyond any individual,

28:59you mean beyond like if the leader dies.

29:03Correct.

29:03Like could Tesla continue to do what it's doing

29:05without Elon Musk?

29:08And you're perhaps implying,

29:10which is a very interesting question that it cannot.

29:13I don't know.

29:15You know, the argument you're making

29:16of this person who pushes everyone

29:20arguably is not a repeatable model, right?

29:23You know, is Apple the same without Steve Jobs

29:25or is it slowly moving in a different direction?

29:29Or has he established something

29:31that could be resurrected with the right leader?

29:34That was his dream, I think,

29:35is to build an organization that lives on beyond them.

29:39At least I remember reading that somewhere.

29:40I think that's what a lot of leaders desire,

29:44which is to create something that was bigger than them.

29:47You know, most businesses, most entrepreneurial ventures

29:51could not pass the school bus test,

29:54which is if the founder was hit by a school bus,

29:57would everyone continue the business without them

29:58or would they all just go find jobs?

30:01And the vast majority of companies would fail that test,

30:04you know, especially in the entrepreneurial world

30:08that if you take the inspired visionary leader away,

30:11the whole thing collapses.

30:12So is that a business

30:13or is that just a force of personality?

30:15And a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, face that reality,

30:19which is they have to be in every meeting,

30:20make every decision, you know, come up with every idea,

30:24because if they don't, who will?

30:25And the question is, is, well,

30:27what have you done to build your bench?

30:31Is it, it's not, sometimes it's ego,

30:33the belief that only I can.

30:35Sometimes it's just things got,

30:39did so well for so long that just forgot.

30:43And sometimes it's a failure

30:48to build the training programs or hire the right people

30:51that could replace you,

30:53who are maybe smarter and better.

30:58And browbeating people is only one strategy.

31:01I don't think it's necessarily the only strategy,

31:03nor is it always the best strategy.

31:05I think people get to choose the cultures

31:07they wanna work in.

31:07This is why I think companies should be honest

31:12about the kind of culture that they've created.

31:16You know, I heard a story about Apple

31:18where somebody came in from a big company,

31:21you know, he had accomplished a lot

31:23and his ego was very large

31:26and he was going on about how he did this and he did that

31:28and he did this and he did that.

31:30And somebody from Apple said,

31:32we don't care what you've done.

31:34The question is, what are you gonna do?

31:36And that's, you know, for somebody who wants to be pushed,

31:41that's the place you go because you choose to be pushed.

31:45Now, we all wanna be pushed to some degree,

31:47you know, anybody who wants to, you know,

31:49accomplish anything in this world

31:50wants to be pushed to some degree,

31:51whether it's through self pressure or external pressure

31:55or, you know, public pressure, whatever it is.

31:59But I think this whole idea of one size fits all

32:02is a false narrative of how leadership works,

32:05but what all leadership requires is creating an environment

32:08in which people can work at their natural best.

32:10But you have a sense that it's possible

32:12to create a business where it lives on beyond you.

32:17So if we look at now,

32:19if we just look at this current moment,

32:21I just recently talked to Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter,

32:25and he's under a lot of pressure now.

32:26I don't know if you're aware of the news

32:28that he's being pushed out as a potential CEO of Twitter

32:31because he's the CEO already

32:33of an incredibly successful company

32:35plus he wants to go to Africa to live a few months in Africa

32:39to connect with the world that's outside of the Silicon Valley

32:43and sort of, there's this idea,

32:45well, can Twitter live without Jack?

32:48We'll find out.

32:50But you have a general, as a student of great leadership,

32:55you have a general sense that it's possible.

32:57Yeah, of course it's possible.

32:58I mean, what Bill Gates built with Microsoft

33:01may not have survived Steve Ballmer

33:04if the company weren't so rich,

33:06but Sachin Ardala is putting it back on track again.

33:11It's become a visionary company again.

33:12It's attracting great talent again.

33:14It went through a period

33:14where they couldn't get the best talent

33:16and the best talent was leaving.

33:17Now people wanna work for Microsoft again.

33:19Well, that's not because of pressure.

33:21Ballmer put more pressure on people

33:24mainly to hit numbers than anything else.

33:26That didn't work.

33:28Yes. Right?

33:30And so the question is,

33:31what kind of pressure are we putting on people?

33:33We're putting on pressure people to hit numbers

33:35or hit arbitrary deadlines,

33:38or we're putting on pressure on people

33:39because we believe that they can do better work.

33:41And the work that we're trying to do

33:44is to advance a vision that's bigger than all of us.

33:46And if you're gonna put pressure on people,

33:47it better be for the right reason.

33:49Like if you're gonna put pressure on me,

33:50it better be for a worthwhile reason.

33:52If it's just to hit a goal,

33:54if it's just to hit some arbitrary date

33:55or some arbitrary number or make a stock price

33:58hit some target, you can keep it, I'm outta here.

34:01But if you wanna put pressure on me

34:02because we are brothers and sisters in arms

34:06working to advance a cause bigger than ourselves,

34:09that we believe whatever we're gonna build

34:10will significantly contribute

34:12to the greater good of society,

§05Transcript · 34:14–37:48

34:14then go ahead, I'll take the pressure.

34:16And if you look at the Apples

34:17and if you look at the Elon Musk's,

34:23the Jobs and the Elon Musk,

34:24they fundamentally believed that what they were doing

34:26would improve society.

34:27And it was for the good of humankind.

34:31And so the pressure, in other words,

34:33what they were doing was more important,

34:36more valuable than any individual on the team.

34:39And so the pressure they put on people

34:41served a greater good.

34:42And so we looked to the left

34:45and we looked to the right to each other and said,

34:47we're in this together.

34:49We accept this, we want this.

34:51But if it's just pressure to hit a number

34:54or make the widget move a little faster,

35:01that's soul sucking.

35:03That's not passion, that's stress.

35:06And I think a lot of leaders confuse

35:11that making people work hard

35:12is not what makes them passionate.

35:15Giving to them something to believe in

35:17and work on is what drives passion.

35:20And when you have that, then turning up the pressure

35:23only brings people together,

35:26drives them further.

35:27If done the right way.

35:28If done the right way.

35:30Speaking of pressure,

35:32I'm gonna give you 90 seconds to answer the last question,

35:36which is if I told you that tomorrow

35:39was your last day to live,

35:41we talked about mortality,

35:42sunrise to sunset, can you tell me,

35:45can you take me through the day?

35:46What do you think that day would involve?

35:48You can't spend it with your family,

35:50I told you as well.

35:52I would probably want to fill all of my senses

35:54with things that excite my senses.

35:59I'd want to look at beautiful art.

36:00I'd want to listen to beautiful music.

36:02I'd want to taste incredible food.

36:04I'd want to smell amazing tastes.

36:06I'd want to touch something that's beautiful to touch.

36:14I'd want all of my senses to just be consumed

36:19with things that I find beautiful.

36:21And you talked about this idea of

36:23we don't do it often these days,

36:24of just listening to music, turning off all the devices

36:27and actually taking in and listening to music.

36:29So as an addendum,

36:33if we were to talk about music,

36:34what song would you be blasting

36:36on this last day you're alive?

36:38Is it Led Zeppelin?

36:39What are we talking about?

36:39That I love.

36:40No, no.

36:41There's probably gonna be a Beatles song in there.

36:42There'll definitely be some Beethoven in there.

36:46The classics.

36:47The classics.

36:48Yeah, exactly.

36:49Well, thank you so much for talking today.

36:51Thank you for making time for it.

36:53Under pressure, we made it happen.

36:55It was great.

36:56Thanks for listening to this conversation

36:58with Simon Sinek.

36:59And thank you to our sponsors, Cash App and Masterclass.

37:03Please consider supporting the podcast

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37:14If you enjoy this podcast, subscribe on YouTube,

37:17review it with five stars on Apple Podcast,

37:19support it on Patreon,

37:21or simply connect with me on Twitter at Lex Friedman.

37:25And now let me leave you with some words from Simon Sinek.

37:29There are only two ways to influence human behavior.

37:32You can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

37:35Thank you for listening and hope to see you next time.

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