things don't go as we assume?

Or better, how do you explain

when others are able to achieve things

that seem to defy all of the assumptions?

For example:

Why is Apple so innovative?

Year after year, after year, after year,

they're more innovative than all their competition.

And yet, they're just a computer company.

They're just like everyone else.

They have the same access to the same talent,

the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media.

Then why is it that they

seem to have something different?

Why is it that Martin Luther King

led the Civil Rights Movement?

He wasn't the only man

who suffered in a pre-civil rights America.

And he certainly wasn't the only great orator of the day.

Why him?

And why is it that the Wright brothers

were able to figure out control-powered, manned flight

when there were certainly other teams who were

better qualified, better funded,

and they didn't achieve powered man flight,

and the Wright brothers beat them to it.

There's something else at play here.

About three and a half years ago

I made a discovery,

and this discovery profoundly changed

my view on how I thought the world worked.

And it even profoundly changed the way in which

I operate in it.

As it turns out -- there's a pattern --

as it turns out, all the great and inspiring leaders

and organizations in the world,

whether it's Apple, or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers,

they all think, act and communicate

the exact same way.

And it's the complete opposite

to everyone else.

All I did was codify it.

And it's probably the world's

simplest idea.

I call it the golden circle.

Why? How? What?

This little idea explains

why some organizations and some leaders

are able to inspire where others aren't.

Let me define the terms really quickly.

Every single person, every single organization on the planet

knows what they do,

100 percent.

Some know how they do it,

whether you call it your differentiated value proposition

or your proprietary process or your USP.

But very, very few people or organizations

know why they do what they do.

And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit."

That's a result. It's always a result.

By "why" I mean: what's your purpose?

What's your cause? What's your belief?

Why does your organization exist?

Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

And why should anyone care?

Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act,

the way we communicate is from the outside in.

It's obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing.

But the inspired leaders

and the inspired organizations,

regardless of their size, regardless of their industry,

all think, act and communicate

from the inside out.

Let me give you an example.

I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it.

If Apple were like everyone else,

a marketing message from them might sound like this.

"We make great computers.

They're beautifully designed, simple to use

and user friendly.

Want to buy one?" Neh.

And that's how most of us communicate.

That's how most marketing is done. That's how most sales are done.

And that's how most of us communicate interpersonally.

We say what we do, we say how we're different or how we're better

and we expect some sort of a behavior,

a purchase, a vote, something like that.

Here's our new law firm.

We have the best lawyers with the biggest clients.

We always perform for our clients who do business with us.

Here's our new car.

It gets great gas mileage. It has leather seats. Buy our car.

But it's uninspiring.

Here's how Apple actually communicates.

"Everything we do,

we believe in challenging the status quo.

We believe in thinking differently.

The way we challenge the status quo

is by making our products beautifully designed,

simple to use and user friendly.

We just happen to make great computers.

Want to buy one?"

Totally different right? You're ready to buy a computer from me.

All I did was reverse the order of information.

What it proves to us is that people don't buy what you do;

people buy why you do it.

People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

This explains why

every single person in this room

is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple.

But we're also perfectly comfortable

buying an MP3 player from Apple, or a phone from Apple,

or a DVR from Apple.

But, as I said before, Apple's just a computer company.

There's nothing that distinguishes them

structurally from any of their competitors.

Their competitors are all equally qualified to make all of these products.

In fact, they tried.

A few years ago, Gateway came out with flat screen TVs.

They're eminently qualified to make flat screen TVs.

They've been making flat screen monitors for years.

Nobody bought one.

Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs.

And they make great quality products.

And they can make perfectly well-designed products.

And nobody bought one.

In fact, talking about it now, we can't even imagine

buying an MP3 player from Dell.

Why would you buy an MP3 player from a computer company?

But we do it every day.

People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

The goal is not to do business

with everybody who needs what you have.

The goal is to do business with people

who believe what you believe.

Here's the best part.

None of what I'm telling you is my opinion.

It's all grounded in the tenets of biology.

Not psychology, biology.

If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, looking from the top down,

What you see is the human brain is actually broken

into three major components

that correlate perfectly with the golden circle.

Our newest brain, our homo sapien brain,

our neocortex,

corresponds with the "what" level.

The neocortex is responsible for all of our

rational and analytical thought

and language.

The middle two sections make up our limbic brains.

And our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings,

like trust and loyalty.

It's also responsible for all human behavior,

all decision-making,

and it has no capacity for language.

In other words, when we communicate from the outside in,

yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information

like features and benefits and facts and figures.

It just doesn't drive behavior.

When we can communicate from the inside out,

we're talking directly to the part of the brain

that controls behavior,

and then we allow people to rationalize it

with the tangible things we say and do.

This is where gut decisions come from.

You know, sometimes you can give somebody

all the facts and figures,

and they say, "I know what all the facts and details say,

but it just doesn't feel right."

Why would we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right?

Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making,

doesn't control language.

And the best we can muster up is, "I don't know. It just doesn't feel right."

Or sometimes you say you're leading with your heart,