How do you explain when things don't go aswe assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able toachieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? Forexample: Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year, after year, they'remore innovative than all their competition. And yet, they're just acomputer company. They're just like everyone else. They have the sameaccess to the same talent, the same agencies, the same consultants, thesame media. Then why is it that they seem to have somethingdifferent? Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil RightsMovement? He wasn't the only man who suffered in pre-civil rightsAmerica, and he certainly wasn't the only great orator of theday. Why him? And why is it that the Wright brothers were ableto figure out controlled, powered man flight when there were certainlyother teams who were better qualified, better funded -- and theydidn't achieve powered man flight, and the Wright brothers beat them toit. There's something else at play here.

About three and a half years ago, I made adiscovery. And this discovery profoundly changed my view on how I thoughtthe world worked, and it even profoundly changed the way in which Ioperate in it. As it turns out, there's a pattern. As it turns out,all the great inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, whether it'sApple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers, they all think, actand communicate the exact same way. And it's the complete opposite toeveryone else. All I did was codify it, and it's probably the world'ssimplest idea. I call it the golden circle. 

Why? How? What? This little ideaexplains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire whereothers aren't. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every singleperson, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it yourdifferentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or yourUSP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what theydo. And by "why" I don't mean "to make aprofit." That's a result. It's always a result. By"why," I mean: What's your purpose? What's your cause? What'syour belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out ofbed in the morning? And why should anyone care? As a result, the waywe think, we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in, it'sobvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But theinspired leaders and the inspired organizations -- regardless of theirsize, regardless of their industry -- all think, act and communicate fromthe inside out.

Let me give you an example. I useApple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it. If Applewere like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound likethis: "We make great computers. They're beautifully designed,simple to use and user friendly. Want to buyone?" "Meh." That's how most of us communicate. That'show most marketing and sales are done, that's how we communicateinterpersonally. We say what we do, we say how we're different orbetter and we expect some sort of a behavior, a purchase, a vote,something like that. Here's our new law firm: We have the bestlawyers with the biggest clients, we always perform for ourclients. Here's our new car: It gets great gas mileage, it hasleather seats. Buy our car. But it's uninspiring.

Here's how Apple actuallycommunicates. "Everything we do, we believe in challenging the statusquo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the statusquo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use anduser friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buyone?" Totally different, right? You're ready to buy a computerfrom me. I just reversed the order of the information. What it provesto us is that people don't buy what you do; people buy why you do it.

This explains why every single person inthis room is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple. Butwe're also perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple, or aphone from Apple, or a DVR from Apple. As I said before, Apple's justa computer company. Nothing distinguishes them structurally from any oftheir competitors. Their competitors are equally qualified to make all ofthese products. In fact, they tried. A few years ago, Gateway cameout with flat-screen TVs. They're eminently qualified to make flat-screenTVs. They've been making flat-screen monitors for years. Nobodybought one. Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs, and they makegreat quality products, and they can make perfectly well-designed products-- and nobody bought one. In fact, talking about it now, we can'teven imagine buying an MP3 player from Dell. Why would you buy onefrom a computer company? But we do it every day. People don't buywhat you do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business witheverybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with peoplewho believe what you believe.

Here's the best part: None of what I'mtelling you is my opinion. It's all grounded in the tenets of biology. Notpsychology, biology. If you look at a cross-section of the humanbrain, from the top down, the human brain is actually broken intothree major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Ournewest brain, our Homo sapien brain, our neocortex, corresponds withthe "what" level. The neocortex is responsible for all ofour rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two sectionsmake up our limbic brains, and our limbic brains are responsible for allof our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible forall human behavior, all decision-making, and it has no capacity forlanguage.

In other words, when we communicate fromthe outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicatedinformation like features and benefits and facts and figures. It justdoesn't drive behavior. When we can communicate from the inside out, we'retalking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior, andthen we allow people to rationalize it with the tangible things we say anddo. This is where gut decisions come from. Sometimes you can givesomebody all the facts and figures, and they say, "I know what allthe facts and details say, but it just doesn't feel right." Whywould we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right? Because thepart of the brain that controls decision-making doesn't controllanguage. The best we can muster up is, "I don't know. It justdoesn't feel right." Or sometimes you say you're leading with yourheart or soul. I hate to break it to you, those aren't other bodyparts controlling your behavior. It's all happening here in yourlimbic brain, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and notlanguage.

But if you don't know why you do what youdo, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will youever get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, moreimportantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do. Thegoal is not just to sell to people who need what you have; the goal is tosell to people who believe what you believe. The goal is not just to hirepeople who need a job; it's to hire people who believe what youbelieve. I always say that, you know, if you hire people just becausethey can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if they believe whatyou believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears. Nowhereelse is there a better example than with the Wright brothers.

Most people don't know about SamuelPierpont Langley. And back in the early 20th century, the pursuit ofpowered man flight was like the dot com of the day. Everybody was tryingit. And Samuel Pierpont Langley had, what we assume, to be the recipefor success. Even now, you ask people, "Why did your product or whydid your company fail?" and people always give you the samepermutation of the same three things: under-capitalized, the wrongpeople, bad market conditions. It's always the same three things, so let'sexplore that. Samuel Pierpont Langley was given 50,000 dollars by theWar Department to figure out this flying machine. Money was noproblem. He held a seat at Harvard and worked at the Smithsonian andwas extremely well-connected; he knew all the big minds of theday. He hired the best minds money could find and the marketconditions were fantastic. The New York Times followed him aroundeverywhere, and everyone was rooting for Langley. Then how come we'venever heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley?

A few hundred miles away in DaytonOhio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, they had none of what we consider tobe the recipe for success. They had no money; they paid for theirdream with the proceeds from their bicycle shop; not a single person onthe Wright brothers' team had a college education, not even Orvilleor Wilbur; and The New York Times followed them around nowhere.

The difference was, Orville and Wilburwere driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief. They believed that ifthey could figure out this flying machine, it'll change the course of theworld. Samuel Pierpont Langley was different. He wanted to be rich,and he wanted to be famous. He was in pursuit of the result. He was inpursuit of the riches. And lo and behold, look what happened. Thepeople who believed in the Wright brothers' dream worked with them withblood and sweat and tears. The others just worked for thepaycheck. They tell stories of how every time the Wright brothers wentout, they would have to take five sets of parts, because that's howmany times they would crash before supper.

And, eventually, on December 17th,1903, the Wright brothers took flight, and no one was there to evenexperience it. We found out about it a few days later. And furtherproof that Langley was motivated by the wrong thing: The day the Wrightbrothers took flight, he quit. He could have said, "That'san amazing discovery, guys, and I will improve upon your technology,"but he didn't. He wasn't first, he didn't get rich, he didn't get famous,so he quit.

People don't buy what you do; they buy whyyou do it. If you talk about what you believe, you will attract thosewho believe what you believe.

But why is it important to attract thosewho believe what you believe? Something called the law of diffusion ofinnovation, if you don't know the law, you know the terminology. Thefirst 2.5% of our population are our innovators. The next 13.5% of ourpopulation are our early adopters. The next 34% are your earlymajority, your late majority and your laggards. The only reason thesepeople buy touch-tone phones is because you can't buy rotary phonesanymore.

We all sit at various places at varioustimes on this scale, but what the law of diffusion of innovation tellsus is that if you want mass-market success or mass-market acceptance of anidea, you cannot have it until you achieve this tipping point between15 and 18 percent market penetration, and then the system tips. Ilove asking businesses, "What's your conversion on newbusiness?" They love to tell you, "It's about 10 percent,"proudly. Well, you can trip over 10% of the customers. We all haveabout 10% who just "get it." That's how we describe them,right? That's like that gut feeling, "Oh, they just get it."

The problem is: How do you find the onesthat get it before doing business versus the ones who don't getit? So it's this here, this little gap that you have to close, asJeffrey Moore calls it, "Crossing the Chasm" -- because, yousee, the early majority will not try something until someone else hastried it first. And these guys, the innovators and the earlyadopters, they're comfortable making those gut decisions. They're morecomfortable making those intuitive decisions that are driven by what theybelieve about the world and not just what product is available. Theseare the people who stood in line for six hours to buy an iPhone when theyfirst came out, when you could have bought one off the shelf the nextweek. These are the people who spent 40,000 dollars on flat-screenTVs when they first came out, even though the technology wassubstandard. And, by the way, they didn't do it because the technology wasso great; they did it for themselves. It's because they wanted to befirst. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it and whatyou do simply proves what you believe. In fact, people will do the thingsthat prove what they believe. The reason that person bought the iPhone inthe first six hours, stood in line for six hours, was because of whatthey believed about the world, and how they wanted everybody to see them: Theywere first. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

So let me give you a famous example, afamous failure and a famous success of the law of diffusion ofinnovation. First, the famous failure. It's a commercialexample. As we said before, the recipe for successis money and the rightpeople and the right market conditions. You should have successthen. Look at TiVo. From the time TiVo came out about eight or nineyears ago to this current day, they are the single highest-qualityproduct on the market, hands down, there is no dispute. They wereextremely well-funded. Market conditions were fantastic. I mean, weuse TiVo as verb. I TiVo stuff on my piece-of-junk Time Warner DVR all thetime.

But TiVo's a commercial failure. They'venever made money. And when they went IPO, their stock was at about 30or 40 dollars and then plummeted, and it's never traded above 10. Infact, I don't think it's even traded above six, except for a couple oflittle spikes.

Because you see, when TiVo launched theirproduct, they told us all what they had. They said, "We have aproduct that pauses live TV, skips commercials, rewinds live TV andmemorizes your viewing habits without you even asking." And thecynical majority said, "We don't believe you. We don't need it.We don't like it. You're scaring us."

What if they had said, "If you'rethe kind of person who likes to have total control over every aspect ofyour life, boy, do we have a product for you. It pauses live TV,skips commercials, memorizes your viewing habits, etc.,etc." People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it, andwhat you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.

Now let me give you a successful example ofthe law of diffusion of innovation. In the summer of 1963,250,000 peopleshowed up on the mall in Washington to hear Dr. King speak. They sentout no invitations, and there was no website to check the date. Howdo you do that? Well, Dr. King wasn't the only man in America who wasa great orator. He wasn't the only man in America who suffered in apre-civil rights America. In fact, some of his ideas were bad. But hehad a gift. He didn't go around telling people what needed to change inAmerica. He went around and told people what he believed. "Ibelieve, I believe, I believe," he told people. And people whobelieved what he believed took his cause, and they made it their own, andthey told people. And some of those people created structures to getthe word out to even more people. And lo and behold, 250,000 people showedup on the right day at the right time to hear him speak.

How many of them showed up forhim? Zero. They showed up for themselves. It's what theybelieved about America that got them to travel in a bus for eighthours to stand in the sun in Washington in the middle of August. It'swhat they believed, and it wasn't about black versus white: 25% of theaudience was white.

Dr. King believed that there are two typesof laws in this world: those that are made by a higher authority and thosethat are made by men. And not until all the laws that are made bymen are consistent with the laws made by the higher authority will welive in a just world. It just so happened that the Civil RightsMovement was the perfect thing to help him bring his cause tolife. We followed, not for him, but for ourselves. By the way, hegave the "I have a dream" speech, not the "I have aplan" speech.

Listen to politicians now, with theircomprehensive 12-point plans. They're not inspiring anybody. Because thereare leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of poweror authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they're individualsor organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we haveto, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them,but for ourselves. And it's those who start with "why" that havethe ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.

 Thank you very much.