Simon Sinek: The Best Way to Run a Business Is Without an End Goal in Mind

Simon Sinek got famous answering a question with a question. The first question, posed by company leaders, was, "How do I inspire employees and customers, day after day, even beyond their appreciation of what my business does?" The author and motivational speaker's answer--also the title of his first book--was "Start with why." People will be motivated, he explained, when they understand the fundamental reason that you do what you do.

In his new book, the delightfully unsubtitled The Infinite Game, Sinek points out that running a business is a journey without a final destination. The goal is not to win but to keep playing, by which he means building an organization that can survive its leaders. That requires making decisions that sometimes impede conventional entrepreneurial imperatives, such as grow at any cost. Inc. spoke with Sinek about choices made by infinite-minded leaders.

Inc.: The operational principle in your first book is the "why." In this new work it is the "just cause." How are they different?
Simon Sinek: The difference between the "why" and the "just cause," which is the first practice of the infinite game, is that the why comes from the past. It is the sum total of who we are. It is objective and it never changes and we have only one of them. The just cause is a vision of the future. It is subjective and changeable, and you can have more than one. The infinite game is less about where we come from and more about where we are going, and understanding the world in which we operate.

Here's an example: There is a retail operation with the ambition of opening 2,000 stores in a year. They want to prove that they are hypergrowth. The problem is they are not hiring good people and taking time to train them. So, in all the stores they open, people have a terrible experience, and those stores will eventually start closing. Versus slowing down and opening 200 stores that are absolutely fantastic. Hypergrowth can actually weaken a company.

This is a journey. If we look back at our lives and some of the trials and tribulations we have been through, rarely will we say we want to go through them again. But we learned something from them. And we became better versions of ourselves because of them.