Simon Sinek

Early life and education

Sinek was born in Wimbledon on 9 October 1973. His mother is Jewish and of Hungarian Jewish descent. As a child, he lived in Johannesburg, London, and Hong Kong before his family settled in the United States. He graduated in 1991 from Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest in Bergen County, New Jersey and earned a BA in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University, then studied law at City, University of London.

Career

Sinek began his career at the New York ad agencies Euro RSCG and Ogilvy & Mather, then launched his own business, Sinek Partners.

Simon defines himself as an "optimist". As a motivational speaker, Sinek has spoken at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in 2016, and at TEDx conferences several times, beginning in 2009. His 2010 "How Great Leaders Inspire Action", arising out of his first book, Start with Why, is one of the most-viewed TED talks, and his following book, Leaders Eat Last, appeared on the bestseller lists of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

In June 2018, The Young Turks reported a $98,000 no-bid contract from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for leadership training by Sinek, which was provided by Ernst & Young. Sinek has also been an instructor of strategic communications at Columbia University, and an adjunct staff member of the RAND Corporation.

In November 2018, Publishers Weekly reported that Sinek would start Optimism Press, a new imprint of Penguin Random House. He subsequently launched The Optimism Company, a digital learning platform.

Publications

Sinek has published five books:

• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2009. .
• Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2014. .
• Together Is Better: A Little Book of Inspiration. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2016. .
• Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2017. .
• The Infinite Game. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2019. .

References

References

1. "Uncovering The Truth Behind Simon Sinek's Wife".
2. Chananie, Beth Janoff. (2013-03-15). "Helping prepare for the seder ... and beyond: new cookbooks for Passover".
3. (February 11, 2013). "Superintendent's blog: Simon Sinek Returns to NVD". Northern Valley Regional High School.
4. (January 6, 2017). "Simon Sinek: To grow your business, let go". Director.
5. (18 May 2018). "Simon Sinek: How Do Great Leaders Inspire Us To Take Action?".
6. "Programme".
7. (December 8, 2016). "An Inspiring Discussion With Simon Sinek About Learning Your 'Why'". Entrepreneur.
8. Ferris, Luke. (January 26, 2023). "Simon Sinek: Who's the Man Behind the Personal Brand?". Foundr.
9. (June 26, 2018). "ICE Paid Famous Motivational Speaker for 'Leadership Training'".
10. "Award Summary, PIID 70CMSD18P00000045".
11. (May 16, 2012). "Instructor Simon Sinek Featured by 99%". Columbia University School of Professional Studies.
12. "RAND Corporation Staff Directory".
13. Maher, John. (November 15, 2018). "Portfolio to Launch New Imprint".
14. Kauflin, Jeff. (June 20, 2017). "The Year's Five Bestselling Leadership Books, And Why They're So Great". Forbes.
15. Burnett, Jane. (August 23, 2017). "Millennials are telling you why your company stinks but you're not listening: a Q&A with Simon Sinek". Ladders.
16. Congdon, Chris. (January 14, 2020). "Simon Sinek's New Game".