and some people see the thing

that prevents them from getting the thing that they want.

It's as if an entire generation

is standing at the foot of a mountain,

they know exactly what they want, they can see the summit,

what they can't see is the mountain.

People put Harley Davidson logos on their body

to say something about who they are, corporate logo.

Ain't not Proctor and Gambles tattooed on anybody's arm.

Passion is the feeling you have

that you would probably do this for free,

you know, and you can't believe somebody pays you to do it.

- He's an author, speaker, and consultant

who writes on leadership and management.

He joined the Rand Corporation in 2010

where he advises our military innovation and planning.

He's known for popularizing the concepts

of the golden circle, and to start with why.

He's Simon Sinek, and here's my take

on his top 10 rules for success.

Rule number six is my personal favorite,

and make sure to stick around all the way to the end

for some special bonus clips, and as always,

if Simon says something that really,

really resonates with you, please leave it

in the comments below and put quotes around it

so other people can be inspired as well.

(electronic whooshing)

(upbeat instrumental music)

Let me tell you a story.

So a friend of mine and I,

we went for a run in Central Park.

The Road Runner's Organization,

on the weekends they host races.

And it's very common, at the end of the race

they'll have a sponsor who will give away something,

apples or bagels, or something.

And on this particular day when we got to

the end of the run there were some free bagels,

and they had picnic tables set up,

and on one side was a group of volunteers.

On the table were boxes of bagels,

and on the other side was a long line of runners

waiting to get their free bagel.

So I said to my friend, "Let's get a bagel."

And he looked at me and said, "Nah, that line's too long."

And I said, "Free bagel."

And he said, "I don't want to wait in line."

And I was like, "Free bagel."

(audience laughing)

And he said, "Nah, it's too long!"

And that's when I realized that

there's two ways to see the world.

Some people see the thing that they want,

and some people see the thing that prevents them

from getting the thing that they want.

I could only see the bagels.

He could only see the line.

(audience laughing)

And so I walked up to the line,

I leaned in between two people,

put my hand in the box, and pulled out two bagels.

And no one got mad at me, because the rule is

you can go after whatever you want,

you just cannot deny anyone else

to go after whatever they want.

Now I had to sacrifice choice,

I didn't get to choose which bagel I got,

I got whatever I pulled out,

but I didn't have to wait in line.

So the point is, you don't have to wait in line.

You don't have to do it the way everybody else has done it.

You can do it your way, you can break the rules,

you just can't get in the way of

somebody else getting what they want.

That's rule number one.

Performing under pressure, whether it's me,

or anybody else is, is the same.

You know, I have the same pressures as anyone else,

there's time, there's performance,

there's financial, I mean, there are,

you know, there's deadlines.

My pressures are not unique.

The situations may be different, or, you know,

but everybody has the same kinds of pressures.

But what I found, or what I find fascinating,

is the interpretation for the stimuli,

if, let me explain.

So I was watching the Olympics,

this last summer Olympics, and I was amazed

at how bad the questions were that

the reporters would ask all the athletes.

And almost always they would ask the same question,

whether they were about to compete,

or after they competed: "Were you nervous?"

Right?

And to a T, all the athletes went, "No."

Right?

And what I realized, is it's not that they're not nervous,

it's their interpretation of what's

happening in their bodies, I mean,

what happens when you're nervous?

Right?

Your heart rate starts to go, (sighs) you're,

you know, you sort of get a little tense,

you get a little sweaty, right?

You have expectation of what's coming,

and we interpret that as "I'm nervous."

Now what's the interpretation of excited?

Your heart rate starts to go, you become,

you're anticipating what's coming, right?

You get a little sort of like, tense,

it's all the same thing, it's the same stimuli.

Except these athletes, these Olympic quality athletes

have learned to interpret the stimuli

that the rest of us would say is "nervous" as "excited."

They all said the same thing,

"No, I'm not nervous, I'm excited."

And so I've actually practiced it just to tell myself

when I start to get nervous, that this is excitement.

- Yeah. - You know?

And so where when you-- I used to speak in front

of a large audience, and somebody would say,

"How do you feel?"

And I used to say, "A little nervous."

Now when somebody says, "How do you feel?"

I'm like, "Pretty excited, actually!"

And it came from just sort of telling myself,

"No, no, no, this is excitement."

And it becomes a little bit automatic later on.

But it's kind of a remarkable thing,

to deal with pressure by interpreting what your body

is experiencing as excitement rather than nerves.

And it's really kind of effective,

it makes you want to rush forward rather than pull back,

and yet it's the same experience.

I talk to so many smart, fantastic, ambitious, idealistic,

hardworking kids, and they're right out of college,

they're in their entry-level jobs,

and I'll ask them, "How's it goin'?"

And they'll say, "I think I'm going to quit."

And I'm like, "Why?"

And they say to me, "I'm not making an impact."

I'm like, "You know you've been here eight months, right?"

(audience laughing)

They treat the sense of fulfillment,

or even love, like it's a scavenger hunt,

like it's something you look for.

My millennial friends, they've gone through so many jobs,

they're either getting fired, I mean, it was mutual.

(audience laughing)

Or they're quitting because they're not making an impact,

or they're not finding the thing they're looking for,

they're not feeling fulfilled, as if it's a scavenger hunt.

Love, a job you find joy from,

is not something you discover!

It's not like, "I found love!"

Here it is.

"I found a job I love", that's not how it works.

Both of those things require hard work,

you are in love because you work very hard

every single day of your life to stay in love.

You find a job that brings you ultimate joy

because you work hard every single day

to serve those around you, and you maintain that joy,

it's not a discovery!

But the problem is the sense of impatience!

It's as if an entire generation

is standing at the foot of a mountain,

they know exactly what they want, they can see the summit,

what they can't see is the mountain.

This large, immovable object.

That doesn't mean you have to do your time,

that's not what I'm talking about.

Take a helicopter, climb, I don't care,

but there's still a mountain.

Life, career fulfillment, relationships, are journeys.

The problem is, this entire generation

has an institutionalized sense of impatience,

and do they have the patience to go on the journey

to maintain love, to feel fulfilled,

or do they just quit, and on to the next,

dump, and on to the next?

Ghost, and on to the next.

In the eighteenth century there was something

that spread across Europe and eventually

made it's way to America, called Puerperal fever,

also known as the 'black death of childbed'.

Basically what was happening is women were giving birth

and they would die within 48 hours after giving birth.

This black death of childbirth was the ravage of Europe

and it got worse, and worse, and worse

over the course of over a century.

In some hospitals it was high as 70% of women who gave birth

who would die as a result of giving birth.

But this was the Renaissance, this was the time

of empirical data and science, and we had thrown away

things like tradition and mysticism.

These were men of science, these were doctors.

And these doctors and men of science

wanted to study and try and find the reason

for this black death of childbed,

and so they got to work studying.

They would study the corpses of the women who had died,

and in the morning they would conduct autopsies,

and then in the afternoon they would go

and deliver babies and finish their rounds.

And it wasn't until somewhere in the mid 1800's

that Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes,

father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,

realized, that all of these doctors

who were conducting autopsies in the morning

weren't washing their hands before

they delivered babies in the afternoon.

And he pointed it out, and said, "Guys, you're the problem."

And they ignored him, and called him crazy, for 30 years.

Until finally somebody realized

that if they simply washed their hands, it would go away.

And that's exactly what happened.

When they started sterilizing their instruments

and washing their hands,

the black death of childbed disappeared.

My point is, the lesson here is,

sometimes, you're the problem.

(audience laughing)

We've seen this happen all too recently

with our new men of science and empirical studiers,

and these men of finance,

who are smarter than the rest of us

until the thing collapsed.

And they blamed everything else except themselves.

And my point is take accountability for your actions.

You can take all the credit in the world

for the things that you do right,

as long as you also take responsibility

for the things you do wrong, it must be a balanced equation.

You don't get it one way and not the other,

you get to take credit when you also take accountability.

I spoke at an education summit for Microsoft,

I also spoke at an education summit for Apple.

At the education summit for Microsoft,

I would say that 70% of the executives

spent about 70% of their presentations

talking about how to beat Apple.

(audience laughing)

At the Apple education summit 100% of the executives

spent 100% of their presentations

talking about how to help teachers teach,