In his TED Talk that has been watched over 53 million times, Simon Sinek shares his story of the Golden Circle and the importance of “starting with why” instead of automatically beginning with the “how” or the “what.” He gives several examples of why switching the order of your message can make it inherently more powerful.
One of the examples he uses is the namesake of today’s holiday. “Why did Martin Luther King, Jr. lead the civil rights movement?” Sinek asks. “He wasn’t the only man who suffered in pre-civil rights America and he certainly wasn’t the only great orator of the day. Why him?” Sinek’s answer is that all the great and inspiring leaders in the world, including King, “think, act and communicate” by first focusing on the “why” in their messages and making that their central theme.
“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here,” King wrote in his letter from jail. “…I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
King’s message is as powerful today as it was when he wrote it in 1963. May it serve to help us become more united as a country by embracing King’s “why” and working to preserve our interdependence instead of posturing to advance only our own cause.
