June Book Reviews (We Are All Weird and Start with Why)

Since my May book review, I read “We Are All Weird: The Myth of Mass and The End of Compliance” by Seth Godin AND “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek. And my reviews are below.

I’d love to know 2 things in the comments:

  1. Have you read these books? What did you think?
  2. What should I read next month? If it’s already on my to-read list, it’s probably a shoe in. You can see that here.

We Are All Weird: The Myth of Mass and The End of Compliance by Seth Godin
This is a small and short book and an easy read.

I really enjoyed it. The premise being that the bell curve of “normal” has flattened out a bit. In today’s world, there are less “normal” people in the middle and more “weird” people at the edges. AND we’re all “weird” in different ways and “normal” on other ways (that’s my interpretation anyway).

I don’t have a lot to add. It’s a book that needs to be read.

Although, let me share a bit about what he says about the cover art to give you a taste:

What does it mean to be rich? Or weird?

Pictured on the cover is Jeremy, a competitor from the World Beard and mustache Competition. He’s proudly weird, and rich enough to be able to choose his passion.

‘Weird’ because they’re not like you or, perhaps more urgently, because they’re not normal in the way a marketer insists they be.

And that’s what rich creates. Rich isn’t a measure of a bank balance. No, rich means making a choice, choosing an identity and following a path that matters.

Based on that notion, we’re at our best when we’re weird, and when we’re enabling others to become weird as well…


Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
This is a book I sat with for sometimes. On occassion, I sat down and wrote for myself, for my business, my answer to a question he posed or thought about how to apply an example or idea to my business.

You can get a really great feel for what the book is about from Simon Sinek’s TED talk. If you like that, you’ll like the book too.

Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book. I’m including them because they give you a really great feel for the book.

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

Everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe. A WHY is just a belief. That’s all it is. HOWs are the actions you take to realize that belief. And WHATs are the results of those actions-everything you say and do: your products, services, marketing, PR, culture and whom you hire. If people don’t buy WHAT you do but WHY you do it, then all these things must be consistent.

…success and achievement are not the same thing, yet too often we mistake one for the other. Achievement is something you reach or attain, like a goal. It is something tangible, clearly defined and measurable. Success, in contrast, is a feeling or a state of being. ‘She feels successful. She is successful,’ we say, using the verb to be to suggest this state of being.

Success comes when we wake up everyday in that never-ending pursuit of WHY we do WHAT we do. Our achievements, WHAT we do, serve as milestones to indicate we are on the right path. It isn’t an either or-we need both.


It was another month of great book reading!

Let me know if you’ve read them and what you thought in the comments below.