"Because they would have done it for me." - Leaders Eat Last Book Launch

"Because they would have done it for me." - Leaders Eat Last Book Launch by Simon Sinek. The highly anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed bestseller Start With Why Simon Sinek's mission is to help people wake up every day inspired to go to work and return home every night fulfilled by their work.

I know it's traditional to read from the book but, that's boring what I would do is just share some stories and I can answer some questions on how this book came to be and and why there's even another book.

This book was very very very difficult. The book was actually due September of 2012 and I knew that I was going to be late and I remember sitting down I had lunch with Adrian and I had to tell him I was gonna miss my contractual deadline you know where if you missed the deadline you give all the money back and nothing you know and this is what I said to him these were exact words I said the time it's taking me to understand this idea does not correspond with the arbitrary date you put in my contract so he said I can have until December and ten months later I had it in the book and the reason this book was difficult is because it took three significant turns.

The book that I set out to write is not the book that ended up writing because I cannot learning more and more and more that was profoundly impacting me the way I lived my life the way I saw the world the way I perceived the way organizations functioned and I had to try and capture that in pass pass on what I was learning here's where the book came from I've had the great privilege of spending time with our United States military they're pretty special human beings and I got to meet what we call heroes and people who did risk their lives to save others.

I got to meet some of them and I'll tell you one story and it's the it's the it's the opening story of the book so if you buy the book you can just get the date was August 16th 2002 and there was a team of special operations forces 22 special operations forces working their way through a valley in Afghanistan they were extracting what the government calls a high-value target it was very cloudy dark night no stars were out the clouds were thick and these special operations forces in the ground felt nervous they could sense something bad was gonna happen they could just feel it in their bones high above the clouds were two a-10 warthogs which are slow flying heavily armored aircraft designed to provide low ground support for the troops on the ground.

They basically fly around and you know help out the troops on the ground one of the pilots in one of the a-10 that night has a cosine Johnny Bravo yes he stands like this Johnny Bravo the only contact he had with them was over the radio he could sense their nerves not sure he made a decision to go down below the clouds to have a look you told his wingman just hang out up here I'm gonna go down and take a look and so he points his plane down into the clouds turbulence it throws him about and when he just sees he's been through the clouds the call came over the radio the troops radioed up to him troops in contact and that's what they say when they come under effective fire in other words bad things are happening.

So, now there's no question Johnny Bravo had to get down there he makes his way down through the clouds when he eventually pops out beneath the clouds he's less than thousand feet off the ground few hundred feet off the ground in the valley that's maybe a mile mile and a half at its widest this is only 2002 and we didn't yet have ground-hugging radar and so he had to his old Russian Maps that's what we were using back then old Russian maps he knew his speed and he knew his distance and traveling at about 400 miles an hour counted out loud to himself before he hit a cliff he trained his guns and where he saw this tracer fire coming from it and the sight that greeted him is such thing like he'd never even seen in the movies he's just so much fire raining on these guys in the middle.

He just picked a point just tried to suppress the fire and counter that loud one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand four one thousand before he pulls hard on his stick and goes around again one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand four one thousand again closes haiji turn and goes around again one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand four one thousand runs out of ammunition fuel is good runs out of ammunition points his plane up goes to the top of the clouds and tells his wingman you need to get back down there then the wingman says ok Johnny Bravo says follow me the two of them go back down again they're flying three feet apart from each other wing to wing three feet back into the valley Johnny Bravo counts and his wingman down lays down the suppressive fire one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand four one thousand five others and again one thousand two one thousand three one thousand four one thousand five hundred.

That night twenty two Americans went home with zero casualties somebody told me the story as I was driving across Hulbert field down in Pensacola Florida redneck Riviera now we get to where we were going to tell us we were going to and we walk in and there's a guy standing at the coffee machine and my friend goes oh I want you to meet somebody this is Johnny Bravo I literally met him five minutes after I heard this story coincidentally I got to talking to Johnny Bravo and I asked him why why why would you do that like why would you risk your life to save others and his answer is the same as everyone who risks their life to save others it's the same in the military they all say the same thing because they would have done it for me he goes on to tell me that there are fates worse than death one fate worse than death exacts it ugly killing your own men another fate worse than death is going home alive 122 don't do the question I asked myself getting to spend the time with these and remarkable human beings is why are they like that?

Like where did these people come from you know in the military they give medals to people who are willing to sacrifice themselves that others may gain in business we give bonuses to people who are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain that every single one of us has the capacity to be like Johnny Bravo better every single person with whom we work has the capacity to be like Johnny Bravo in other words when you're struggling when you're in pain when you don't think you can do well you're not sure you can make the deadline when you're when you have something going on at home that's distracting you that someone sitting next to you says I got your back and the only reason they do it is because they know you do the same for them and that's what this book is about that's what I found out about it's about the environment and leaders set the tone and by the way leadership has nothing to do with rank.

Either you can be the head of the organization and not be a leader and you can be at the bottom of the organization I just noticed something I'll tell you in a minute tell you two things and you can be at the bottom of the organization to absolutely be a leader leadership is a choice and is the choice to look after the person to the left of you and the person to the right of you that's all it is the closest thing the closest example I can I can give you to what a leader truly is it's like a parent every parent wants to see their kids grow up to be strong they want to provide education and opportunity discipline them unnecessary and they would always feed their children before they feed themselves that's what leadership.

It's the commitment to put others before yourself that's all it is and when it matters being willing to give up the perks you afforded as a leader so that others may prevail that's all it is this experience and writing this book is the hardest thing I've ever done and my my fear is that I haven't captured what I learned in the book accurately you know the full capacity so I hope you get out of it as much as I did in writing it so thank you very very much you get done you stand like this Johnny Bravo it's people like this that I've had the great honour to meet that they inspire me touch there