Golden Capitalism

I’m going to be honest, I felt like a bit of a cynic watching Simon Sinek’s TedTalk on How Great Leaders Inspire Action because it reminded me of why I changed my major from communications to secondary education in 2013. I have always felt discomfort when watching or reading things that are made by and targeted at business-minded people. So, as a teacher, I am interested in thinking about “The Golden Circle” hypothesis as it pertains to my pedagogy. But I feel deeply unsettled watching someone teach business people how to essentially manipulate people into consuming things more efficiently. 

Sinek explains that all of the most inspired people start with their why and then work towards their what. All of the examples he gave were positive ones -Apple, MLK Jr, the Wright brothers, etc. Conveniently, he left out any negative examples. But The Golde Circle strongly reminded me of how MLMs (Multi-Level Marketing companies, AKA,  thinly veiled pyramid schemes) operate. During my first year of teaching, an MLM called Vemma Nutrition swept through colleges and high schools and many of my students fell prey to their tactics. They had a what -a product, sort of, but that was not important. Nor was how the product was sold. Their why, however, was brilliant. They found a charismatic young guy named Alex Morton who gave motivational speeches about how young adults could “own their own business” and “be their own boss” and live a “healthy, fun, fit lifestyle” - rarely did he even mention the product (mostly a “nutritional” energy drinks called Verve) because the product didn’t matter because as Sinek explains well, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” 

Verve’s business model was lucrative for its upper management and catastrophic for its “employees.”  Recruiting others is the only way to make money (not selling the actual product). This company, like many other similar companies (beachbody, Herbalife, Pampered Chef, ITWorks, etc) works by selling a story -the “American Dream”- and manipulating vulnerable populations.  The biggest issue is that over 90 percent of people who join MLMs actually lose money by the time they decide to quit. 

While Sinek might have an interesting theory with his “Golden Circle,” my concern is that he only uses positive examples to support his idea and even encourages businesses to use it as a way of marketing. His advice is to not market the product, but rather an idea associated with the product so that consumers will see the company as part of their identity. It works brilliantly in many cases (consider how many people, including myself, say things like “I’m an Apple person”) but personally, I think it reinforces the more dangerous aspects of capitalism and consumer culture.