Day 109: The Talk

Photo of the Day: Starting with Why

Today I attended the Monthly Design Review, an informal meeting of New York designers to discuss trends, practices, and the purpose of their profession. I was particularly interested in attending today because the featured speaker for the night was Simon Sinek, who has one of the highest-rated TED videos on how great leaders inspire action and wrote the popular book Start With Why. The group met near the Flatiron District in the Salt Space gallery, which, with only 30 or so people in attendance, turned out to be an intimate space to have the talk. As his book title suggests, Simon is a strong advocate for always identifying and operating off the driving motivation and purpose behind organizational and personal actions. At times, the lecture tended to sound like an aggressive rant against modern societal trends and the rise of impersonal online networking technology, but he did bring up some fascinating points about the intersection of "passion" and "success" and the value of relationships and other intangibles in the business equation. There was also a tea-and-wine networking hour before the talk started, and I got to strike up great conversation with some like-minded attendees.

Admiring the photographs on the walls of the Salt Space.

Simon Sinek expounds on the "split," at which point an organization fails to identify with the original driving motivation for its creation.

Simon Sinek takes questions from the audience.

Simon Sinek and his "Golden Circle" theory.

Kayla hamming it up in front of the Christmas tree.

Kayla playing cashier with her toy register.

Aychia had some fun putting Kayla's hair up in a super funky hairdo.

Triple ponytails, all the way across the sky.