How Simon Sinek Persuade Audiences that the Secret to Success is a Reason Why In the TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, the presenter, Simon Sinek, a “leadership expert,” claims that all great leaders and innovators have one thing in common, they all have a reason why they do what they do. He convinces the audience that his claim is correct through a relatively balanced use of the three Aristotelian appeals: pathos, logos, and ethos. He gives specific facts and examples, to show his audience how his claim has worked for history’s greatest individuals and organizations. Finally, he uses rhetorical devices such as amplification and parallelism to strengthen his argument. With the use of these different techniques, Sinek is able to successfully persuade his audience to support …show more content…
They 're beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Want to buy one” (Sinek). After giving this example, he develops the idea to include a why statement, “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one” (Sinek). After he changes the original statement, the contrast between the two versions causes the audience to feel how unpersuasive the statement without a why is because it’s shallow and unappealing, and how persuasive the statement with a why is because it’s makes the audience feel like they are apart of the future. This effect helps prove Simon’s point by showing that without a why, an advertisement becomes unpersuasive. Also, this shows us that the intended audience for this talk was educated adults, because with more complex ideas and terminology a young or uneducated audience would not be able to grasp what the speaker was trying to convey. Lucky, he won’t be feeling many negative effects from not