Hi, I'm Simon Sinek
and this is Adrian Zackheim
and we are the co-publishers of a new imprint at Penguin Random House called
Optimism Press.
Adrian has been a publisher
at Penguin Random House
for how many years?
Seventeen years.
Longer than I've been alive.
I've been an author with Penguin Random House
for more than a decade now
so this is something that has been a long time in the making
where we decided to start something new together.
So we called this imprint that we've started
Optimism Press.
What is the reason that you wanted to call it Optimism Press?
Well since this is a mission
that you wanted to undertake in the beginning
and since
you identify yourself as an optimist
and optimism is clearly part of your mission
and everything you do
it just seemed like the natural jumping-off point
for anything we were gonna do together
that really was under your brand.
So it wasn't a difficult question for me
and I don't think it was for you either.
No.
I think it's a perfect shelf.
Optimism is a perfect shelf
for which all ideas that
either mine or ones that I fall in love with
should sit on.
They should be first and foremost forward-facing
and have a confidence that the future is bright.
And I think all of the ideas that we hope to share with the world
will pay off the promise of optimism.
What is your vision for Optimism Press?
I imagine a world
that does not yet exist.
I imagine a world in which
the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired
feel safe at work
and return home fulfilled at the end of the day.
I've completely devoted my life and career
to trying to build this world
and one of the nice things about my journey is that
I have the opportunity to meet some wonderful people
who are contributing to building that world.
They're running organizations,
they're inside organizations,
they are leaders,
they're all sorts of people.
And some of them have ideas
that I believe are so significant
that the rest of us need to know those ideas.
And so for me
it was so exciting to have the opportunity
to form my own imprint with Penguin Random House
that we have an opportunity
to introduce the rest of the world to the people and the ideas
that I think are essential pieces of the jigsaw puzzle
to help build that vision.
And what gave you the idea
to work with Penguin Random House in the first place?
Well you and I ...
You've been my publisher for all my books
and you and I have known each other for
over 10 years now
over a decade.
And I think it's safe to say that we do good work together.
I could not have written any of my books without you.
And it's become more than a business relationship
it's a true friendship
and a true collaboration.
And I trust you immensely
and I trust your judgement
and you are extremely good at taking good ideas
and making them into great ideas.
And so when when I had this idea to form the imprint
there's quite frankly no one else I'd rather partner with
to help do it
because we will find good ideas
and we'll make them into great books.
And in fact
there were books before the imprint that we collaborated on.
Not your books
but other writers.
Many of which were quite successful
and we had fun doing it.
It's true.
We have helped
we have done things together
under different imprints and it worked out well
so it was a good we had precedence.
This was low risk for you and me as we knew what we could do.
So what was the reason you wanted to do an imprint with me?
Well it goes back to the same question
we had worked together on books
that you had found in your travels
and several of them had worked out really well
and it introduced me to some fantastic writers and thinkers.
And so when you said
why don't we formulate a strategy together
and do this in a sort of planned way
instead of just by lucky accident
I jumped at the opportunity.
It seemed like like a fantastic chance to do some great publishing.
I think one of the things that people don't realize about our friendship
is that a lot of the risks that we take aren't actually risks for us.
I think you and I see a lot of things we do as no-brainers.
We have common cause
and we know how to work together.
And I think other people
when we say we're gonna do this
people go (gasp).
But we go
no, no, it'll be fine.
And it's worked out okay.
Knock on wood.
So far so good.
It's been fun.
Simon, what what do you hope to achieve
with the new imprint?
I know that my ideas are a piece of a bigger jigsaw puzzle
my own books.
This big vision that I have
I have a couple of the pieces.
And so what I'm hoping is that these books
as we build them over the course of time
offer a road, a path,
a compass direction
on how we actually build this world that's different from now.
The goal is to give
not only to share the ideas that we stumble upon
that we think are valuable
but also to give bigger platforms to our authors.
I hope that they all have bigger and more successful careers
as speakers for this movement
for their own ideas.
So I'm really hoping to give them a bigger, louder platform
because certainly all the authors we've signed up so far
we've fallen in love with them and their ideas
and we want others to fall in love with them and their ideas too.
Tell us about some of the authors that we've already signed up.
So the book that we are launching with is
by Summer Rayne Oakes
It's a book called
"How To Make A Plant Love You."
I met Summer many, many years ago.
We've been close friends for awhile.
She's just a powerhouse
and an optimist
and a wonderful human being.
And she has this fantastic idea about how to raise plants
how to look after plants.
She's been featured in the press multiple times because
she has I don't remember
one hundred
six hundred plants in her New York City apartment
in her Brooklyn apartment
and I've been
I think it's up to seven, was up to seven
and it's an amazing place to visit
sort of move the vines out of the way to wash the dishes.
It's really fantastic.
And she these plants grow and thrive inside her New York City apartment and
it's because
it's not by luck
it's because she understands the plants and
she understands where to put them and how to nurture them.
And so the way we treat plants is
we see a plant that we think is pretty and
we think ooh it would look nice over there on that coffee table
and we buy the plant
we put on the coffee table
and the plant dies.
It's because we bought the plant that we wanted
and put it where we wanted it.
And the reality is you have to know where the plant wants to be
not where we want to put it
and you have to put it in the place where it's more likely to thrive.
What I love about Summer's work is
it's a metaphor
because we do that with people.
We take somebody and
we put them in the job that we want them to do
and then we get frustrated that they don't succeed and
so we move them and they don't succeed again
but we never actually think to ask
where would they naturally thrive
what environment, what position, what job should we put that person
and so that they'll do well.
Though yes and on one level
Summer's book is actually a wonderful book
for people who want to know more about how to look after plants
but there's really a very important
and deep-seated message contained within this book
about how to treat people.
It's a really it's a big metaphor that if you learn how to take care of plants
how to make a plant love you
we're actually learning how to make people love you
how to make people fall in love with their jobs and each other.
It's just it's just a wonderful
and it's so full of depth and she's such a talented writer.
I couldn't think of a better book
that I'd rather introduce the world to our imprint with.
We're also publishing a book by Bruce Deel
called "Trust First."
As you know, Bruce runs an organization called City of Refuge in Atlanta, Georgia
and he
I don't know how to put it
he saves people to put it mildly
drug addicts and hookers and all these people
and he takes on the street and he gives them a second chance
and he believes in them.
And when you and I met Bruce
I think we were
the whole room was enamored with him
because Bruce does something that I think few of us have the courage to do
which he gives people extreme trust.
He takes somebody
who the rest of society would say is unworthy of our trust
and he trusts them
as if they were old friends or family.
And what he has learned is that
when you take the risk to trust people they rise
to the occasion and they they're able to transform their lives they're able to
transform their path and to one that is more positive for
them and those around them and though it is a remarkable story about trust and
what Bruce is doing I the the it's an extreme version of the lesson I think we
could all learn I think few people and I don't think we would ever recommend for
anybody to trust the way Bruce trusts I think that that's a whole or another
order of trust but if we could learn to trust better than we do now to take the
risk to trust people more than we do to learn from Bruce's example I think it
makes for better organizations and it makes for better collaboration you know
better work environments better cultures better society better finish ups talk
about inspiring when I brought Bruce and summer to your attention
what's the reason that you also said but we have to do these books well you know
I examined our earliest conversations about this program which was to give to
seize an opportunity to identify voices that were inspiring in some way that
inspired us to to operate on a higher level in the case of summer yes as you
said it's about plants but it's really about living life at a higher level and
an enhancing life so that was an easy one and then Bruce not only does he
trust people but in his case he put himself and his family and not
inconsiderable risk from for many years and became a living example of how Trust
transforms individuals families communities and in the case of his
hometown Atlanta whole cities and he has been a tremendous change agent so on
every level that book and and and he himself personally his is a source of
huge inspiration and I think will change lives I tell you what I'm excited about
his imprint which a pattern is starting to form in the books that were
publishing and planning to publish though many books are about the idea
that the book is about mmm clearly you buy a book and myths
about that whatever it says on the cover it's about that I mean that's what most
books are about what I'm starting to see in our in our
books is our books operate on multiple levels there's there's the idea set that
you'll read in the pages and then there's an underlying idea as well
there's I think all of our books seem to operate in have to at least a duality at
least at least to do it now yeah and in which case I think you know when we when
we first said we're gonna do a book about how to make a plant love you
people scratch their there are eyebrows raise your writing you said you
publishing a book about what you know and here we are saying that the imprint
exists to inspire a different kind of world and this is this is this is our
first book but I think I think that's correct I think a lot of our books will
will be unsuspecting too when we announce what they are but but they fit
our strategy and and and they're there I think a lot of them will be metaphors
frankly and and have those those dual messages I am really yeah it's excited
last question how do you hope that optimism press will change the way
people think about business in life the one of the things that I think all of
the work that I'm interested in does is it challenges people's perspective of
how they think the world works and it forces people to examine their own
preconceptions and some of the things that we are even told are just the way
the world works and I'm hoping that in total all of our work in some way shape
or form challenges at first and then changes people's view of how the world
works but also what is possible I think we if we read all those books I think we
will all be changed we all be slightly different because of it you know
everybody used to believe the world was flat at one point until it wasn't
and I'm hoping that this this library that will produce will have a similar
effect that many preconceived notions of how to treat people or how the world
works or how businesses work or how organizations work well will be
different 10 or 50 from now in part because of because of
these books I hope so I hope so too yeah and then when I done it fried again did
you say so Simon wait I'm not done you're not
done laughing it's hard for us to do serious huh we don't do serious no okay
so Simon what is your vision for optimism for us