Magic + Faith = Passion

I wrote recently about the magicians I've been fortunate to work with and last year, I offered an insight into my own work history with a post called "Do You Believe?" I had an epiphany the other day that they're intrinsically linked - the idea of faith and of being around those that seem able to perform business magic.

I suppose it's not much as epiphanies go - I didn't see God's face in a lump of cheese, or discover a cure for cancer, but nonetheless you don't look sideways at original thought. The fact that this popped into my head in the form of mathematics was interesting to me as well - I always seem to give greater credibility to ideas that are able to be expressed mathematically.

Magic + Faith = Passion.

Magic here being the capability to drive an organization along a road no one else sees, and usually having the foresight to predict or guide the marketplace.

Faith in this context is the unwavering belief in what you're doing such that you take on the customer's risk - they can only succeed by coming onboard your way.

Passion is an active approach to your marketplace, getting the ideas spread and helping them gain traction. It's unstoppable, and devours adrenaline.

When these two attributes are combined, it brews up a passionate organization. It can't help but due so, as focus is present, clarity is a requirement and the need to evangelize you're core proposition begs to be done.

This is interesting to me (and I'm hoping you) as the recipe for passion has eluded me prior to this. Knowing that there's a way to unleash it is very exciting.

Of course like all good math equations, it should work in multiple directions. Does passion less the magic just leave us with (blind) faith ? Does passion without any faith leave great ideas alone to dangle (magic) ? I think it stands up to both these tests, and holds water in an algebraic sense.

Fun with math aside - knowing how to stir up passion - where do you let it loose ? What situation that you're involved with requires the people to be lit on fire, and burn with passion over the core ideas and vision ? This is a tremendously powerful force, and one that most places never enjoy.

You have the power now - the secret ingredients to create passion. What's your next move ?

Magicians

The Economist cover this week resonated for me, as they used a word to describe Steve Jobs that I also use, to give due credit to those I've worked with that have done extraordinary things. "Magician". In my life, I've come across a number of individuals who are uncommonly capable and seem to have achieved some incredible things. I joined Expedia to work with the magicians there, and when they left (that's another story) the magic in the place left. Steve Jobs fits my own personal definition of magician too, and for that I'll personally miss watching him as he uncannily created those things that have become essential for me. Without guidance and all the while breaking new ground.

Before you tune out and stop reading what's starting as yet another effusive love poem to the late Mr. Jobs, I will warrant that this isn't that. There's enough of that floating around - in some ways almost too much as my friend Donal points out. I'm not here to create St. Steve, as like any of us, he was a person with flaws, and challenges, and notwithstanding that he gave the world some incredible gifts, at the end of his day he was just one of us.

There's an irony to the public mourning taking place about Apple's founder, insofar that while protest covers the western world financial centres about executives that bilk the common person in the guise of corporate greed, this billionaire CEO was loved it seemed. One can deduce that the key is the kind of contribution one makes then - if we can enrich people's lives through personal conveniences as well as our own wallets, then its ok to be "the man". This is a facetious statement to be sure, but there's an uncomfortable kernel of truth in it. Steve himself would be quite unsettled with it I'm sure, with his hippie roots.

The magician aspect though is what fascinates me. Specifically it's the motivation to be a magician every day. The title is earned surely not by doing something great once, but through an ability to accurately predict where markets are moving and make plans to be there ahead of that pace. It's the business equivalent of the Wayne Gretzky quote: "skate to where to the puck will be, not where it is". The problem with magicians is that there isn't enough of them, and they are rarely given due credit for the magic they impart. They are often replaced with non-magic normal people, who while capable do not share that ability to guide towards success when the path isn't yet laid down. It's the drive to continue to push a direction through, when there is no support and prudence says do something else. I admire it, I'm impressed by it and we are all awed by the results. Sure sometimes there's a 'newton' in the outcome, but as another of my favourite phrases to live by goes...you aren't trying hard enough if you don't fail 20% of the time.

The 'show that was Steve Jobs' will be missed.

Finding Yourself

I always hated this phrase, as it implies you're lost, or at best undiscovered. As a piece of guidance to a young person, we should tell them not to find themselves, but to become comfortable with who they are and understand what they are capable of and enjoy.

The artist who dreams of business success or the barista that wants to dance isn't lost, they simply haven't yet committed to what they want, instead of what they're doing.

You are not unfound, so much as unacknowledged, and that doesn't come from other's it happens from within.