Everyone has something they’re good at without knowing why. What I’m good at is getting people excited about embarking on a grand adventure. Everyone wants to be excited about embarking on a grand adventure.
But here’s what I told one of my employees today. I actually stopped myself mid-sentence. I said, “— and there it is, that look. You’re starting to believe it’s attainable, right? Because we’re all fed the story, about how a plucky band of smart, resourceful people can make magic happen. All I have to do it trot out something shiny, something you want to do, not because you want to make the company money and not because you like working twenty-four hours a day but because it’d be so cool.”
We really want to be a part of something cool.
But I don’t think I’m doing the guy any favors by getting him excited to be a part of something cool. When ambition fails, whatever it is, because most of them do, then I haven’t just hurt his career. I’ve hurt his heart. We all wave off these consequences and say, well, you can always get another job, but there’s no repairing what happens to your heart when you get personally committed and do everything right and then something unexpected happens and you have to watch it all burn to the ground. When you lead people by inspiration, you’re making them a promise. You’re saying “I believe in you.” And when they respond to it, it’s a kind of covenant.
There are all these platitudes floating around, quotes by Jobs and others, about being tenacious and never giving up. Who is the intended audience of these quotes, if not the silent majority who failed?
So let me ask you this - if you could live your whole life without the desire to be something special, without aspiration, don’t you think that would be better? I’m being serious. My gift is the ability to direct that kind of energy, make things personal, moral, a crusade. I don’t know if I’m doing anyone any favors.
