Knowledge Fulcrum

Last Thursday was an indulgent day for me.  I spent it with my friend, Simon Sinek and a group of fellow entrepreneurs (EO).  For those of you who’ve had the chance to see Simon speak, you’ll understand what I’m about to share.  For those of you who haven’t – well, you owe it to yourself to find a chance to see him.   Simon’s sole mission is to inspire others into action.  If I were to draw a picture of this it would look like this:

Inspiration is something that’s difficult to describe, yet we all know what it feels like.  This is because inspiration comes from the part of the mind that words have a difficult time describing.  A good analogy is this: how would you describe the color red to someone who’s been blind their entire life?  

What’s so special to me about inspiration is the effect it has on people and their actions.  It’s inspiration that drives people to imagine unthinkable ideas, and it’s inspiration that keeps them moving toward their vision.  It’s the same feeling that drove Thomas Edison to endure thousands of failures before he found the one filament that worked for his incandescent light bulb.

I belive it’s this same source of human energy that motivates entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.  It’s the same source of energy that motivates employees and customers to follow a leader – even through the face of adversity.  Last Thursday, I was able to look around the room as Simon spoke.  I saw something very special.  There were over 100 people – most of them highly charged, busy entrepreneurs, and each of them were on the edge of their seat for two hours.  It takes something very special to do that.  It takes someone who lives a purposeful life and is not satisfied until he has inspired every human being on the planet.  I wonder how much energy Simon created last Thursday?  It would be interesting to know.  I know he inspired me – thank you, Simon. Thank you very much.

For a few years now I’ve been telling my children – do what you love, and love what you do.  They are 8 and 11 years old.  I do this because I wish my father would have told me this.  These words would have saved me a tremendous amount of frustration and heartache throughout my life.   Early in my career, I made too many choices based on what I believed others wanted me to do or be, or what I thought I could gain from doing what I did (e.g., money, material objects).   Hindsight is 20/20.  I now realize that my happiness is more closely related to how I feel than what I own or what others think of me.   I’m lucky because I’ve found my sweet spot - that intersection between:

a) what I’m uniquely gifted at

b) what I’m passionate about

c) what my definite purpose is

This formula comes from a book I recently read - Finding the Sweet Spot by Dave Pollard.  I recommend the book to anyone who finds themselves struggling with their job or who feels uninspired with their work.  This is the perfect step-by-step guide for discovering responsible, sustainable, joyful work.

For the millions of Americans who find themselves unexpectedly unemployed, you are now in a unique position - you are now able to make choices about what you do next, and about what you put your time and energy towards.  I understand that it’s easy to think of this as something awful, but you can also just as easily consider your recent misfortune as an opportunity to make changes in your life that will lead you to satisfaction and happiness.   If anything else, think about what it is you would do if you could do anything.  Think about what your gifts are, what you’re passionate about, and what your purpose is in this world.

This is the location of the “sweet spot.”

I can not begin to comprehend the magnitude of it all.  Today alone there were over 71,400 people who lost their jobs.  It’s no wonder people are depressed.   

About six months ago I was feeling particularly down myself and a good friend forwarded something that helped put thingsin perspective for me.   I’d like to share it with any of the 71,400 who lost their jobs today and happen to be reading this:

The “Scary Times

According to Wikipedia, there are some 480 million Monopoly players worldwide making it the most played board game in the world (Guinness Book of World Records).   The recent global financial crisis makes me wonder what games like Monopoly are teaching us.   Greed?  Win-lose?  Having been played billions of times, it’s having some influence on our behaviors and our beliefs.  

Maybe it’s time time to play a different kind of game.   Here’s one - Games With a Purpose (GWAP) .  A game that’s fun to play, where everyone can win (I thought it was that everyone wins.) and that serves a purpose.  Why isn’t there a “popular

A good friend of mine once said – “Leverage is the beverage that gets the party started