That thing your passionate about? It's important!

It’s important. It’s important that we identify our passion and pursue it. Why is it important? Because the first step to success is passion. Sure you can be a moderate success at something you are just good at and not necessarily be passionate about it. But real success? I suspect Walt Disney was passionate about cartooning. I suspect Bill Gates is passionate about computers. Stephen King is passionate about writing. Stan Lee is passionate about comic books (this wasn’t always the case, but once he got passionate, the success followed). In Stan’s case he didn’t start out doing what he loved, but he learned to love what he was doing. The passion became enthusiasm and the enthusiasm became success. And for anyone who has heard Stan speak, the enthusiasm is also infectious.

It’s not just important for your success, but the world is so much richer when you are working on your passion! You have a gift. Your passion guides you towards that gift. And the world wants you (needs you) to produce that gift!

So why don’t we all do it? Because it’s hard.

It’s hard to write in the evenings when you also have a “real job”. It’s hard to run a second business while in college (both Bill Gates and Michael Dell did this). It’s hard to go out and make music on the weekends when you work all week and people remind you that Nashville is not calling anytime soon.
It’s hard to break into comics, or cartooning, or acting (or is it? Maybe breaking in looks differently than we have been led to believe).

We are afraid people will laugh. My passion is geeky. No doubt about it. It involves super heroes and dragons and wizards and zombies. Nothing any mature male should be interested in. Who says?

I suspect your passion might be just as challenging. This is just a reminder that even though it is hard, there are lots of us struggling with it. By finding each other, communicating, supporting one another and commiserating (sometimes) we will find that it’s even though it is still hard, it doesn’t have to be quite so painful.

The world, the universe, and me all want you to work on your passion. Pursue it. People may laugh. Maybe not. If they do, then you don’t need them. Surround yourself with supportive influences and go create something awesome!

WETA Rayguns

Have you seen these things by WETA? These replicas of rayguns, swords and all sorts of sci-fi goodness? These aren't toys. They are replicas right out of our collective sci-fi imagination. Here is a link to the "Victorious Mongoose".
These things are just beautiful. I would love to see a room dedicated to these. This whole line is very inspiring to me. I can only imagine how the decision to start this awesome line of collectibles began...

"So they're toys?
"Nope. Not toys. replicas of how a death ray might look if a real mad scientist built it."
"They're for adults"
"Adults. Kids at heart. For display only. They don't do anything."
"And what do they cost?"
"A bunch. They are made from high grade stuff. Again, the goal here is to make a sci-fi weapon that looks real, but like it stepped out of a Flash Gordon serial."
"But death rays aren't real."
"Exactly. But lots of people wish they were real. And if they were, they should look like our designs."
"Look man, no one is going to pay that kind of money for what a "real" imaginary thing would look like. Not unless it is a toy. This is never going anywhere."
"Well, you know what, I believe in this model. I have a passion for these things and I am gong to launch with one gun and we'll see where it goes from there"


...And the rest is history. Check out the website. There is a ton of stuff there as well as tie-in novels and artbooks and all kinds of stuff because whoever envisioned this world has such a great vision and the world is so immersive that we, as fans, want to spend more time there and we are willing to pay big bucks to do it.

Kind of a lesson for all of us about following your passion I think.



('’)

Leadership

Read a great article in Time magazine entitled: "Why Bosses Tend To Be Blowhards"
The summary is that "A new study shows leadership is often just loudership: big mouths take charge."
The study was led by the University of California: Berkeley. The study found in a group setting, the folks who spoke out the most often and the loudest were viewed as individuals with a high degree of leadership, smarts and creativity. When given basic aptitude tests, these same individuals did not score any better (and often worse) than their quieter counterparts.

It's interesting, but then again, isn't it a quality of leadership that the person has the "courage" (or blind stupidity?) to speak out regardless of the consequences, often not letting oneself be encumbered by facts or truth?

We see it a lot where people take charge just because they are visible and rather than saying the "right thing" they say their version of the right thing and then convince others of it's correctness (Rush Limbaugh comes to mind). No offense Rush. My point is Rush picks a side of an argument and does not attempt to see the other side and then convinces listeners there is only one side. It is his goal and he does it well.

Not a surprising study, but a nice one to read because I tend towards introverted behavior in a large group and often don't get very vocal. It seems like options are to either break that behavior or get used to finishing second (or third or fourth...somewhere other than first).

Alternatively, one could seek out an environment where one felt comfortable being very vocal. For example, if you grew up building boats and building boats was your passion then I would suspect you would feel more comfortable being very vocal in a boat-building situation thus ensuring your promotion and inevitable leadership role.

All the more reason, perhaps, to seek your passion?

Play Brett Favre! Play!

I know not all of you may be sports fans or football fans, but it would be hard to escape the annual "I'm retired, I'm not retired" saga of Brett Favre.
I will say this - if Brett loves football as much as I think he does, and he can play at all then he should play as long as he wants to.
Who among us gets a career we love? Who would agonize at the thought of retirement? It's a small population my friends and if he can hobble onto the field, the he should.

Dark Days

It is a darker world today than it was yesterday. John Madden has retired. For anyone who does not know, John Madden is a footbal legend, first as a coach and then as a broadcaster. He is retiring and, for me, watching the games will not be the same without Madden's unique voice.
How lucky for Madden though to have spent his whole career in the field he loves...football. He played football, then he coached football, then he broadcasted about football. He has written books about football. He made a video game about football and he has been in movies talking about football.
Hmmmm, maybe this is not so much "luck" after all. Maybe Madden demonstrated an unflinching approach to making his passion become his livelihood. I am sure there were times early on when Madden thought he might end up having to be a salesman or a construction worker or whatever, but he refused to to that. He devoted his life to football, but not just as an interest. He made himself an expert on it. He read everything about it. He researched it. He met and talked to the experts in the field at the time. Even at the height of his popularity, he studied hours and hours of film each week so that he could talk coherently about the game. He could have given up a long time ago and become something else. Instead, he devoted his life to his passion and his passion supported him. He made himself and expert on it. He became a name that will be associated with the game of football for decades (at least). He couldn't be anything else. He became Madden.

How lucky.