IDEO on Following Your Passion
I’ve recently done a lot of reading about IDEO, Inc., a Palo Alto, California based industrial design firm. Let me give you a little background info on the company…
- They designed the first mouse used by the Apple Lisa and Macintosh in 1980. The success of this design made the mouse a standard in computer interaction that has lasted 25 years.
- They were recently named one of the most innovative companies in the world by FastCompany.
- The company was featured in a cover story of Business Week for their unique approach to innovation.
- They’ve won more International Design Excellence Awards (IDEAs) than any other company, including seven awards in 2007 alone.
I could go on for hours about their achievements, but you get the idea. If you want to learn more about them, check out their website.
Passionate Leadership
It seems to me that one of the things that sets IDEO apart is the unique vision of the company’s founder. He started his career as an engineer at Boeing and hated the beige-and-gray offices with cultures to match. He resolved to start his own company where passion and innovation would be encouraged. He called it a “personal gratification company,” and the approach has been tremendously successful.
The following is a clip from a lecture given by David Kelley, the founder of IDEO at the Stanford School of Design. I think it sums things up pretty well. (Note: you may be asked to install or upgrade a Windows Media Player plug-in.)
Source: Stanford’s Educators Corner - Entrepreneurship Education Resources
This site is one of the most incredible resources I’ve come across all year. Stanford hosts guest lectures from some of the most successful design, marketing, health care and technology companies in the world, and they’re all recorded and posted on this website. Fair warning… there are over 1,000 videos, so you may want to clear your schedule before you check it out.
Changing the World
A common thread among the Stanford lecturers who spoke about passion is their desire to change the world. Here’s another short clip on that subject (partly because it’s topical and partly because I just figured out how to embed videos and it’s too cool):
You may be thinking there’s no way you could make that sort of difference in your own business. You’re a designer, a writer, or the owner of a store. How can you possibly change the world? In the case of the previous video, the people are passionate about fighting cancer one patient at a time. The world may go on as usual, but the people at Genomic Health Care change the worlds of their patients and their families.
You may or may not be saving lives, but if you let your passion show through your work, you can still change the world. I can’t believe I’m actually going to reference “Evan Almighty” here, but Morgan Freeman (who plays God) explains that you don’t have to be a Senator to change the world. All it takes is one random act of kindness at a time. And if Morgan Freeman says it, it must be true. All you need to do is offer a superior product or service, and do it with passion, and you can change the world, one customer at a time.
Finding Passion
So how do you find passion in your work? Start by looking at the things you enjoy doing in your free time. Ebay was started as a hobby by Pierre Omidyar in his free time after work:
I was just pursuing what I enjoyed doing. I mean, I was pursuing my passion. It is not really work if you are having fun…that was the case with me. I always wanted to be involved with computers. Like most software people, it is very much passion more than anything else. The ability to create software that could have a benefit or an impact on people that used it was what was driving me.
Omidyar was driven by a passion for creating things that would change the lives of users. Today, his wealth is estimated at $10 billion. No one doubts that his little hobby has changed the world.
Sometimes we need more guidance though. After all, not all hobbies can be monetized. In this case, all you can do is pay attention and look for the signs. Signs that point you in the direction of the things you truly enjoy. These are the signs that will keep you up at night while you endlessly consider the possibilities. I was inspired by a recent post by Crystal at BigBrightBulb, who recently changed directions in pursuit of her passion. Crystal points out that once you’ve realized you’re on the wrong path, the only thing that will make you happy is finding the path that’s right for you.
Without passion in our work, we’re just passing time, waiting for the weekend and dreaming of one day doing things differently. As entrepreneurs, chances are we’ll all hit tough times at some point. Things will slow down, money will get tight, and a deal with a client will fall through. On those days, the only thing that keeps us sane is our passion for what we do. Passion gives us hope and direction, even on our worst days.
What are you passionate about? Are your job and your passion interconnected? If not, how can you get there?
Hi Kyle!
Great post, and thanks for the mention
After working without passion for a good bit, I can say having an interconnected job and passion is both more and less stressful.
There’s a lot of pressure on to get it right, because I don’t have a paycheck every two weeks. And because what I’m doing now is really important to me, failing would sting that much more. A useful learning experience, to be sure, but it would sting nevertheless.
But there’s also far less pressure in other ways, like I no longer sit at work pining for my passion, then later work on my passion dreading going to work the next day
I’m concerned about monetizing what I do now, and earning enough to support my share of the household, but I no longer walk around frustrated with worry about wasting my life.
Thanks again!
Crystal
May 5th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Hi Crystal,
You make a good point, I couldn’t agree more… If something doesn’t work out with school or a job that hasn’t captured your passion, it may be disappointing, but you move on. The prospect of failing at something you’ve invested your heart and soul into is far more stressful.
I think perseverance is key though, and when you’re passionate about it, it’s easier to carry on. I’m reminded of Edison’s famous quote: “I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10000 ways that don’t work.” Now that takes passion…
~Kyle
May 5th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Ahh, perseverance. My fatal flaw.
But just like you said, it’s easier to keep going when your passionate, and I believe I am that.
I don’t have a strong will, but at my worst I’m an impatient perfectionist with a wicked temper and a stubborn streak…I’m gonna bind those negatives up and use ‘em to keep me moving toward the goal…turn them into something positive.
It may look like perseverance from the outside, but you and I will know the truth
May 5th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Kyle, having worked on both sides of the fence, i.e. working for someone else and working on my own business, passion for what I am doing is key to my ability to get to it every day. If I don’t believe in something I can’t get energized, I have no interest in it and look for something else. Now that I own my business I have combined my passion with my job and I can choose what I want to do and love it. I get excited when I enroll others in what I’m doing, my passion shows and people jump on the bandwagon. That’s the fun part.
But the passion can pull you away from the other things that you NEED to do in your business. The trap can be paying attention to what you want to do rather than what actually needs to be done. Gerber talks about that in The E-Myth Revisited. You have to find a balance here, surround yourself with people who share your passion. If you don’t like keeping the books in your business, find someone who loves it. If you love programming but hate sales, find that person who loves networking and closing the deal.
When we go that extra mile to find out what people love to do and then give them that opportunity, it’s less like work and more like play. A team like that is dynamic and fun.
In the book First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham, they suggest that the most successful organizations in the world do just that, play to people’s strengths and don’t focus so much on their weaknesses. Put the right people in the right positions, enable them to do their jobs and watch what happens. That’s something to be passionate about!
May 6th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I can certainly identify with everything you’ve said. It’s important to keep in mind though that if you bring someone else on to handle part of your business, you need to clearly define roles and expectations. If you just tell someone “Here, you handle sales,” you’re not providing a whole lot of structure, and there are no performance metrics to determine whether that person is actually doing their job properly.
The question though is how do you find those people who are passionate about, and good at, what they do? And once you have them, how do you retain them?
May 9th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Crystal,
I wouldn’t necessarily call those negative traits! When applied to the right goals, being an impatient perfectionist can be a real benefit. Of course, it also makes it very difficult to delegate responsibilities (and even more difficult for everyone when a wicked temper is factored in…
).
Maybe I’m just trying to rationalize my own impatient, stubborn perfectionism…
~Kyle
May 9th, 2008 at 5:10 pm