PRINCIPLE 3

If You Ain’t Passionate About Your Idea, No One Else Will Be

“Passion? Why is he talking about passion; it’s not a business subject. It’s squishy, emotional, and seems awfully out of place. I don’t recall anyone else writing about passion in a business book.”

You’re right—and they were wrong not to include it.

You need to have overwhelming faith in what you’re doing as you try to create something new; you’re going to be giving up an awful lot of things as you get your idea up and running. You’ll be sacrificing time with your family and you won’t be seeing your friends very much. Your engagement in the outside world is going to shrink dramatically and you’ll be thinking about your idea from the moment you get up until the second you fall asleep.

You’d better be passionate about it.

When I say things like this, people who are thinking of starting their own company sometimes respond in one of two ways:

“Well, that may have been the way people did it before, but I believe in work–life balance. I’m going to put in fifty or sixty hours a week getting the business up and running and that’s it. I’ll work smarter, not harder, and that way, I’ll have time for everything else.”

To which I say, “I hope you pull it off. But I won’t be investing in your idea and I don’t think any other smart professional will either. You simply can’t give your new business the proper amount of attention it requires if you’re spending all your time looking at your watch thinking about quitting for the day.”

I would love to tell you that work–life balance is possible; but if you’re starting something new, I can’t. The new idea will be taking up most of your life; that’s just the way it is if you want to be successful. I don’t know anyone who has accomplished a lot who has done it any other way. You don’t win at anything in life by giving half effort.

The other way people react? They ask, “Aren’t you really missing the point when you talk about passion? My desire to make a lot of money is going to be more than sufficient to keep me going.”

It probably won’t.

For one thing, it can get you off on the wrong foot. You’ll be tempted to chase the “hot niche,” and the problem with that is twofold. First, by the time you realize what the hot thing is, it’ll probably be starting to cool off. Think of all those people who opened a video store just as Netflix was coming to the forefront, or all those stores that sold nothing but cupcakes that have come and gone.

Secondly, it can get you to enter a field where you have no natural aptitude. Take a look at any of the nation’s largest companies that are still being run by their founders—Limited Brands, FedEx, Marriott, etc. You’ll find the people at the helm have always had an amazing feel for their industry, even when they were just starting out.

The point is you want to find a market need that plays to your strengths. You’d be extremely hard pressed to find someone who has started a widely successful business in a field that he or she didn’t particularly like.

The desire to make money can keep you going, however, if the new idea is a matter of survival. Here’s an example.

PROOF THIS WORKS

It was the Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend and I was going to spend a few hours in the office. The way our company’s coffeemaker works is you have to make a full pot, even if you only want a cup. I didn’t want to have just one cup and have to throw the rest away, so I figured I would just stop at one of the convenience stores nearby my office and pick up a large coffee. All the stores were closed for the holiday weekend with the exception of one that’s always staffed by the owner, an immigrant, or a member of his family.

“You know, you’re the only store around here that’s open today,” I said as I paid for my coffee. “How come?”

“Because we need the money,” the owner said. “If we don’t work, we don’t eat.”

If you’re in that kind of situation, then the desire to make money will keep you going. But once you have enough to live, money as the sole motivating factor won’t be enough. You’ll begin to slack off and once you do, you’ll start to look for shortcuts, which will invariably result in treating customers less wonderfully than you should.

So, no, the drive for money isn’t sufficient to keep you going.

(You can prove that in the negative. If money was a sufficient motivator, then why are so many rich and successful people continuing to work so hard? They already have more than enough. It’s the passion that keeps them going. The majority of successful folks don’t set out to be rich. They set out to accomplish a long-term goal, and it’s the drive to see it through to the end that keeps them going.)

PASSION FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

There’s another way of looking at this. On the surface, it seems that there are four questions you might ask yourself before starting any new venture:

1. Is it feasible? Can it be done successfully?

2. Can I do it—that is, is it feasible for me to accomplish?

3. Is it worth doing? Will there be a market for what I want to sell; is there potential to turn a profit; will people appreciate what I’m trying to do? In other words, does it make sense to put in all this effort?

4. Do I want to do it?

The last question is the one that matters: Do you want to create something?

Why? Either the venture is something that you want, or it’s something that leads to something you want. If it’s neither of these, there’s no reason to act or to answer the other three questions. There is simply no way you are going to give it your full effort if your heart isn’t in it to some degree.

Once you want to do something, everything gets reframed. The negative emotional response, to all the unknowns you face in trying to create something new, is reduced. The reality hasn’t changed. You still don’t know what is out there, but you’ll find a way around the problem, because you care about what you’re trying to do.

It’s pretty easy to prove this.

Situation #1. Let’s say you work for a clothing wholesaler and your boss gives you the assignment of figuring out how to sell everything you carry in Eastern Europe.

Here’s how these four questions play out:

1. Is it doable? Who knows? You haven’t a clue how to set up a distribution and service network in an underdeveloped country.

2. Can you do it? Maybe. Maybe not. You’ve never done anything like this before.

3. Is it worth doing? Again, this is something you can’t answer with certainty. Who knows the size of the market and whether it will be profitable.

4. Do you really want to do it? No, it’s the boss’s idea and you already have enough to do, thank you.

Situation #2 is exactly the same, but you’re the one who wants to sell the clothes there. You’re ready to go off on your own and you think this could be an opportunity. (You have a compelling desire to give it a try, in no small part, because your wife’s family lives in Croatia.)

What’s the likely result in both cases? It isn’t a hard question.

In the first scenario, where desire and passion are not part of the equation, you aren’t in any hurry to do anything because the situation is so uncertain and unknown. You keep thinking about what you’re up against and search for more data. After all, it’s better to study carefully and make sure all the bases are covered than to launch, fail, and have everyone say, “You didn’t think it through.” At best, you’ll put it at the very bottom of your “to do” pile.

The presence of desire alters all that. Because you really want to do it, you’re much more likely to take a first, small smart step toward solving the challenge. For example, the next time you and your wife are visiting her family, you stop in and see some local distributors and set up an exploratory meeting with the staff of the Minister of Commerce.

Here’s one last reason your passion for your idea is so important. Nobody will be committed to what you’re doing if they don’t see your desire, your belief in your idea, and your willingness to try to accomplish it.

CASE STUDY:THE TV GUIDE TRIVIA GAME

PROOF THIS WORKS

It was 1983, and Bob Reiss was watching with interest as a board game became all the rage in Canada. Reiss’s experience in the industry had taught him this rough rule of thumb: Every sale in Canada would translate to ten in the United States, and since it appeared that Trivial Pursuit was going to be selling 100,000 copies in Canada, this meant two things:

1. It would sell at least a million copies in the US. (His estimate turned out to be low.)

2. It would open a huge niche for other trivia games, and that represented a potential huge opportunity for Reiss, who sold board games in the US.

The good news was that he had spotted an opportunity and the better news was that he quickly decided how to fill it. He would create a TV trivia game.

Making that decision, of course, was not enough. Given the success of Trivial Pursuit, it was clear there were going to be many other companies who would try to ride the trivia wave, and some would probably pick entertainment in general—and maybe even TV in particular—as their theme. What would make his product different? How could he promote it? The big companies could spend millions on advertising and marketing and there would be no way his tiny company could compete.

The obstacles were daunting, but Reiss was passionate about the idea—and passion, as we have seen, can get you over a lot of hurdles.

THE BATTLE PLAN: PARTNER, PARTNER, PARTNER

Instead of going it alone, he began looking for partners. The strongest in the television space at the time was TV Guide. He worked hard to establish contacts and got permission to license their name.

The TV Guide Trivia Game was born.

The nice thing about the arrangement was, not only did it give Reiss a differentiated product, it also gave him access to free advertising. In exchange for a 10% licensing fee, TV Guide agreed to give Reiss five full-page ads in the magazine for free. The magazine’s circulation at the time: 18 million readers.

So far, so good.

Creating a game is expensive, and the people who do it well are highly compensated. That was another hurdle, one that Reiss got around by giving the developer a 5% royalty (which decreased to 3% based on volume) in lieu of a fee.

Selling it to retailers is also expensive. Instead of setting up his own sales force, Reiss went with independent reps, who received a 7% commission on each game sold, but no salary. Collecting on sales is always difficult, so Reiss partnered again, this time with a factoring company who would handle collections.

How was he to get the $50,000 he needed to get under way? You guessed it. He partnered again, giving equity to a rich investor in exchange for picking up the startup costs.

Reiss sold 580,000 games at $12.50 wholesale in 1984, his first year. Gross revenues were $7.2 million (more than $32 million today), and his personal take was estimated at somewhere around $1.5 million back then, $6 million today.

EMPOWERMENT

Given how hard it is to create anything and how much passion is required to overcome the inevitable obstacles, the last thing you want to do is get in your own way. But I guarantee you’ll be tempted to. Let me explain.

Invariably, people who start companies assign themselves the position of CEO. Understandable, of course. It’s their idea. There are many different ways of being a CEO and unfortunately a majority of people gravitate toward the old command-and-control model where the boss’s fingerprints can be found on everything.

Can that work? Sure, but there are four problems.

1. The business may never grow bigger than one person (the CEO) can manage effectively.

2. The company can’t move quickly. Since everything has to flow through the chief executive, a potential bottleneck is created. People have to wait for the CEO to sign off before they can move ahead. (Invariably, there is a line outside the CEO’s office, from morning to night.)

3. They may not get the best ideas out of their people. Once they understand that the company is set up so everything revolves around the CEO, people are not going to take the time to develop their best ideas. “Why should I?” they ask; “The CEO is just going to do what she wants anyway.”

4. It is exhausting.

I know that these four points are true, because I used to be a manager who wanted to control everything. People described me—correctly—as a micromanager. It wasn’t surprising that I had a difficult time keeping senior people.

What changed me?

Al Mattia, a longtime friend and fellow CPA.

While my CPA firm was growing 10% a year, Al’s firm, Amper, Politziner, and Mattia, was growing 25%–30% annually. I asked Al what was the secret of his success. He said he had attended the Harvard Business School Owner/President Management (OPM) program and I should too.

I took his advice and attended Harvard’s OPM. The Executive Education classes were designed to give people who own or run companies a different perspective on their jobs.

Just like all great educational experiences, most of my learning took place from my fellow classmates and outside the classroom. The OPM curriculum was set up so that you worked in teams to analyze various case studies that the professors assigned. I found the studies very interesting. In every one, we were asked to figure out a way a company could operate more efficiently or solve a problem they faced. What I found fascinating was the many different ways my teammates approached the case studies.

They were nothing at all like me. (You’ll find a short description of the people I was teamed with in the appendix.) Their reasoning was as unique as they were, yet their answers were always as good as—and often better than—mine.

Each used a strategy that provided him or her with a platform to listen to the people who worked for him or her. They also had advisers who consulted with them and encouraged their people to present ideas and take the initiative.

What I came away with from OPM was the unshakeable belief that I needed to have my employees and board of advisers not only voice their opinions but use their brains and skills to solve the problems we faced without having to wait for me. I was keeping them from contributing all they could to help our company grow and improve. I was wasting our most valuable resource, our people, and that had to change. I needed to create an environment where they could do their best work.

This is empowerment. I became a convert on the spot and even more passionate about our business.

When I got back to the office, I held a firm-wide meeting and said, “I want your input. Everyone here knows more about their jobs than I do and I want you to make decisions on your own, without waiting for a meeting.”

Not only did morale go up, but sales and earnings did as well.

When I tell this story, people always ask me if I’m worried about employees making mistakes. My answer is, “Not really.” For one thing, everyone always makes mistakes. They were making mistakes before they were empowered, and it would be silly to believe they wouldn’t make any once they were. As a leader, it is your job to catch them. But an intriguing thing happened: once I started letting people make their own decisions, the number of mistakes went down. When my employees felt I was going to make the final decision anyway, they didn’t always fully think through what they were doing. Once the decision was theirs, they weren’t only more creative, but more careful. They had a stake in the outcome; and to underscore how important I thought empowerment was, the bonus part of their compensation was directly tied to the ideas they came up with.

Do they have absolute final say over everything? No, I do. I reserve veto power. But I only use it when I think it’s clear that their decisions will harm the company.

Here’s an example.

One of the things my employees have implemented at The Green Group, a tax, accounting, and consulting firm, are flex hours. You can work where you want and when you want. The caveat is, “Be accessible, get the work done, get in to the office when you have to, and take care of our clients.” (Every employee is encouraged to give their clients their cell and home numbers.)

Having a flexible working arrangement works in my firm; our people are happier and more productive in their jobs.

Flextime, in the minds of our staff, quickly morphed into the idea that our office should be closed on Fridays in the summer. I understood the thought. Our office is located off the main highway used by many to travel to the New Jersey Shore. Commuting by car can be pretty challenging on a Friday in the summer, given the beach traffic. But although I understood why they wanted to close the office on Fridays, this was one of the few times I said no. We needed to be open to meet with clients who wanted to meet with us in person.

The employees understood and countered with the idea of having half the staff in the office on Mondays and the other half in on Fridays. This was more than fine with me, as long as the office was staffed at all times.

Will empowerment work for you? I truly believe it will, if you can wrap your mind around giving up control. I know that’s no small thing for people who are used to being the smartest person in the room.

We’ve talked about the advantages to the company if you take this approach; but, before we leave the topic, let’s talk about the personal advantages to you as well. If you delegate and empower, it frees you to do the things you like to do and think about where you want to take the company. You don’t have time to think like this if you’re constantly putting out fires.

For the people still reluctant to empower, why not use the success formula that has worked in so many different situations. Take baby steps. If you want to lose twenty-five pounds, you set a goal of a pound a week. If you want to run a marathon, you start by running a mile the first week and build from there. With empowerment, begin by delegating small things and see how it goes. Let employees make decisions up to $1,000 of expenditures. If you like the results, and I think you will, you can give people more and more responsibility.

SOME DAYS ARE JUST LIKE THAT

I often say that if you love what you’re doing, then going to the office isn’t work. I truly believe that. If you feel that way, it’s easy to keep your energy and passion up.

Does that mean every day is a walk in the park? No.

What gets me down is when I lose. I thought we were going to get a new client, we didn’t; I was convinced the new product we had been working on was going to be a smash—it bombed.

When I get discouraged I try to figure out what I did wrong or what I could have done differently. That helps keep me going. You learn from your mistakes and move on, convinced that you will do better next time. We will be talking—in detail—about how you learn from mistakes in Principle 11.

FOUR TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CHAPTER

1. If you are not passionate about your idea, you should not be doing it. You won’t give it your best effort.

2. Conversely . . . if you truly love what you are doing, it isn’t work.

3. How are you going to run the operation? My suggestion, experiment with empowerment. You’ll get fresh ideas, your company will be able to move faster, and you will be far less stressed.

4. You are going to make mistakes. Unfortunately, it is part of the journey. Learn from them, build off of them, and keep going (even harder).