In the early nineteenth century a wealthy English fence maker named Sir Samuel Brown lived on his estate along the Tweed River. His great passion was growing roses.

Owning land on both sides of the river, Brown built a magnificent garden on the opposite bank from his home where the land was most fertile. But there was a problem. When he wanted to get to the other side of the river he had to travel several miles by horse and buggy to reach the nearest bridge. His garden was literally so near and yet so far.

This arrangement was fine for Brown while he was young. But as he aged it became increasingly uncomfortable to make the journey, and his gardening trips across the river became less frequent. As a result, his beautiful roses lost their health and beauty.

Distressed that the love of his life, his rose garden, was wilting, Brown sat down and pondered what to do.

As he sat there sipping a cup of tea and idly studying a spiderweb in a window frame, the structural beauty of the web's design suddenly triggered an idea.

"What if," he thought to himself, "I was to take some ropes, chain, and cable and build my own spiderweb across the river? Then I'd be able to cross the river with ease, and work in my garden whenever I liked."

Brown set to work, and in several weeks his weblike construction was finished. And so was born an invention that is still very much in use, and that we refer to today as the suspension bridge.

Now here's the interesting part. Brown was not a genius. He was not even an architect or engineer. He was an ordinary man but a man in the grip of a great passion. It was this passion that helped him change his life, and in the process, the world.

Passion breathes life into everything you do; and everything you do in life can breathe passion.

What is passion, really? There's the passion that's sparked during sex, of course. What I'm talking about here is certainly related to this feeling. The two are kissing cousins. But basically I'm on a different track.

The passion I try to trigger when I'm motivating people to get off their butts and into life is a combination of human energy and human love. Bring the two together, mix them up in some vat, and presto! you have all the emotional gasoline you need to power your way through life, and to succeed at your wildest dreams.

Think of yourself as a wonderful piece of complex machinery—a jet plane, maybe. You can fly at 500 miles an hour if you want, or faster. But only if you have the right ingredient.

Fuel.

Without it you're out of gas and grounded on an airport runway for an eternity.

The fuel that makes your life fly is passion.

When you were a kid, everything you did had a kick and zest to it, right? Even the most ordinary stuff like running a stick through a puddle of water or tossing a ball. You could play with a tin can in the middle of the street or a doll without a head. It didn't matter. Playing house? Playing tag? Everything was a blast! Remember how vivid these games were?

Why did they seem so real and exciting? For one reason: Because you played with all of yourself, in the moment. Which means you played with passion—a passion that so many of us now remember as the key to a golden past.

Then a funny thing happened on your way to happiness.

You grew up.

Now, suddenly, you were being told to mind your manners, get good grades, keep your voice down, and make sure your exuberant feelings stayed buttoned up inside. Spontaneity, animation, enthusiasm, zeal—all became no-no's. Control and seriousness were the new rules of the game. We were, after all, grownups.

Remember the old 1950s song, Penny Candy? It's about a rich, jaded femme fatale who's remembering back to her childhood and thinking how excited she once got over a simple piece of colored candy in a jar. And how today she has the world at her fingertips but nothing left to love.

"Life has been kind to me," she sings. "I've riches enough to buy whatever catches my eye. But nothing catches my eye. When I was a little girl poor and plain, all I thought about in life was in this refrain. Penny candy, candy for a penny."

That's what happens to us as we grow up and take our place in society. We lose our passion for the penny candy of life.

And we are all the poorer for it.

Picture this.

I come walking onto the TV screen acting very dignified and proper, a marvel of restraint. I don't leap onto my Gazelle. I don't fall on the floor with a pretend heart attack or drop a bowling ball on the competitor's pillow. I carefully mount the exercise machine with apologies for being late, and I begin to scissor silently back and forth on the machine with an earnest look of determination on my face. Then, purposefully, I start to count cadence the way they once taught me in gym class: "And a one, and a two, and a three. ..."

People, just how much product do you think I'd sell if I went on the tube with this energyless, dead-dog display of self-control?

Not a whole lot, baby.

Why? Because it's my passion that revs me up onscreen and releases the energy that energizes others.

Listen, I love what I'm selling. I absolutely love it! And I'm going to be in your face about it and tell you about it, Mr. and Ms. America, because I have a passion to help you and to make you strong and healthy. When I commit to a product or an idea, I completely surrender to it. I do whatever needs to be done to guarantee its success. I have no doubts once I seize a possibility. No hesitation. No negative what-ifs. Every product I choose to sell is a crusade—a campaign I'm bonded to until it meets a successful conclusion. My body is jumping around on the stage, yeah. But the real reason I have you so excited is because of the passion I have for the product, and because of the energy that's firing through my veins.

That's right, my man, my woman; passion seduces. Passion sells. Isn't it time to put it to use? To incorporate it into your own life and work when you're selling product—and when you're selling yourself?

Sure, others may not know what to make of it at first. Most of us are unaccustomed to genuine displays of honest feeling and inner fire. But they'll soon get what you're doing, and they'll respond.

Know why?

Because your passion arouses their passion. You make them feel the way they want to feel. Your passion triggers their passion, and theirs triggers the same in others. Pretty soon things get good again for all of us. Love. Spontaneity. Happy. Excited. Alive.

Passion.

Do iiiiiiiiiiiittttttt!