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| First Person: Point of View |
Early to Rise
Douglas Barry
10/01/2004
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I think the CEOs who wrote to me are no different than anyone
else—except that they are connected to their passion. There is a surf shop near
my home run by a man who has become a neighborhood treasure. He knows everything
about surfing, but never tries to hustle his customers or hurry them out of his
store. He probably makes a fair living, but, more importantly, he owns the
spark. Money cannot buy the spark, nor can we will ourselves into having
it.
Not too long ago, my sister, Jillian, desperately wanted a dog of her
own. After numerous requests, she finally cleared my parents’ permission hurdle,
only to make several flawed adoptions. One puppy was so sick that our vet
offered to go to the breeder himself to reclaim her money and secure care for
the puppy. When Jill finally found an excellent Chihuahua breeder and got the
perfect puppy, I could see that the breeder was great because she had passion.
Each puppy was special, and she carefully chose each new home. Now this breeder
is getting calls for her puppies from all over the world. While she may not be
rich, she is wealthy in ways many others will never be. Pat Croce, former
president of the Philadelphia 76ers and a man who can get enthused about taking
out the trash, described this when he wrote to me, “We make a living by what we
get paid; we make a life by what we give.”
Right now, I am passionate about
life and where I want my life to go. This is where we all start. Unfortunately,
this is where too few of us end up when we become adults. Jacques Nasser, former
president and CEO of Ford Motor, seems to have ended up this way. He wrote, “I
believe the people who are most successful are those who do what really
interests them. There is no substitute for energy and enthusiasm.”
So what
happens to so many of us? How do we lose our way? Who or what diverts us from
following our passion, and leads us into going through the motions? Somewhere
along the line, we lose sight of our true desires, compromise our interests and
settle for less than what we originally hoped. We grow up. Here, then, is the
question: Can a person grow up and not lose his sense of wonder and empowerment?
I hope I can.
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