Article 18: Finding Your Ketchup
Sir Ken Robinson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga2CYYCrtNE) was in Omaha in the last couple of months promoting his book called, “The Element” (http://www.theelementbook.com). He talked about this incredibly important concept….of each person finding his or her ELEMENT. As in, yeah I am really in my element - defined by Robinson to mean that space where passion and competence converge. Then at the BigOmaha conference last Friday, Gary Vaynerchuk (http://garyvaynerchuk.com/)was asked by the audience what question does he least like. His answer was, the question that he gets most frequently, which is “how do I figure out my passion?” And it frustrates him because Gary doesn’t know how exactly to tell someone how to find their passion. What both Robinson and Vaynerchuk grasp is that finding your passion is really the whole ballgame. Sure, you’ve got to work hard or in Gary’s parlance, Crush it. But both Sir Ken and Gary would agree that being passionate about something is precisely what allows you to crush it hence the reason that its so damn important to figure it out. It reminds me of the famous scene from Office Space. Three discontented corporate computer programmers are trying to figure out what exactly they should do with their lives and Michael proposes a solution. Think about whatever you would like to do if you had a million dollars and whatever you come up with? That’s what you should be doing now. Of course, Peter famously answers that if he had that much money then he would do nothing, and then the rest of the movie hinges upon him doing exactly that. Tim Ferris in the 4-Hour Work Week comes at the same topic in a different manner. Ferris argues that so many people think about what they might do some day at the end of their careers when they have finally made it and they retire. For many people the big pot of gold involves traveling. Ferris’ own response and advice is that you should design your life Right Now so that you can do the travel that you want to do. In other words, do what you are passionate about now. And finally Bill Gates. To paraphrase Gates, he only has one interest. When he comes home he reads magazines about computers; turns on his computer; thinks about computers and software. He really doesn’t have others interests. Computers and software? That’s his passion. That’s when he is in his element. So finding your passion, your element is according to lots of wildly successful people really freaking important…..and yets lots of us are wandering through life without having found ours. I know that I haven’t. And boy, I know that my wife sure hopes that I find my Element fast. Vayernchuk’s advice is pretty simple. Find your passion then go online and use the available tools to talk about your passion. Write articles, put out videos. Pump out content….now…today. And to prove his point, during his BigOmaha keynote he said this, “if your passion is ketchup then start talking about ketchup”. And someday, Heinz will give you a big fat check because you are the ketchup guy. So Robinson says “Find Your Element” and Garyvee asks “If Your Passion is Ketchup”…so I say…..What’s Your Ketchup? Ketchup proves the point that your passion may be ridiculous but that’s okay, if you’re passionate about it and can produce good content around it, then that’s enough. So right now I ask myself and I ask you, “What’s Your Ketchup?” Please let me know by leaving comments below or by emailing me danielkenney43@gmail.com. Thanks!
