One interesting thing I did was to predict people's Myers-Briggs type, if they didn't already know it. It was pretty interesting that nearly 100 percent of the successful goal-free people were Extroverted-Intuiter-Perceivers.
The people who were goal-free but not successful tend to be introverts. If you're not going to get out there and play big, and meet people and have fun, and really go full-out with passion and gusto, it's hard for you to allow things to come together in a synchronistic way. But the Judgers out there love their goals.
Stephen Shapiro
Source: Tom Peters: Cool Friends Interview: Steve Shapiro: http://www.tompeters.com/cool_friends/content.php?note=008464.php
The start of the New Year is a perfect time to start a stop doing list and to make this the cornerstone of your New Year resolutions, be it for your company, your family or yourself. It also is a perfect time to clarify your three circles, mirroring at a personal level the three questions...
1) What are you deeply passionate about? 2) What are you are genetically encoded for -- what activities do you feel just "made to do"? 3) What makes economic sense -- what can you make a living at?
Those fortunate enough to find or create a practical intersection of the three circles have the basis for a great work life.
Jim Collins
Source: Jim Collins: Best New Year's Resolution? A 'stop doing' list: http://www.jimcollins.com/lib/articles.html
I think there is a big and significant difference between being a leader and being a manager-leaders lead from the heart. You have to be analytical and flexible. Flexibility is one of the key ingredients to being successful. If you feel like it's difficult to change, you will probably have a harder time succeeding.
Andrea Jung
Source: Andrea Jung: Asian American Wonder Women: http://www.goldsea.com/WW/Jungandrea/jungandrea.html
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite...Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction...rest in reason and move in passion.
Ideally, since 80 percent of your life is spent working, you should start your business around something that is a passion of yours. If you're into kite-surfing and you want to become an entrepreneur, do it with kite-surfing.
Look, if you can indulge in your passion, life will be far more interesting than if you're just working. You'll work harder at it, and you'll know more about it. But first you must go out and educate yourself on whatever it is that you've decided to do - know more about kite-surfing than anyone else. That's where the work comes in. But if you're doing things you're passionate about, that will come naturally.
Richard Branson
Source: Business 2.0: Branson's Next Big Bet: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/08/01/8382250/