The 21 Laws of Leadership: How to Develop the Qualities of a Leader

Chapter 14 Passion: Passion is the key to success!
Passion
If a leader treats people with passion, people will treat him with the same passion.

—John C. Maxwell

Everyone can play the game, but once you decide to give it your all, something magical runs in your blood and no one can stop you.

—Bill Cosby, comedian

Born "Pizza King"

When I first wrote The 21 Laws of Leadership, I used the history of Papa John's pizza to explain the Law of Explosive Multiplier.

In 1984, John Schneider (John Schnatter) established the company, which increased from 7 store to 1 in the first 46 years, and grew to 7 in the second 1000 years.The company's extraordinary achievements in its second seven years can explain the "law of explosive multiplication", which tells us: if you want arithmetic growth, you must cultivate followers; if you want geometric growth, you must cultivate leaders.But what was the key to the success of "Bang! John" in its first seven years?The answer is passion!
John Schneider not only eats his own pizza, but every detail of his life, even breathing and sleeping cannot be separated from "Bang! John".He can't stop thinking "Great John".Lehman analyst Michael Speiser said of Schneider in Success magazine: "Pizza is Schneider's life, and he takes it very seriously."

Snart's philosophy is concise and straightforward. "Concentrate on what you're good at," he said, "beyond everyone else and be the best." What he's good at is leading the world's fastest-growing pizzeria to the top.And he also enjoys the process of busy work.

When he visited a franchise in downtown Louisville run by his wife, Annette, he found it crowded and overwhelmed.How did he do it?He immediately went into the kitchen and helped make the pizza for an hour and a half.It's something he likes to do.He visits the branch four or five times a week, often doing "surprise raids" to make sure everything stays the way it is when he visits.

"When I was 22 years old, I said that my dream was to open my own pizza chain. At that time, people said I was crazy." Schneider recalled, "At that time, I told the raw material suppliers, banks, and some friends that I would open five or six in a month. They all laughed at me." Now he can open an average of 30 new stores every month, that is to say, he will open a new store every day for a year, which is amazing.

However, he felt that the speed was still not fast enough.Later, "Bang! John" opened a new store in Mexico, and Schneider hoped to expand the business to Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other countries.He didn't seem to want to stop until Papa John's became the largest pizza chain in the world.He probably achieved this because he loves what he does and wants to give it his all.

Passion is the key to success

Experts have spent a lot of time trying to figure out why successful people are successful.Usually they focus on the academic qualifications, intelligence, educational background and other factors of successful people.But more than anything else, people have passion, because passion makes all the difference. According to RCA's David Sarnoff, "If a person doesn't love what he does, he cannot be successful."

If you look at an effective leader, you will often find that he does not fit a certain mold.For example, more than half of the world's top 500 CEOs have grades of only C or even C- in college; more than 75% of US presidents' grades in school are below average; more than half of millionaires have not graduated from college .What makes these seemingly mediocre people create great careers?The answer is passion.In a leader's life, nothing can replace their fiery passion.

Check out these four facts about passion and how it might affect your leadership.

1. Passion is the beginning of success

Your wish will determine most of your life.Think about these great leaders and you will be struck by their passion: Gandhi for human rights; Churchill for freedom; Martin Luther King Jr. for equality; Bill Gates for technology.Anyone who lives an extraordinary life has his desires.This is the same in any field: weak desires do not produce superior results.Just like a small torch can only bring out faint light and heat.The stronger your flame and desire, the greater your potential vision.

2. Passion increases your willpower

There is such a story: a young man without passion came to the Greek philosopher Socrates and said casually: "Great Socrates, I came to you specifically for knowledge."

The philosopher took the young man to the beach, waded into the sea, and pressed the young man into the water for 30 seconds.When the young man lifted his head out of the water to breathe, Socrates asked him again the purpose of finding a philosopher. "Oh! Great senior, I want knowledge." The young man answered panting.Socrates pushed him into the water again, but longer this time.After several times of inhaling and holding your breath up and down, the philosopher asked again: "What do you want to pursue?" The young man almost breathless said: "Air, I want air." "Very good." , "Suragdi said, "From today, as long as your pursuit of knowledge is as strong as the desire for air, you will get it." The passion in people's hearts is irreplaceable, it is the fuel of willpower.If you really want to do something, you will generate enough willpower to do it.And the only way to create that desire is to cultivate the passion within you.

3. Passion can change you
If you are determined to follow your own aspirations rather than the expectations of others, you will surely become a more cost-effective and creative person.This will also greatly increase your influence over people.In the end, your passion will influence others more than your personality.

4. Passion makes the impossible possible

One of the qualities of man created by the Creator is that when a heart is burned, "despair" disappears.A fire in your heart can heat every part of your life, which is why passionate leaders are always contagious.A leader with great passion but little skill is far better than a leader with great skill but no passion.

Self-reflection: Is passion part of your temperament?

For all its power, passion is still viewed by many as dispensable in our society.Sociologist Tony Campolo (Tony Campolo) believes: "We are now in an era of over-valuing material things, not only that, but our emotions are gradually degraded and even necrotic. We no longer sing freely, dance with hands and feet, and even When human beings commit crimes, they also have a somewhat lazy look, lacking vitality."

Is passion part of your temperament?Do you feel full of enthusiasm when you open your eyes every day?Is the first day of the week your favorite day?Or have you been looking forward to the weekends, your daily sleepwalking routine?When was the last time you couldn't sleep because of a good idea?
If passion is not a quality in you, then you are probably not ready for leadership.In fact, if you don't even feel passionate about doing something, you won't be able to lead others to do it.You can't start a prairie fire in your organization if you don't have "a fire" in your heart.

"Prescription" to ignite your passion

Here are a few things you need to do to boost your passion.

1. Evaluate your passions

How passionate are you about your life and work?Can this passion manifest itself?Ask a few co-workers and your loved one how they rate your passion level and make an objective assessment.If you don't believe that passion can change your life, then you don't have passion anymore.

2. Return to the original love
Many people have been derailed by their lives and their surroundings.Think about those times when you first started working, or even when you were a kid, what got you excited, what kept you up all night?Try to get back the old passion and use this original love to re-examine your life and work.

3. Connect more with passionate people
Birds of a feather flock together.This may sound contrived, but it is what it is.If you've lost that burning passion in your heart, find someone who can light that fire.Passion is contagious, so schedule things and hang out with people who can infect you with passion.

Predecessors can be used as a reference
General Billy Mitchell was an American military officer who was assigned to an Air Force unit in 1916, where he learned to fly airplanes, which became the love of his life.Although the role of air combat in World War I was not prominent, he still saw the great potential of air force in military operations.After the war, he began to devote himself to lobbying the army to form an air force.He provided many examples of what aircraft could do in war, but he encountered a lot of resistance.He suffered so many defeats that the Army even imposed military law against him in 1925, forcing him to resign a year later.He was not exonerated until after World War II.

After his death, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.He is willing to pay any price for what he thinks is right.How about you?
(End of this chapter)