LEARNING FROM YOUNG LEADERS : Question 5

I’d like you to imagine living in the intersection of three circles. Top circle, man, you are passionate about it and you love to do it. When you wake up in the morning, you think to yourself, “I so hope I get a long life because there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than what I am doing.” Second, now the circle changes from best in the world to what you are encoded for, what you are made for, what you are constructed for, what you were put here for. Now, this is very different from what you might be good at. Let me illustrate the difference in my own experience.

When I went off to college, I thought I was going to be a mathematician because I was one of these kids who was good at math. So, I majored in mathematical sciences. But along the way I met those who are genetically encoded for math.

{Laughter}

I had to find a different Hedgehog. Now imagine the third circle. You have an economic engine. You can make a living and you can fund your BHAGs. Now imagine if you have all three of those. You're passionate about it and love to do it; and, man, you are constructed, you are made for it, you were put here to do it; and you have an economic engine to make a living and fund your BHAGs. You have found a Hedgehog. And when you lead out of your Hedgehog, that is part of the wellspring of the incredible, irrational endurance to persist.