Last week I attended FUEL: Cleveland, a day-long conference featuring some of the greatest motivational speakers in the country. First up was Guy Kawasaki, the former chief evangelist of Apple. He shared his lessons learned from working with Steve Jobs. And then he offered a bonus: “Some things need to be believed to be seen.” This slide resonated so profoundly with me that I’ve been thinking about it for over a week and constructing this blog in my head since then.
Flashback to the weekend prior to FUEL. I was setting up a massive Halloween display in my yard for my boys. Here it was, broad daylight and they we so into it! Their excitement of what it was all going to look like, how it was going to scare everyone, was infectious and had absolutely nothing to do with the reality of the end results. They believed in what it was going to be, long before I got all the extension cords hooked up, buried the skeletons and activated the fog machine. (It’s awesome, by they way. I love it, and they do too).
That childlike excitement, the ability to believe in something that you can’t see is what drives visionary entrepreneurship. Before you can lay down the bones of a business you need to believe in the idea, the spark, the gut feeling that makes starting and growing a business the rush that has pushed me to do it three times over.
From our belief comes creation. When you believe it, you can see it. Like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, ghosts and spirits alike. Our minds are powerful things, and belief can conjure reality from imagination. So the lesson today is to ask: what do you believe? Can you create a hunt based on that belief? Is it strong enough to become something you can see, hear, touch?
If my success is proof of anything, it’s that I am a believer. Long before any of my companies became reality; I had the unshakable faith in each idea that allowed me to pursue my goals. Believe, hunters, and go out and hit your targets.
