How do you handle your passion with care? How do you help ensure when you’re off-the-charts passionate about your vision, that you don’t go off the rails in pursuit of it? How do you keep that race car that is your passion on the track?

In this week’s episode, Warwick and I discuss his latest blog at beyondthecrucible.com titled Why Your Passion Must Serve Your Purpose. We explore seven key truths to help you stay out of the danger zone of your passion becoming so white-hot that it hurts you and your team.

Among the insights we discuss to help you avoid creating more crucibles are being vulnerable, asking for help and being sure to channel your passion appropriately.

In short, Warwick says, “Your passion needs to serve your purpose. If it doesn’t, you need to get your passion under control until it does.”

To explore Beyond the Crucible resources, including our free Trials-to-Triumphs Self-Assessment, visit beyondthecrucible.com

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Have a question or comment? Drop us a line at info@beyondthecrucible.com

Transcript

Warwick Fairfax:

Welcome to Beyond the Crucible. I'm Warwick Fairfax, the founder of Beyond the Crucible.

Having too much passion, it's not that passion is bad, you just recognize the danger that passion unchecked and unchanneled appropriately can really cause huge amount of destruction and can hurt people. It should come with a warning label, handle with care. If you're a racing car driver and you're driving on probably the most dangerous course in the Formula 1 circuit in Monte Carlo, you have this high performing Ferrari that you're driving and you may be a good driver. But if you push the envelope too much and don't drive it appropriately, it could harm, if not kill you, and other people. These drivers know that. They know they have to drive fast, but under control, that car has to be under control at all times, irrespective of the speed. They know that.

Gary Schneeberger:

How do you handle your passion with care? How do you help ensure when you're off the charts passionate about your vision, that you don't go off the rails in pursuit of it? How do you keep that race car that is your passion on the track?

Hi, I am Gary Schneeberger, co-host of the show. In this week's episode, Warwick and I discuss his latest blog at beyondthecrucible.com titled Why Your Passion Must Serve Your Purpose. We explore seven key truths to help you stay out of the danger zone of your passion becoming so white-hot that it burns you and your team. Among the insights we discussed to help you avoid creating more crucibles with your vision to help you overcome a crucible are being vulnerable, asking for help and being sure to channel your passion appropriately. In short, Warwick says, "Your passion needs to serve your purpose. If it doesn't, you need to get your passion under control until it does."

Indeed. This is an episode based on Warwick's most recent blog at beyondthecrucible.com, which is called Why Your Passion Must Serve Your Purpose. Okay? Why Your Passion Must Serve Your Purpose. I'll begin this episode as I always do with episodes that are about the blog, Warwick, and by asking you what led you to write this blog on this subject of how you need to make sure that your passion serves your purpose?

Warwick Fairfax:

We often think that passion is a good thing. And when we're talking about passion, we mean the passion that's required to make your vision become reality, something that's really deeply on your heart. And in that sense, passion is helpful. It really helps the vision come to reality. Passion can give us perseverance to get through setbacks. You might be thinking, "Gosh, this vision is too important to fail. There are people depending on me. This can really help people. I'm so passionate about this vision, this calling, this mission." And in that sense, passion can be like rocket fuel. It can help us propel our vision forward. So you might be thinking, "Well, that sounds great. What could be wrong with having a whole lot of passion for your vision? And it's not so much that it's wrong, but with a lot of things in life, there can be unintended consequences of too much passion or maybe more accurately passion that's not channeled appropriately.

Yeah. I mean, we often talk about having off-the-charts passion for your vision, and that's good, but there can be so much passion that we can unintentionally hurt other people. For instance, we might be so focused on bringing a vision to reality to help other people that we might actually end up hurting people on our team. There might be people that say, "Well, this is a good vision, but I think we need to pause. I don't know that we have all of our ducks in a road. There are maybe some pieces missing, there are elements of the vision we need to iron out a bit before we go to market, before we roll out this nonprofit.

They might have very understandable reasons for pushing pause or want to tinker, maybe not with the vision, but how it's specifically rolled out and the strategic plans, the implementation, all sorts of things. But we might hear the word delay and feel like, "What do you mean delay? We can't delay. People are counting on us." And so we can get agitated, almost angry about it. And so vision is good, but sometimes when vision is too much, if you will, or not channeled appropriately off the charts, vision in some sense can actually be dangerous.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah. We say the phrase off-the-charts passionate all the time, right? That's important to bring your vision to reality. But what you're talking about really is making sure that you're not off the rails passionate, you're not a little out of control, passionate about it, and there is a balance there. I love that you mentioned that passion is the fuel that can propel your vision to reality, but it's rocket fuel, you said, right?

What happens with rocket fuel sometimes? It can burn up. It can explode. I mean, it's a great thing to get you where you're going, but if misused, if used unintelligently, if used without restraint, if used wrongly, it can blow up literally. So that's really the ground we're going to cover here.

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, I love what you're saying, Gary, about rocket fuel. I think of Formula 1 which is very popular in Europe. You can have the latest Ferrari, McLaren, whatever those cars are, and they're high performance engines, but you've got to keep them on the racetrack. If you're going around the narrow street of Monte Carlo, for instance, there are times when you might be going, I don't know, 30, 40 miles an hour on those hairpin bends. Other times you're doing, I don't know what, 180 more. Those Formula 1 drivers who are the best in the world, they know when to speed up, when to slow down, and they have to keep their engines tuned appropriately. And they've got to keep them on track, otherwise, they could be injured, they could injure spectators. So that's, I think a good example of in many areas of life, if not all, it's important for passion to have guardrails or else high performance engines. High performance cars can do a huge amount of damage. Well, some driven high performing person without the appropriate guardrails. A high performing person with fashion without guardrails can be dangerous, very dangerous.

Gary Schneeberger:

And this is not just to you Warwick, this is not just thoughts that you've had. This is not even really only thought leadership. This is experienced leadership because you've been through some situations where your passion by your, as you'll talk about your passion maybe has gotten off the rails a little bit, has become a little too off the charts. Talk a little bit about that.

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, I mean, I am somebody that as we'll talk about beneath my usually calm exterior, I'm a very passionate person. And certainly there's one example in my life where, yes, my passion wasn't really controlled appropriately. It didn't quite have the guardrails it needed to, and I know listeners and viewers have heard this story, but we're going to look at it from a bit of a different lens. In 1987, I launched a 2.25 billion takeover of my family's 150-year old media company in Australia. I'd just come back from several years overseas with an undergraduate degree at Oxford, a stint on Wall Street and with my MBA from Harvard Business School. My dad had died earlier that year, and I felt that the company had strayed from the vision of the founder, my great, great-grandfather, John Fairfax, and that the company wasn't being well managed.

Now, 15 years earlier in 1976, other family members had threatened my father out as chairman. I was 15 at the time. It was absolutely devastating. I felt like this was a righteous man, falsely persecuted. So all this produced a lot of passion within me. Remembering what happened to my father at 15 years earlier, I felt that the company was straying from the vision of the found, it was not being well managed. And so as I was coming back from Harvard Business School, I felt that something had to be done and something had to be done now. I was off the charts passionate, almost this righteous crusader mentality, which was never good or rarely good I should say. But anyway, in late August 1987, literally a few months, I probably graduated in May, June '87. August '87, which is two or three months later, I launched this 2.25 billion takeover. And things went wrong right from the beginning.

Now the family members sold out. They didn't want to be in a company controlled by a 26-year-old, which makes sense. Within three years, the debt in the company was so high that we had to file for bankruptcy. Australia got in a big recession and revenues and profits were down. So my actions led to friction within the family that led to instability with thousands of employees at the company. And so you might ask, okay, it seems like in theory you should have been an intelligent person, an undergrad degree from Oxford, Wall Street, a Harvard MBA. You at least knew something about business and how to structure things. I mean, I'm assuming you attended finance classes at Harvard Business School. It seems hard to fathom, hard to figure out. I mean, how could I have made so many mistakes? And I think in short, it was too much passion or I would say uncontrolled unbridled passion.

It led me to hiring the wrong advisors who told me what I wanted to hear. It led me to ignoring the good advisors that told me, "You know what? Warwick, the numbers don't add up. It's too risky to make the takeover." These were blue-chip merchant bankers, basically, Australian British-speak for investment bankers, but wasn't what I wanted to hear. We've got to make this happen, got to make this happen, got to make a change. And so I ignored those good advisors. Basically my passion clouded my judgment and caused me to make rash and ill-advised decisions. And the irony is by my nature, I don't tend to make quick decisions. I tend to think about them, ask for advice. Well, certainly now, but even back then, I never thought of myself as a quick and rash decision maker.

But all of this passion, the memory of what happened to my father. And these same, some of this is subconscious, these same family members who tossed my dad out. I felt like allowing the company to go in the wrong direction and management was making poor decisions. And so with all this emotion and passion running around within me, it led me to just be impatient and make rash decisions without thinking them through.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah. I think there's two aspects of that story that are important to sort of unpack a little bit. One is the passion that you described is both positive passion. You wanted to bring the company back, so it was moored in how your great-great-grandfather did it. That was a passionate, noble passion. And then there was maybe some negative passion, right? For sure there was about what had happened to your dad. Passion that can derail your vision can be both from positive sources and negative sources. That's fair, isn't it?

Warwick Fairfax:

It is absolutely fair. The sad, unfortunate thing is if you'd asked me at the time and not in 1987. Okay, so this is just a response to your feeling that other family members proverbially stabbed your father in the back. I would've said, "No. That's not why I'm doing this. It's because the company's not being well managed." And objectively, I think, I believe that is true. As I've said in other podcasts in the first year or so when I brought in new management, they increased operating profits 80%. So objectively it was certainly underperforming. Of course there was so much debt, it didn't matter what was happening at an operating level. The point is it's not like all of my assumptions were wrong. Certainly, the one about it wasn't being as well managed. I think it's objectively true. Was it a bit too sensational? I mean, I think so.

It wasn't so much that my assumptions were wrong, but it's almost like the cure was worse than the disease. And with some of that passion, some of that righteous indignation because of what happened to my dad, probably yes, but I didn't realize that at the time. I just felt like something's got to be done. So yes, there were some issues, but my passion probably magnified those issues, maybe exaggerated them. And certainly it's one thing to say something needs to be done. It is another thing to say, "Well, is this the right way to go about it? Are there other options? Can you even do anything?" This would be a whole other discussion, but sometimes something may need to be done, but you may not be the one to do it. Or there might be no way of doing anything at the present time. So maybe you wait.

There's all sorts of other options other than doing a hostile takeover to what I objectively thought at the time. And I think to a large degree objectively think now that the company wasn't being well run and I felt like it strayed from the vision of the founder. Even if that's true, it doesn't mean that my actions made sense or there weren't other options I should have tried or done nothing at all.

So there are all sorts of, and we'll never know how that would've turned out. But the point is, my passion was so immense and my righteous indignation, if you will, about what happened to my dad that it clouded my judgment and prevented me from objectively looking at other options or objectively looking at whether it was even possible or wise to do the takeover.

Gary Schneeberger:

And I said that there were a couple of points I wanted to draw. The second one I think is also important for folks, and that is you mentioned that one of the things that contributed to the takeover's ultimate failure was that you had family members sell out and they didn't want to be locked into a company run by a 26-year-old. I think it's important to point out that while you were 26, this isn't just something that happens to "young people" to just starting out people, right? This is something that is no respecter of age and experience, right? This idea that passion can overtake reason and can certainly unseat your vision. That's not age-specific at all, is it?

Warwick Fairfax:

It's a good point because again, with the Harvard MBA, the idea that in a takeover that's going to be deemed as hostile, that family members are going to want to sit in a privatized company where they really can't sell out very easily at all, controlled by somebody else. No rational business person would think that would make sense, whether you're 26, 56, somewhere in between. And it's not like I hadn't done plenty of cases at Harvard Business School, maybe not quite this particular case, but something would've taught me some common sense in the world of business. But I felt like, "Oh, they won't sell. They have loyalty to the company" and obviously, the advisors I was using cared more about the fee than that. So as long as they get paid or got paid, then that was fine.

But I was just making assumptions that were just idiotic. That alone to be trapped in a company by 26 year old. So you're right, Gary, that yes, it's my particular circumstance. There's billions involved when I was 26, but it could be a small business, it could be a neighborhood community group, it could be a family issue, it could be all sorts of things. With too much passion, it can lead you to make assumptions that other rational people would say, "How in the world could that person make that assumption? No sane person would irrespective of the size, of the age. Too much passion, too much emotion that washes away reason can make the most intelligent person make the most idiotic and dangerous decisions.

Gary Schneeberger:

That's the bad news folks, okay? Here's the good news. Warwick's blog unpacks seven reasons how you can prevent this from happening in your own experience. And let's start running through those Warwick. The first of your seven points about how to make sure that your passion doesn't derail your vision, that your passion doesn't cancel out all the good that you want to do. The first point is recognize the danger. It all starts with recognizing what the circumstances that's going on, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely having too much passion. It's not the passion is bad, you just recognize the danger that passion, unchecked and unchanneled appropriately can really cause huge amount of destruction and can hurt people. It should come with a warning label, handle with care. Back to the racing car analogy. If you're a racing car driver and you're driving on probably the most dangerous course in the Formula 1 circuit in Monte Carlo, you have this high-performing Ferrari that you're driving and you may be a good driver, but if you push the envelope too much and don't drive it appropriately, it could harm, if not kill you, and other people. These drivers know that. They know they have to drive fast, but under control. That car has to be under control at all times, irrespective of the speed. They know that. Their life and others' lives are on the line.

All I have to say is the first step is recognize the danger. And in my case, I'm a passionate person. I think there are many others who are also passionate. If you have a vision that you are off the charts passionate about, then you can be in the danger zone. You probably are or will be. On the other hand, if you're not off the charts passionate about your vision, it's probably not going to happen. For those who want to lead a life for significance. To those that feel like, "Okay, I want my life to be a life on purpose, dedicated to serving others, you'll almost certainly be passionate. If you are somebody that wants to lead a life for significance, then this message, this caution is for you.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah, for sure. And it's right, passion is an emotion. You begin rightly with here's the emotion you're going through. Now recognize that emotion could be dangerous. The next step, 0.2 in the blog is Knowledge is Power. You're taking here, you've got the emotion that you're considering. Now you need some knowledge to go with the emotion. Talk a little bit about how knowledge is power in this particular circumstance is helpful.

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. We use this phrase, knowledge is power a lot at Beyond the Crucible. We used it as part of the assessment, a triumph to triumph assessment in which we talk about having knowledge helped you go from your worst day to triumph to lead a life of significance. Knowledge is very helpful. And so just understanding that passion can be dangerous, we begin to start thinking to ourselves. Okay. So we've had instances in the past like me when passion was dangerous and bad outcomes happened. And so it tells us as we seek to bring our vision to reality, we need to be careful. We need to begin to understand that we need some guardrails and we begin to start asking ourselves. Well, when we get really passionate, maybe too passionate in some sense, we can begin to ask ourselves, when does that typically happen? How does that manifest itself in an unhealthy way when we go to the danger zone.

Everybody's different. It's not necessarily the case of two people who are both passionate that, how it manifests itself in an unhealthy way will be the same. So yeah, recognize that too much passion can be dangerous. Begin to tell yourself that's true. And how specifically does it manifest itself within you? As you begin to self-reflect, you're beginning to enter a territory that could actually be healthy. You're beginning to think, "Well, I know I need guardrails but what do those guardrails look like?" The fact you're even thinking I might need guardrails is a huge win,

Gary Schneeberger:

I just have to say, because of the vintage I am in years, you've said danger zone twice so far in this conversation.

Warwick Fairfax:

Indeed.

Gary Schneeberger:

I am singing in my head, Kenny Loggins theme to Top Gun Highway to the Danger Zone. That's going on in my head. So I probably dropped it in your head now too. My apologies for that.

Warwick Fairfax:

No. It was already there, the 1986 movie, Top Gun. And where was I when I saw that movie? I was at Harvard Business School in Boston. That's where I saw that. I guess I didn't quite get the fact you got to be careful as you're taking off in your F-15 or whatever it is, off an aircraft carrier. Somehow I missed ... I don't know if that was the point of the movie. It may not have been, but if it was, I missed it. So there you go.

Gary Schneeberger:

We'll have to do a podcast episode about it in a series sometimes and dig into that question. But until we get there, folks, the third point in Warwick's blog following recognize the danger and knowledge is power is this, be vulnerable. Why?

Warwick Fairfax:

It's one thing to see something within you, it's another thing to say something. And so being vulnerable is really helpful. One key step of wisdom is to admit to your team and those that could be affected by your perhaps over-the-charts unbridled passion that we might have a problem. It could be with your family. It could be with your coworkers on a vision that you're trying to bring to reality. It could be with a nonprofit that you're volunteering with. Whatever endeavor that you're working on or whatever vision you're trying to bring to reality, just be honest with those folks. And just admit the fact that you believe so much in that vision that sometimes we can get a little over the top, be a little too passionate and can unintentionally cause damage that might hurt people in relationships.

In this conversation with other people, the first step is to say, using another metaphor, "Houston, I have a problem" back to Apollo 11 or the Apollo program in the '60s. You got to be able to admit that you can get overly passionate at times and maybe you're in the midst of a circumstance where you are potentially entering the danger zone. The dial in your racing car is in the red. It's never good when that's in the red, just being vulnerable, admitting that you either might or have a problem and that you're just so passionate that it's hard for you to think straight

Gary Schneeberger:

In post-production on this episode, we may have to have our producer throw in a little snippet from the song Danger Zone every time you mention it.

Warwick Fairfax:

Exactly.

Gary Schneeberger:

So we can have the listeners and viewers have the same problem we're having right now. What I love about this point, Warwick, is that you talk about it a lot. And you talk about vulnerability for a purpose, and that's really what this is. This is perhaps the gold standard of vulnerability for a purpose, isn't it? As you're going through managing your passion in the proper way.

How can vulnerability for a purpose help you achieve the purpose you're pursuing? Warwick answers my question after these words from our sponsors.

Warwick Fairfax:

We do often talk about vulnerability for a purpose. It's not like, "Let me tell you every stupid thing I've ever done that has no relevance to what you're doing." But if you're with your team, let's say in some venture that you believe the world needs, it's going to help people. It's your life of significance. It probably will also be your team's life of significance too, certainly in some way. Then that's where if you feel like this wave, this tidal wave of passion coming upon you, then you've got to say, folks, you know I'm a passionate person. Right now I just feel this passion that's almost, I use this expression sometimes almost like lava breaking through the surface.

And I know at times in the past that's been dangerous, but I sure feel like it's happening now. It's vulnerability for a purpose. The first step to be able to moving forward, at least from a team's perspective, they might see that you have passion, but they're not. Most people aren't going to say, "Hey, Warwick. Hey Gary. You seem to be really off the charts passionate about this. I think we've could have a problem." Not something people tend to do. You've got to go first and say, "Hey, I actually have a problem here." You want to enter into a conversation you first got to say you've got a problem.

Gary Schneeberger:

Right. And that leads nicely as you always do when these episodes, Warwick. You always connect them like steps that we're walking on. But the fourth point in the blog, and this speaks to something else that we talked about in a lot at Beyond the Crucible fellow travelers, but your fourth point is ask for help. You're vulnerable, right? Next step, you got to ask for help. As you said, we have to go first. So unpack why ask for help is a critical part and maybe difficult for some people sometimes.

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah. I mean, it's not going to be any secret to your team that you get off the charts passionate about certain things. Any leader that's, I don't know if they're a visionary leader, but a leader that's really wants their vision to become reality is going to have times in which they're really passionate. And so at this point you recognize the danger. You've admitted you have a problem, you're vulnerable, and now you've got to ask for help from your team members or those potentially affected by your passion. You can ask them, when I get like this, please tell me, or I feel like I'm being a bit too passionate. They can say, I can see that you seem really passionate about this issue and I feel like maybe I, maybe we have said something, or maybe this situation has touched a nerve because, it seemed like you were fine a moment ago or yesterday, or I just feel like it's a volcano that's come out of nowhere because it seems like your passion's at another level, so help me understand what's happening?

By just being vulnerable and asking for help, they might say, "Well, it seems like Warwick, you're getting very passionate." When I mentioned subject A, man, it's just like you said, it blew a gasket or something. I was like, "Huh, really? I didn't really think about that huh? So I blew a gasket When subject A came up? Then you can begin to think about what's going on here. But asking for help can help you identify what's going on or why you are feeling that way.

Gary Schneeberger:

Right? And it's important, isn't it? When you ask for help to ask it of people who you believe will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. You sort of indicated in your takeover experience, you had some good advisors who were telling you, who were offering you help and you weren't having any of that help. You had help that you wanted to pursue. I mean, I think it's fair to say that finding people who will speak truth to you rather than speak what you want to hear to you is really critical to this step.

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. And really that gets into another very important subject is we talk about having a team of fellow travelers, which is a team who have complimentary gifts to you, but they absolutely a hundred percent sold out into the vision, they believe in it. But you've got to pick the right people that have integrity that will tell you not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. That should be a huge requirement when you're selecting your team members. There's this phrase, being able to speak truth to power, being able to, speak truth to somebody that you work for, so to the best, a degree that you can. You've got a filter for that in the interviews with these people. And then just see over time, are they doing it? If they always say yes to every idea that you have and say, "My gosh, Warwick. That is genius. That is brilliant. Wow. That's amazing."

And it's all they ever say, rather than, "I'm not sure about this one." That is a bad sign. Maybe you should test it out and just come up with the most harebrained, stupid idea you can and say, "Hey folks, I'm thinking about this." And they go, "That's brilliant." If everybody says, "It's brilliant-"

Gary Schneeberger:

Bravo, bravo. Right, right.

Warwick Fairfax:

... at that point, maybe you need to fire the team and get somebody, a whole new team. Yeah, absolutely Gary, you've got to have people that are willing to speak truth to power and be honest with you.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah, we are now more than halfway through Warwick's blog, Why Your Passion Must Serve Your Purpose. We've talked about recognizing the danger. We've talked about knowledge is power. We've talked about being vulnerable and we've talked about ask for help. The fifth point Warwick is this, reflect on why you are so passionate at the moment. To use your words, why the lava is bubbling up toward the top of your head or wherever the lava is bubbling. Why is this step critical? Because you talk about reflection a lot. Why is reflecting at this point about this subject so critical?

Warwick Fairfax:

We often talk about the inner work preceding the outer work, the soul work for a leader or anybody that has a vision that they're off the task passionate about, they want to bring to reality that inner work is so important. And part of that inner work is when your passion goes in directions that are not helpful, that it does feel like lava is oozing out, that it feels like you're getting impatient or almost angry with your team or your family, depending on the context, you've been vulnerable, you've asked for help. Maybe your team has given you clues as to when your passion went to from zero to a hundred in a nanosecond, what triggered that? They will give you breadcrumbs of clues about what happened. At that point you've got some data and you can begin to reflect, so what's going on? Why did I seem to get over-the-top passionate about that subject at that time?

Reflect is the first inner work you can do in a sense that's so powerful is what happened there? Why did I just kind of lose it in one sense in terms of my passion and maybe snap at my team, what's going on? And sometimes it can relate to an issue with your team or it could relate to an issue decades earlier. It could be in childhood or something, somehow you were triggered with some emotion. Or maybe you've got so much of your identity wrapped up in your vision that if there's a roadblock or a delay, it feels like it's delaying you as a human being. Maybe it's pointing to some unhelpful aspects, which we've talked about a lot on this podcast. If your identity being so wrapped up in your vision that if there's a delay, you get wide, hot, passionate, bad things happen.

It's really a good opportunity. It's again, back to the race car analogy. When you see you've got all sorts of dials that the engine's about to blow up, there's an oil leak. Those dials are there for a reason. It gives you information that you can then go for a pit stop or maybe not push the engine into the red all the time. And at this point you've got some information, you've asked for help. We'll reflect on what is going on. Why are you so passionate? Is there something triggering that? Do some inner soul works, inner reflection to figure out what's going on? What triggered you to have this almost passionate emotional outburst?

Gary Schneeberger:

And this could be the hardest one of the seven points in the blog because in the same way that at 0.4 ask for help, you want to ask for help from people who are going to tell you, we said what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. And this 0.5, as you're asking yourself questions, as you indicated, you've got to ask yourself questions that you need to hear, not the ones you want to hear, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah. I mean, you've got to be able to face the music, face the internal music.

Gary Schneeberger:

Right.

Warwick Fairfax:

Just because you get over-the-charts passion at times, doesn't mean that you're a terrible person. It may mean that you care. Maybe too much. Passion isn't always fueled by some identity crisis or it's all about me. Passion could be fueled by altruistic motives to help people. So it's not always bad, but regardless, just that internal reflection is important, it's painful. So just go into it saying, okay, this doesn't mean I'm a bad person. Maybe it means I care too much, but since I care about the people I work with and having my vision become reality, I'm going to ask myself some tough questions." I'm going to try to understand is there something from my past that's triggering this? Again, it doesn't mean you're a bad person, it just means you're human, but you've got to do the inner work so that your team isn't hurt, and so frankly, that your vision becomes reality.

Gary Schneeberger:

For sure. The sixth points in your blog, Warwick, pretty simple one word, pray. Talk about that.

Warwick Fairfax:

Indeed, pray. This might seem like an interesting concept, but we took a lot on Beyond the Crucible that your beliefs, your values, they need to be anchored in something. For me, it's my faith in God. I believe it's helpful for people to have their direction, their soul anchored in some higher power, something beyond themselves. In fact, one of the ways we define faith is a belief in something beyond yourself. That might be religion, that might be a different paradigm depending on your perspective. But for me, as a person of faith, when I feel like my passion may be getting a bit out of control, I pray something like this, "Lord, I feel so passionate about this, but I don't want my passion getting in the way of the mission. And Lord, I certainly don't want to hurt people. That is not my heart. Lord, please calm my spirit." And I would say most of the time, not about all of the time, because sometimes my passion is pretty strong, but I'd say-

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah. It's pretty hot Lava sometimes, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Indeed. But I'd say, the vast majority of the time, maybe not instantly, but over time, I feel like the Lord does calm my spirit. Maybe it happens supernaturally, but for me it really helps because this doesn't mean I don't want to have passion, but I don't want to have that passion overwhelm me or hurt others or get in the way of my vision becoming a reality. So for me, prayer which is defined as a conversation with God, at least that's how I see it, and others, it's having sort of the ultimate person, if you will, entity that can really help you is just calming my spirit because then I can begin to think rationally. But I believe prayer is one of the most helpful ways to have your passion channeled, calmed. Not extinguished. I'm not asking for prayer for that, but channeled in appropriate way. Just Lord, please calm my spirit. I found that to be incredibly effective and helpful to me.

Gary Schneeberger:

Six is a great point for that because you've gone through all the steps, the soul work, you've gone through asking others, your team of fellow travelers perhaps to weigh in, you've been vulnerable, then you sort of seal it. The sealant can be that prayer, that meditation, that looking outside yourself to some higher truth. And then it gets to 0.7 right? After you've sealed all that up, then you take 0.7. And 0.7 is channel your passion appropriately. I'll just add this before I ask you the question or ask you to react. Channel your passion appropriately, given the context of what we've been talking about, could indeed mean with all the talk about Formula 1 racing, could indeed mean to take your foot off the gas.

That could be the solution that you're looking for here in 0.7. After you've done all these six points, inner work, outer work, upward work, in prayer, it all ends here. Channel your passions appropriately. Talk about that.

Warwick Fairfax:

Yeah, having recognized the danger, being vulnerable, asked for help, reflected on what's going on and prayed. Now, I think hopefully you're in a place where you've calmed down a bit. You can begin to think rationally. The brain is working again. It's not just over-the-top heart passion. The brain is now getting back in gear. Your education, your intelligence, your mental faculties. And you can begin to reflect on what strategies you'll use to channel your passion appropriately. You've recognized the problem, you've understood why, hopefully at this point, and you might begin to ask yourself, "Okay, so what's happening here? Maybe this is an issue that I'm triggered by from something in the past. Maybe I'm just so white-hot passionate about this issue that perhaps somebody else on the team may be better positioned to calmly advocate for this." With a donor, a customer, presentation to somebody, you can begin to think, "Okay, what's the appropriate strategy here?"

Maybe, you know what? I know there's going to be a delay and this is really bugging me so much, but we need to make sure that we iron out some problems with this new product or this new venture, this new nonprofit. We need to figure that out so that our vision can come to reality and so that we don't start hurting people or creating problems unnecessarily. So there could be a whole host of outcomes, but once you've calmed down and you know the areas where you're being triggered with your over-the-top or off-the-charts passion, you can begin to think rationally about what the next step is and begin to think to yourself, "Okay, how do I channel my passion appropriately? Know when to dial it down a bit."

You can be passionate but yet, it's possible to be at least somewhat outwardly calm and rational, even though you're really passionate about what's happening. You don't have to yell and scream all the time to prove you're passionate. People know you so once you've calmed down, it's so much easier to think clearly and rationally, "Am I the right person to do this?" Maybe I need to push pause on this particular aspect of the venture. Maybe this secondary product that I was thinking of rolling out, maybe something with this nonprofit that we wanted to do, maybe now's not the time. Maybe the vision itself a worthy vision. Maybe you need to push pause on it. Maybe it's not the right time in life. Maybe you've got young kids and it's like, "This is going to consume my life 24/7. I'm just going to have to wait a few years." Or, "I feel like I'm not in the right place to really implement this vision. I've got to do some inner work, maybe some healing from some crucible that I've been through."

It doesn't mean it's no forever, but there could be a whole host of reasons in which you feel like I need to push pause on the vision. Maybe I don't have the right team yet. There're some critical players I need. I haven't been able to find the people with the right skills who believe in the vision, but are also going to be willing to speak truth to power. There could be all sorts of reasons to push pause on your vision or have other people help you with it and channel it in a better direction. But all of those rational thoughts won't happen until you found a way to calm down and not be in into the lava danger zone mode.

Gary Schneeberger:

Right, and that does wrap up the point-by-point discussion of your blog, Why Your Passion Must Serve Your Purpose, which is available right now, folks, at beyondthecrucible.com. I wanted to end or begin to end, Warwick, on this truth. One of the great things about Beyond the Crucible, folks, is that nothing that Warwick writes about, talks about is something that he hasn't himself walked through, right?

This has all been learned, sometimes hard learned experientially, and you talked at the outset when we started this conversation, Warwick, about when you've let your, during the takeover of your family's media company, let your passion jump the boundaries, get a little out of control. But now, you've experienced since then some different ways of dealing with managing your passion. So how have you been able to channel your passion after the lessons you've learned and the experience with the takeover, specifically as you described earlier?

Warwick Fairfax:

I guess the first thing I'd say is I'm far more aware of when I'm getting passionate and that it can be dangerous. I still tend to be a very passionate person by nature. I don't know if everybody is. I certainly am and it's good and bad, but I can't really change my fundamental wiring. It just is what it is. And so, I've had a number of instances, even recently, where I can think of a nonprofit that I do a lot of work with. There was a particular issue. I was off-the-charts passionate. I had unbelievably strong convictions, and it was like lava volcano mode inside.

I mean, there's no question what was going on there, and I recognized that. And while I might've thought that my position on that issue was right, which I do, I knew that I had to find a way to calm down because it wasn't going to be helpful. Certainly, wouldn't get the mission accomplished. In fact, when I went into that meeting with this particular nonprofit on this issue, and these are people that know me very well, I said, "Look, I'm really passionate about this, so let me start even before I open my mouth, apologize. I'm going to do my best to be calm." It could be difficult, but I mean, they've known me very well for years.

And so, I did my level best to be calm. I wouldn't say I totally accomplished it, but at least I was vulnerable. I tried to be respectful and, "Look, I trust you, guys. You folks know what you're doing." Being vulnerable. That alone was a huge help. So I feel like I know myself much better than I did. Knowledge is indeed power. When I realize that I'm getting passionate, even though mostly, I'm calm on the inside, there's all these things I'm thinking and I'm just railing against something and I'm passionate about it. All this stuff is going on on the inside, then that's a big help because at that point, what I typically do, and if it's a personal issue, I'll talk to my wife Gail and say, "Gosh, I'm really passionate about this."

Sometimes I'll ask, "Well, what's going on here?" And she knows me very well and says, "Well, is it being triggered by A or B or C?" Just talking about it will help. Typically, then, I'll say, "Can we pray about this because I sure need it because I feel like it's controlling me? I don't want to hurt people and this is not helpful. So that will help." Sometimes I need to do it more than once, the prayer, because my passion could be hard to deal with at times. If it's in the context of what I do with Beyond the Crucible, I might talk to some other folks on the team saying, "Boy, I'm really passionate about this, but I don't want this to derail things. And so, we'll talk about it."

And so, at that point, we can begin to have a conversation saying, "Okay, what's the best way? Is this something we need to just not pursue or just be a little more patient about it? Maybe somebody else is the best one to talk about the issue. Maybe just drop it for now." But having been vulnerable and prayed, at that point, my spirit is a bit calmer, and I can begin to think rationally. One of the things I really try and do with this example with a nonprofit is like, "Lord, I believe this is the right course, but I'm going to leave the outcome to you and to the team who's going to make the decision," which in this case wasn't me.

And they're smart people. I have confidence in their judgment. I've presented what I thought was right. Yes, I'm passionate about it, but I'm not going to have my identity wrapped up in the outcome of this decision. And I think I pretty much didn't and haven't, but there was a lot of inner wrestling, a lot of inner soul work that precedes that. So I can't really change who I am, which by nature, I am a very not extremely passionate person. I mean, I have views about, I don't say everything, but a lot of things in life. I don't always talk about them because they're not always productive to talk about. But I really have tried over the years to channel that passion appropriately. And at times, if it comes out in unhelpful ways, I try to be ready to apologize and say, "Yeah, I was little over-the-top passionate about that one. I'm sorry." Well, if people know you, it's okay to be human. It's okay to blow it once in a while because that's going to happen. Blowing it is not failure, if you will, I suppose to mix metaphors. Failure is probably not doing anything about it and not being willing to apologize.

So I just try to be a lot better at knowing when I'm getting a bit too passionate, when it's a bit uncontrolled, if you will, realizing it, asking for help, praying about it, and letting go of the outcome. And okay, maybe this vision won't happen as quickly as I thought it would. Maybe the outcome I want to happen won't happen. I'm going to be okay with that. I'm not going to have my identity wrapped up in that decision or that outcome. It's a lot of inner soul work and a lot of asking for help and prayer. All those things have been hugely helpful to me. It doesn't mean I don't get passionate. I can't change who I am, but I can make sure that this isn't going to overwhelm me.

Gary Schneeberger:

And would you say that all those things taken together, they have allowed you to chart a course that doesn't take you to the highway, to the danger zone?

Warwick Fairfax:

Absolutely. It's led me to keep that racecar, which I like to think at times I'm driving a race car. At least, certainly, I like to think what we collectively do at Beyond the Crucible is like that. There'll be times in which you hit a hairpin bend, like it's 180-degree hairpin bend. You can't do 180 miles an hour on 180-degree turn. It's just, it'll crash and burn. Bad things would happen.

Gary Schneeberger:

Doesn't add up, yep.

Warwick Fairfax:

No. So you got to be willing to slow down at times. And the same is true at Beyond the Crucible or any vision, there are times in which you got to, as I say, you got to slow down because if you go too fast, bad things will happen. In fact, going too fast at times can make things take forever because you're going to make too many mistakes. You can't afford to be too quick. So yeah, I mean, it's definitely been helpful and it's helped me keep the race car such as it is on the rails. And maybe I'll hit the guard rails once in a while, but I like to think I'd go through the guard rails.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yes.

Warwick Fairfax:

Nudge it slightly at times, perhaps.

Gary Schneeberger:

Yeah, your life is not a Fast & Furious movie. That's good.

Warwick Fairfax:

Yes, indeed.

Gary Schneeberger:

So now that we've wrapped it up, you said a lot of things that are really helpful to folks who are watching and listening. What's one takeaway you like those who are watching and listening to come away from this episode with?

Warwick Fairfax:

Having off-the-charts passion is not wrong, but your passion must serve your purpose. Let me just add, this is a brilliant phrase, and I say it's brilliant, not because I'm egotistical, which hopefully I'm not. But in one of our pre-meetings when we were talking about ideas for the blog, Gary, that's a phrase that you mentioned. You said your passion must serve your purpose. That is profound wisdom. So when I say it's profound wisdom, I can say that because it wasn't me. So there you go, it was you.

Gary Schneeberger:

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. That's getting into the danger zone of my ego, but thank you.

Warwick Fairfax:

There you go. But your purpose, your vision, and your life of significance, they must be in control, not your passion. If your passion is in control, it will endanger your purpose, your vision, your life of significance. That is not what you want to have happen. You don't want to have your life of significance just go up in flames because you can't keep your passion under control. That is the opposite of what you do. Just meditate, pray about that, saying, "Lord," or however you look at it, "I care about this life of significance, this mission, this vision too much. I don't want my failings, my at times over-the-charts, over-the-top passion to get in the way of that. I really don't want to do this because people depend on me, on my team. People are going to be helped by this vision. I don't want to fail because I wasn't able to get my passion under control and channel it appropriately."

So think about how important it is for your vision to succeed and how people are counting on you, both in your team and the people you're going to help. You don't want to hurt other people, especially people on your team and off-the-charts, over-the-top passion that can do that. So that's not what you want to do. That's not what living a life of significance is. Living a life of significance is not about hurting people, it's about helping people. So you have to have your passion be under control. So I think we believe passion is important, and passion is a good thing, but that passion must be kept under control. Otherwise, you'll hurt people. You won't achieve your life of significance, and your vision won't become reality. So that inner work, that inner prayer to a higher power, it's so important seeking advice because you want your mission to succeed, and you don't want your passion to just go off the rails and torpedo any chance that it has of happening.

So if you're a little bit leery about doing the inner work, just think about, do you want to hurt people? Do you want your vision to not succeed? Do you want to not have a life of significance? Well, if you want all those things to happen, a life of significance and help people, then get your passion under control, put up the guardrails, seek help, pray to a higher power, just keep your passion under control.

Gary Schneeberger:

Great insight. That lands the plane. In this particular case, given what we've been talking about and some of the references we've made, it lands it on the aircraft carrier, right?

Warwick Fairfax:

Indeed.

Gary Schneeberger:

But before we go, folks, as we always do when we do episodes on a blog that Warwick's written, and this one is available at beyondthecrucible.com, is we ask reflection questions, questions for you to ponder in light of all this discussion that we've had, and I would exhort you before I read these to be vulnerable and honest with yourself as you reflect on these questions.

The first one is, is your passion serving your purpose? Ask yourself that question. Is your passion serving your purpose? Number two, if it's not, reflect on what's going on and share with others that you are having difficulty channeling your passion appropriately. Being vulnerable for a purpose right there. Not just vulnerable for a purpose in a conversation, but for your purpose. For a purpose and for your purpose, be vulnerable. And then the third one, pray or meditate on what is going on and ask for your spirit to be calmed so that your passion can indeed serve your purpose.

That, folks, is going to wrap us up here on this episode of Beyond the Crucible. As always, until we're together next time, remember that we know crucible experiences are difficult. We've had them. We've talked about those things. We've talked to a whole bunch of people, more than 120 guests who've gone through crucibles. We know they're hard, but we also know they're not the end of your story. They can be the beginning of a new story if you apply the lessons you learn from them and chart a course to a new destination and that destination, if you follow your vision and your passion properly channeled can be the best destination you can reach because it is a life of significance.

Welcome to a journey of transformation with the Beyond the Crucible assessment. Unlike any other, this tool is designed to guide you from adversity to achievement. As you answer a few insightful questions, you won't just find a label like the helper or the individualist. Instead, you'll uncover your unique position in the journey of resilience.

This assessment reveals where you stand today, the direction you should aim for, and crucially, the steps to get there. It's more than an assessment. It's a roadmap to a life of significance. Ready? Visit beyondthecrucible.com. Take the free assessment and start charting your course to a life of significance today.