This is our regular e-message to people who are interested in leading their lives with passion. We will send you a short note with information, stories, examples, and practical things you can do to lead your life, work, and organizations with passion. You are receiving this message because you have attended one of our presentations, expressed an interest in our work, asked to be put on our mailing list, purchased one of our books, or are one of our friends, colleagues, or associates! If you would like us to take you off our mailing list just reply to this e-mail and type 'unsubscribe’ in the subject field and we would be happy to do so. Leading With Passion We like the term 'leading with passion,’ because it has two very significant, but related meanings. The first suggests leading off with passion. That is, making the very first priority in your life to live, work, and play passionately, and to fully embrace every possible moment. Second, it means that we can lead our organizations, teams, and projects with passion - creating passionate work environments by transferring our own enthusiasm for the organization to all others who come into contact with it.

The Man With A Million Friends
Scott "Magneto" Hughes never wanted to be rich. Instead of money, he loved people. He always said from his earliest days that "I don't want a million dollars; I just want a million friends." He accomplished that goal years ago. He reaches 50,000-65,000 kids each year through school assemblies and programs. He's been doing it for 23 years. If you do the math, that adds up to 1.1- 1.6 million children who he has connected with over nearly a quarter of a century. He's had his own company, W.E. C.A.R.E. Sports, for 18 of those 23 years, based in Portland, Oregon, and still is clearly passionate about his lifework.

Mag (not even his wife calls him Scott) is fully alive with a zest for living. He is also a deeply spiritual person. After spending time together at places like Portland's Japanese Garden, the Rose Garden, and Multnomah Falls (the second highest year-round waterfall in the nation), he chose The Grotto for our interview. The Grotto, a beautiful 62 acre Catholic Shrine and botanical garden, surrounded by stunning natural beauty and spiritual significance, was the perfect place to talk about passion. What can we learn from Mag about living and working passionately?

Follow (literally) Your Dream
After an auto accident that broke his leg when rolling 75 feet down an embankment, Mag's rehabilitation program called for exercise. One day he spotted people kicking a little foot bag around in a park. That very night he had a dream that he could perform and teach what he saw around the world.

It took him two years to become good enough to do school tours.

Since that time he has traveled to Europe 7 times, as well as Australia; been a 10 time world Hacky-Sack champion; was inducted into the Footbag Hall of Fame's very first class; and was named the Portland Juggling Festival's Most Inspirational Juggler.

He never finished college and was only an average student. Until he found and followed his dream, he was hitchhiking all around the country and Canada, wondering what he was going to do with himself. The only thing he knew for sure was that he would be involved in working with kids in some way.

How many of us have had that dream but forgot it the next morning?

Follow Your Eyes
Most people end up working where they grew up or where their jobs or school have taken them. Mag found the place he wanted to live first, then he discovered his work. While he was recovering from his accident and looking for a place to live he saw Mt. Hood, just outside of Portland. "I saw the beautiful surroundings of Mt. Hood and said, 'Man, this is the place for me,'" he says. "I said that this is where I want to live." So he found a job with the Portland Parks and Recreation department and decided to stay.

How many of us choose to live in surroundings which depress us? How many organizations provide depressing work locations? Not everyone can live in a place of natural beauty like Portland, but it doesn't take much imagination to make even the dreariest place more visually and aurally desirable. And if you can't do that - why not move?

Follow Your Heart
It sounds like a pretty comfy situation, doesn't it, to travel around the world playing games and juggling? But to follow your heart usually means taking risks and being tough.

"I think most of us are too fearful about stepping out or doing something that we love," Mag says. "Our parents had jobs they really hated and came home and went into alcohol or whatever to drown that sorrow. I guess they didn't follow (what they loved) because they didn't think they could. I think it is mostly fear of going out on a limb that hinders us from doing what we love."

And it wasn't easy. He was gone from his family 5 or 6 months a year. In the beginning there wasn't much money. It was lonely. But the interesting thing is that he made friends everywhere he went and now he knows people and their families all over the world.

As anyone who's been an entrepreneur knows, the hardest part often isn't providing the right product or service; it's doing all the things you have to do to be able to do that. "People are very fearful of stepping out of their comfort zone," he says, "and you know, I never thought I was going to be a 'business man' or have a company of my own. There are always ups and downs with the cash flow and bookkeeping and keeping performers happy, but I wouldn't do anything else in the world."

When is the last time you stepped out on a limb to follow your heart?

Follow the Leader
What makes Mag's program continuously interesting, he says, is that it's both entertaining and educational. "I have the best job in the world because I get to do what I love most. Number one is to perform in front of groups, and number two is that I get to teach. So not only am I entertaining but when we do the hands-on instruction and you see a kid's light bulb go on, you know they're thinking 'I've got it! I've got it!'" Mag's company promotes what they call self-esteem through non-competitive play. They have 8 different programs which incorporate such things as math, geography, history, and play from other cultures.

Although most of their programs are for elementary schools and a few from middle schools, they try to touch everyone, adults included when they go to a school. "It's important for us to touch the secretaries and custodial engineers and the librarians and we make a point to say something to everybody in the school," he says.

Mag learned his physical, educational, and business skills from a variety of friends and mentors, and talks avidly about them. "In 1984 and 1985 I really wanted to start doing my own school assemblies and ran across a guy named Dave Finnigan who did what they called the Juggling Institute. He showed me basically how to not just do a school assembly in juggling, but also how to market the opportunity to stay in schools all day long and do hands-on instruction, and then to sell equipment in order to make it a valuable asset to kids and school districts and teachers," he says.

Are you learning from people who could make an enormous difference in your life or career?

A Million Friends - One Passionate Career
"You can do the most fabulous trick in the world and you know the kid or the grownup can't relate to it because they don't know how to do it, but if you make them laugh," he says, "they will remember the funny parts a lot longer than they will the trick parts. But if you teach somebody how to do something it is much more rewarding for them, and for you."

Have you followed your dream, your eyes, your heart, and the people who can lead and teach you?

For more information about W.E. C.A.R.E. Sports, look them up at www.wecaresports.com; 1900 16th Street, West Linn, OR 97068; or their toll free number, 1-800-645-4257.

Leading with Passion is a regular communication from Michael Kroth and Patricia Boverie. Michael and Patricia have been researching passionate work since 1999, and their book, Transforming Work: The Five Keys to Achieving Trust, Commitment, and Passion in the Workplace, is about the indispensable necessity of passion for personal and organizational success in the workplace.

© Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved Patricia Boverie and Michael Kroth