Chapter 7 Do You Love What You Do? Volume 3

Greetings from rural Australia.

Perhaps you didn’t quite believe me when I said that when you love what you do and you nurture that love, it will take you places you never dreamed of.

So I'm going to rev this up to maximum torque.

Who is Jamie Durie?

Is there anyone who hasn’t heard his name?

He started his career as a buffed male dancer in the late 80’s dance group Manpower. His life in Las Vegas was everything a young man could dream of.

Except he tired of it.

And came back to Australia to pursue his true love. Gardening.

He enrolled at the Ryde School of Horticulture and sopped up everything he could learn.

He also has a characteristic in common with all successful people. His optimism and belief that everything is possible. He has this in spades.

Several years ago there was an article about him in Wealth Creator Magazine. Like all of us, he has his dark days. He’s lost several million dollars in deals that weren’t put together as tightly as they should have.

He has a teenage daughter, Taylor, who still lives in Las Vegas with her mother. Although he’s very much a committed father, he’s still separated from his daughter.

No one’s life is perfect. Mega successful people have just as many crashes in their lives as you and me. But their belief in themselves and their ability to pick themselves up and put that life back together, is what takes them to where they are.

Jamie is the first to admit that he’s where he is more by good luck than by good planning. Don Burke spotted him and gave him his first break when Don asked him to appear on Backyard Blitz, which is a Don Burke production.

And Jamie's certainly not an overnight wonder. He's spent close to 20 years fanning the flames of his passion.

Now he’s Oprah Winfrey’s gardening buddy and who knows where he’ll go from here.

But his overriding passion in life is gardening. He has the drive and the ambition to be better at it than most. And to keep learning and nurturing and pushing the boundaries of the envelope.

Combine that with his natural charisma, eternal optimism, heartbreaking smile, and his ability to say yes when opportunity comes knocking, and you have success oozing out of all his pores.

Handsome and buffed isn’t a prerequisite for success.

But love of what you do is.

Peter Cundall is the antithesis of Jamie Durie. He's 80+ years old. With a body that's seen hard work in his days. But that twinkle in his eyes shows you how much he's in love with what he does. That love has turned him into Australia's foremost gardening icon.

He’s the idol of every man and woman who’s ever aspired to having a successful vegetable garden.

Is there anything Peter Cundall doesn’t know about vegetable gardening?

His delivery catches your breath. He’s so in love with his subject, he can’t speak quickly enough to get the words out to tell you everything he wants you to know. He wants to share all his knowledge with you. And he loves doing it.

It shows on his face and in his mannerisms.

Jamie Oliver's accomplishments for a young man under 40 are breathtaking.

Jamie was an apprentice chef to Gennaro. And could have morphed into just another good chef. But Gennaro saw a spark when he realised Jamie possessed a deeper and more abiding love for food than anyone else.

And became Jamie’s mentor and a life long friend and critic. The two together are like an old married couple who can't live with each other and can't live without each other.

Jamie exhibits a tendency to be grumpy and irascible, and you either love or hate him, but he lives, eats and breathes food. He’s clearly obsessed with the benefits of fresh food that's cooked simply.

He also likes things done perfectly.

And he never stops doing the impossible.

His push for better food in British schools went straight to the desk of Tony Blair.

His Fifteen restaurants, which are all a registered, non-profit charity, have given street kids a new chance for a better life.

This is where love of what you do can take you.

Not everyone aspires to achieve fame and fortune at this level. It's hard work and you have to be very careful and mindful of your image. You lose your private life, which can be hard on your family.

But you do aspire to achieving success in your business. And you can’t achieve a high level of success without loving what you do.

What do you love about your business? What can you grab with both hands and turn into an obsession? What do you love that motivates you to get out of bed every day and go for it?

Find that spark, nurture it and you’ll discover that it will take you places you never dreamed possible.

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I know that anything is achievable.

What are you going to do today to ignite a spark into a flame of passion?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.


Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.



A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.