0:00

Hi everyone, this is Todd Henry. My new book,

0:02

The Brave Habit, is available now wherever books are

0:04

sold in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. I think it's

0:06

my favorite book I've ever written, and a lot

0:08

of people are telling me it's their favorite book

0:11

as well. I think you're gonna like it. So

0:13

check it out wherever books are sold or

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at thebravehabit.com. Now

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on with the show. A

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few years ago, my friend Harris invited

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me to speak at the Story Conference

0:27

at Scurmurhorn Symphony Hall in Nashville, Tennessee.

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The audience was filled with creative leaders and

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pros from brands and companies striving to

0:35

do brilliant work. And I wanted

0:37

to deliver a talk that would help them understand

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just how important that work is, and to give

0:42

them what they needed to go back and cause

0:44

a ruckus in their own organization, to borrow the

0:46

words of Seth Godin. I

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speak to several dozen groups a year, but

0:50

getting to spend time with talented, ambitious leaders

0:53

is always my favorite forum. So today, I

0:55

thought for something different, I would share that

0:57

talk with you in hopes that it will

0:59

spark a fresh passion, maybe a fresh insight

1:02

for you, for your work, and for those

1:04

you lead. Of course, if you

1:06

want to know more about my speaking and teaching, you

1:08

can do so at toddhenry.com. Now

1:11

here's my talk from Scurmurhorn Symphony

1:13

Hall in Nashville, Tennessee. Enjoy.

1:18

I was reminded of a story of a young

1:20

musician as I was thinking about what I wanted

1:22

to share with you. July of 1967, this musician

1:24

was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. It

1:26

was the chance to tour as the opening act

1:28

for one of the most popular bands of the

1:30

day. I mean, this man wasn't just popular. They

1:32

were drawing thousands of people to arenas all over

1:34

the country. So for a young, relatively

1:37

unknown musician, this is quite the opportunity. So

1:39

of course, he said, yes, the night came

1:41

for the first show, the arena fills, the

1:43

lights go down, and he

1:45

walks out on stage, and

1:47

he begins to play. And

1:50

the crowd goes silent for

1:53

about three songs. And then

1:55

after the third song, they began to live in that, but it

1:57

wasn't quite the response he was hoping for. Instead of cheers. had

4:00

no grid, no grid for what Jimmy Hendrix,

4:02

is he playing with his teeth? What is

4:04

he doing? That's weird. But

4:06

we all know how this story goes. How

4:09

many of you have ever been to a party and heard, whoo,

4:11

play me some monkeys, right?

4:13

I gotta remember that one, yeah. But

4:25

Jimmy Hendrix went on to transform generations of

4:27

those who followed, because

4:29

he refused in the face of

4:31

resistance to monkey eyes his Hendrix

4:34

music. Do

4:36

you have that same courage, friends? There

4:40

are a couple of forces we have to fight if we wanna

4:42

do this well. The first

4:44

one is comfort. Comfort.

4:49

Early in our career as a create

4:51

on-demand professional, we often

4:53

hook into the most valuable and

4:57

precious narcotic known to creative

4:59

pros. External

5:01

validation. Somebody

5:04

says, you're really good at that. And

5:06

they begin to feed us. Ah,

5:09

that's the good stuff, right? And

5:12

we lock and we load and we ride

5:14

it out. And

5:16

eventually we wake up one day and we say, I

5:20

am nowhere near where I intended

5:22

to be. See,

5:25

the thing I've had to learn the hard way, and I know many pros

5:27

I work with have had to learn the hard way as well, is you

5:30

can easily succeed your way into failure. You

5:35

can accomplish a lot, you can accomplish external validation,

5:37

people can praise you for what you do, you

5:39

can look like you're on top of the world,

5:41

and deep down you know I am very far

5:44

from the person I intended to be. Let

5:48

me illustrate this by uttering the most terrifying words ever uttered

5:51

by a human being. Let me show you a

5:53

card trick I just learned. Sorry Harris.

5:55

All right, I'm gonna put five cards up on

5:57

the screen. I want everyone to choose one card,

5:59

just one card. I'm gonna mind meld with you, all right?

6:02

Everybody have your card? All right,

6:05

I'm gonna remove the cards. Now, I

6:07

know you people. Listen, you are my

6:09

people, right? You are my

6:11

people. So I think I can

6:13

predict with great certainty the card that most of you chose.

6:15

I'm gonna put four of those cards back up on the

6:17

screen. I'm gonna remove one of them, put four back up

6:20

on the screen. How

6:22

many people see your card? Nobody?

6:26

Four people? Greatest trick ever,

6:28

thank you, story! How

6:30

many people? Actually, these are four

6:32

entirely different cards. They're the ones I put up the

6:34

first time. Those

6:37

of you, raise

6:40

your hand, come see me after. I

6:42

have people I can refer you to. It's no problem, it's

6:44

fine, right? Why

6:46

does this trick work? It works because I

6:49

gave you a problem to solve and you

6:51

performed brilliantly, with a few exceptions. You performed

6:53

brilliantly, you did. But in so

6:55

doing, you ignored the context. You forgot

6:57

what it is you're even trying to

6:59

do. Friends, you can succeed your way

7:01

to failure. What

7:06

are you trying to do? And

7:10

are you doing it? Don't

7:13

monkey-eye us your Hendrix music. The second

7:15

dynamic we have to be aware of is fear. Is

7:18

fear. Fear is the

7:20

thief of dreams.

7:23

And the sinister thing about fear is it often

7:25

comes disguised as wisdom. It

7:28

often sounds like, are you sure

7:30

you wanna, wouldn't

7:33

it be better if you, maybe

7:36

you should wait until fear

7:39

is the thief of dreams. So

7:41

again, in Neil Fury, who does research into procrastination, and he

7:43

often brings people into a room like this, and he'll put

7:45

a wood plank on the floor, 10 feet long, six inches

7:48

wide, and he'll ask people, could you walk the length of

7:50

this plank if I ask you to? Well,

7:52

of course, it's a wood plank on the floor. You'd have to be drunk, not

7:54

to be able to do that. Great. Now

7:57

imagine I take that plank and suspend it 100 feet

7:59

in the air. the air between two buildings. Now

8:02

could you walk the link to that plank? And

8:04

they look at the imaginary plank and they look at him and say, no

8:06

way are you kidding, I'd have to be drunk. No way am I walking

8:08

a wood plank 100 feet in the air. Well

8:11

what's changed about the technical skill required to walk

8:13

the plank? Absolutely nothing.

8:16

If you can do it on the ground, you can do it in the air. What's

8:19

changed are the perceived consequences of failure.

8:23

Which in this case is plummeting to your death, so I kind of get

8:25

it, right? Well listen, I

8:27

would submit to you that many of us go through our days, artificially

8:31

escalating planks. Artificially escalating the

8:33

perceived consequences of failure to

8:36

the point that we don't act. To

8:39

the point that, and this is, listen, this is important,

8:41

to the point that we don't ask dangerous

8:44

questions. We

8:46

don't ask dangerous questions because we're afraid of

8:49

the answers we might get. And

8:52

when we get those answers, we know it's gonna

8:54

create accountability to act. And so we'd rather just

8:56

shrink back and listen

8:58

to the voice of fear. Fear

9:01

is a thief, but

9:05

as my friend Brian says, fear is also

9:07

often the smell of opportunity. The

9:11

place you're most afraid to go as a

9:13

team, as an individual, when you're commercializing your

9:15

work, is also the place that you know

9:17

you need to go. So

9:21

how do we begin to countermand these dynamics

9:24

of comfort and fear? I

9:27

believe that the way that we do this is by

9:29

identifying our productive passion. Productive

9:33

passion. Now, the word passion is used, I think,

9:35

out of context a lot. We talk about it

9:37

as something we like, something we're interested in, something

9:39

that gives us a thrill, like I'm passionate about

9:41

ice cream, right? I find

9:43

it helpful, which I am, by the way,

9:45

very passionate about ice cream, but I find

9:47

it very helpful to reclaim the original meaning

9:49

of the word passion. The word passion in

9:51

its root form comes from the word pati,

9:53

which means to suffer.

9:57

When we say we're passionate about something, It

9:59

means I am willing to suffer if necessary

10:01

to see it happen because I care more

10:03

about the outcome than I do about my

10:05

temporary comfort. I care more about the outcome

10:07

than I do about whatever fear is whispering

10:10

in my ear right now. I care more

10:12

about that than I do about this.

10:16

Productive passion must

10:19

be your compass if you want to

10:21

avoid the lure of

10:23

comfort and fear. And

10:25

you wanna refuse to monkey eyes your Hendrix music.

10:29

Another way to say this is we need to

10:31

identify the place where we say,

10:33

here I stand. Here

10:37

I stand. And

10:40

never shall anyone cross this line. Over

10:42

my dead body am I gonna compromise

10:44

these principles. I'll change my

10:46

mind. I'll do what's necessary to

10:48

succeed, that's fine, but over my dead body

10:50

will I change these principles.

10:55

So I wanna give you a couple of questions you

10:57

can ask in sort of a practical sense to be

10:59

able to identify your productive passion. I call these the

11:01

notables. They're questions we can ask that

11:04

we can look for patterns in our life to identify

11:06

that productive passion for us. And by the way, I've

11:08

walked teams through this as well. It

11:10

can be very, very valuable in

11:12

making decisions. The first one is what

11:15

angers you? Now I'm not talking

11:17

about road raids, right? Like, rrr, somebody cut me off on

11:20

65, rrr, you know? I'm

11:22

talking about compassionate anger. Compassion

11:24

means to suffer with.

11:27

What makes you feel compassionate anger? Somebody

11:30

needs to do something about that. Yeah,

11:32

that somebody is you. What

11:36

fills you with compassionate anger? And

11:39

what are the patterns there that point to your

11:41

best work, to the body of work you can be proud of?

11:43

The second question you can ask is what makes you cry? Or

11:46

guys, what makes you feel like you got something in

11:48

your eye, right? Because guys don't really admit that they

11:51

cry. So I am a

11:54

huge fan of this movie, Rudy.

11:56

Do you guys know the movie,

11:58

Rudy? Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. Okay, for

12:01

those of you haven't seen it, I'm about to totally spoil it for

12:03

you. But Rudy is about this little tiny

12:05

guy that wants to play football for Notre Dame. True

12:07

story, can't make the team, can't

12:09

make the team. After all of this effort, he

12:11

finally makes the team. It's the climactic moment. He

12:13

gets in the final game of the year. He

12:15

gets in, he makes this amazing play. Everybody's cheering

12:17

for him. I'm watching this movie, my wife comes

12:19

downstairs. I've got lots of stuff in my eye,

12:21

right? She's like, why are you crying? You've seen

12:23

this movie a hundred times? Why are you crying? I'm

12:25

like, I know, but he's so

12:28

tiny and he plays so

12:30

well. That's beautiful, that's beautiful.

12:32

Oh, right? I

12:34

am profoundly moved by the stories of underdogs.

12:36

I am. Some of my

12:39

best work is done with David's taking on

12:41

Goliath, and I know that about myself. And

12:44

so I seek out opportunities to operate within that

12:46

productive passion because it prevents me from falling into

12:48

the lull of comfort of just working with people

12:50

who can pay my bills. No,

12:53

no, I refuse to allow

12:55

comfort and fear to rob

12:57

me of my productive passion. What

13:00

is that for you? And what is that for your team? The

13:03

third question you can ask is what gives you hope? What

13:07

is the thing that you believe and hold on

13:09

to even in the face of resistance? Even when

13:11

everybody around you says, ah, it's crazy. You're

13:14

nuts, you're crazy. You

13:16

have fire and brimstone falling from the sky, casting dogs,

13:18

living together, and you're like, I think it's gonna be

13:20

okay. It's gonna be fine, right? What is that for

13:22

you? What is the thing you believe that

13:25

few people around you believe? What

13:28

is the thing that you believe that you believe is

13:30

gonna be a great clue to

13:32

your productive passion? Once

13:34

you begin to identify these dynamics, you

13:37

can begin to define your battle lines. You

13:41

cannot fight every battle, friends. You

13:43

can't. You will lose. But

13:47

you have to fight for something creatively. And

13:50

the answer is gonna be different for every person in

13:53

this room. It

13:55

is. What is your productive

13:57

passion? What are you willing to see?

14:00

suffer on behalf of because

14:02

the outcome matters more to

14:04

you than your temporary comforts. The

14:08

outcome matters more than any artificially

14:11

escalated plank that fear is whispering about

14:13

in your ear. What

14:17

is that for you? About

14:21

15 years ago, I was in a meeting

14:24

and the person leading the meeting was

14:26

about kind of a really dangerous or dangerous and risky thing

14:28

we were doing. The person leading the meeting

14:30

asked kind of an out of the blue question. He said, what

14:32

do you think is the most valuable land in the world? That's

14:35

a weird question. I don't know

14:37

what the most valuable land in the world. So we start throwing out a

14:39

bunch of guesses. Oil fields in the Middle

14:41

East. Gold

14:44

mines in South Africa. My colleague was from South

14:46

Africa. Wrong. Manhattan.

14:48

Hey, wrong. So after throwing

14:50

out a bunch of guesses, we

14:53

said, well, what do you think is the most valuable land

14:55

in the world? My colleague, quoting

14:57

the late Miles Monroe, said, I

15:00

believe that the most valuable land

15:02

in the world is the graveyard.

15:08

Because in the graveyard are buried all of the unexecuted

15:11

ideas, all of

15:13

the unwritten novels, all

15:15

of the unreconciled relationships, all

15:18

of the ideas that people carried with them day after

15:20

day after day. And they said, you know what? Tomorrow

15:22

I'm going to get around to that. Tomorrow

15:25

I'm going to start. Tomorrow's the day

15:27

I'm actually going to push myself to

15:30

get moving on this thing that

15:32

is a splinter in my mind. And

15:35

they pushed it and they pushed it and they pushed it into

15:37

the future. Till one day they reached

15:40

the bookend of their life and

15:42

all of that value was buried with them dead

15:44

in the ground, never to be seen

15:46

by human eyes. That's

15:49

why it's the most valuable land in the

15:51

world, because all of that value, the unrealized

15:53

potential was buried with them.

15:58

And that day I went back to my office. and

16:00

I wrote two words on an index card, and

16:03

I put them on the wall of my office, and I put them in my

16:05

notebook, and those two words have

16:07

defined the last 15 years of

16:09

my life. And

16:12

those two words were die empty. Because

16:16

I wanna know, when I reach the bookend of

16:18

my life, I'm not taking my best work to

16:20

the grave. I'm not gonna get to do everything.

16:22

Of course not, none of us do, but I

16:25

will know I have spent my days purposefully putting

16:27

work into the world where it belongs, where I

16:29

can be experienced by others. I've

16:31

refused to monkey eyes my Hendrix music

16:34

just because it was uncomfortable, or because I

16:37

was afraid. The

16:39

rough edges they decry you for now are

16:42

the very rough edges they will celebrate you for

16:44

later. I

16:52

wanna know that when they put me in the ground, my

16:54

best work is out in the world where it belongs. Will

16:57

you be able to say the same? Be

17:00

purposeful friends, be diligent,

17:02

be brave, confront

17:05

the lull of comfort, know

17:07

who you are, discover what you're

17:10

willing to suffer on behalf

17:12

of, and use that as

17:14

your framework for making creative decisions. And

17:18

if you're purposeful, and if

17:20

you're diligent, and if you refuse

17:22

to monkey eyes your Hendrix

17:24

music, then someday in

17:26

the far distant future when they put you in the ground,

17:30

you can die empty of regret, but

17:33

full of satisfaction for a life well-lived. I

17:36

think that's all any of us could ask for. Be

17:40

brave, you've got this, you

17:43

do. Thank

17:45

you very much. See you again. Thank you.

17:48

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

17:51

Thank you. Thank you so much for listening.

17:53

If you enjoyed this talk, again, you can

17:55

find more of my speaking, my teaching, my

17:57

training at toddhenry.com. my

18:00

books, anywhere books are sold, including my

18:02

latest book, The Brave Habit, which is

18:04

about how to lead courageously in times

18:06

of uncertainty. Daily

18:08

Creative and all of our work

18:10

is available at dailycreative.app. There you

18:13

can find the back catalog. If

18:15

you would like to get full

18:17

interviews, daily episodes, coaching, and more,

18:19

you can do so at dailycreative.app.

18:22

Thanks again so much for listening, and until

18:24

next time, may you be brave, focused, and

18:27

brilliant. you