The world lost a man of extreme passion, drive, and seemingly never-ending energy yesterday. Steve Irwin, one of my personal all-time heros, taught me how I could live life 100% on passion alone if I was doing what I loved.
And no one loved wildife and furthering wildlife conservation through education more than the Crocodile Hunter.
Larry King got Steve to talk about his passion in an interview on Larry King Live in 2004. Being an Animal Planet junkie, I already knew what “Stevo” was going to talk about in general, but everytime I saw one of his programs or interviews I would come away more hyped and positive than before.
Even the low-key Larry King got sucked into this jet stream and became a great admirer and follower of all things Crocodile Hunter.
Steve was someone [TAG]Seth Godin[/TAG] would characterize as a “Torch Bearer.” Someone who leads through action and sucks people into his jet stream of passion for his mission.
I have found that successful people don’t just have jobs, businesses, or ventures. They have passion and missions.
When I turned my business into a passion, things changed rapidly. I was able to accomplish far more. I was able to do big things I would never have imagined I was capable of doing before.
The proof is in Steve’s legacy. His family started a small, humble reptile park when he was very young. Now Australia Zoo is a massive success all around, with infrastructure and a list of accomplishments no one in the Irwin family would ever have guessed would happen.
All of it exists from the passion of one man to see it through and think really BIG about how he and his network of family and friends could improve the status of wildlife awareness and conservation.
Not only in Australia, but the world over.
To do something this big, you must have a torch bearer.
Someone who can electrify anyone who watches him in action and forces onlookers to hang on his every word.
Someone who can give people enough understanding and passion of their own to go home and make a difference themselves.
If you need to, go watch an episode of Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet. Afterwards, ask yourself where you could be in 5 years if you adopted passion as your driving force over “owning a business” or simply having a job.
And I would hope that not only would you have a successful, thriving business, but you’d learn an even more important lesson from a Steve Irwin experience: To care about and make a huge difference in someone else’s life or the well being of wildife locally or globally.
It’s not all about taking care of business in the traditional sense. We really ought to make an effort regularly to pay attention to what Steve was always trying to tell us: We have one Earth and it is in trouble. Wild creatures are going extinct at a more alarming rate than most people care to realize. But you can do something about it and you should.
Since Steve showed you by example how to succeed in business through passion, it’s the least you can do to visit http://australiazoo.com and see how you can pay him back by helping his mission continue!
Contribute to Steve’s legacy here.Â