Enthusiasm has a great cloak which can conceal lame talents, dwarfed ambitions, and mangy personalities. It has a sparkle like sunlight on rippling waters and can cause dedicated failures to be delightful. You can buy a man’s time. You can buy a man’s physical presence at a given place. You can even buy a measured number of skilled muscular actions per hour per day. But you cannot buy enthusiasm, you cannot buy initiative, you cannot buy loyalty. You cannot buy the devotion of a heart, mind and soul; you have to earn these things (Ed Liden).
Enthusiasm finds opportunities, and energy makes the most of them. The noblest definition for enthusiasm is by Greeks, meaning ”God in us.” There is no substitute for enthusiasm. When the members of a team are enthusiastic, the whole team becomes highly energised. And that energy produces power. Industrialist Charles Schwab observed, “People can succeed at almost anything for which they have enthusiasm”.
You cannot win if you do not begin. To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action. You’ve got to get yourself moving. Likewise, if you want to be enthusiastic, you need to start acting that way. If you wait for the feeling before acting, you may never become enthusiastic. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates remarked, ‘’What I do best is share my enthusiasm”. Obviously that ability has brought the people in his organisation immense success.
A good way to fire up your own furnace is to do things with greater urgency. A second way to is to do more. And the third is to strive for excellence. Many decades ago, Charles Schwab, who was earning a salary of a million dollars a year, was asked if he was paid such a high salary of his exceptional ability to produce steel. Charles Schwab replied, ‘I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among the men is the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement”.
The worst bankrupt is the person who has lost enthusiasm. Carefully managed enthusiasm is a most splendid business resource that can inspire dedication, drive, originality and above all, results. What is more, enthusiasm is highly contagious and can bring out the health, happiness and success in everyone.
