IDEAS FOR LEADERS: When Passion meets Knowledge

Adapted from an original post by Andy Nulman

The combination of care and understanding is key not just to making the sale, but to delivering the product on a regular and high-level basis.

Examples are many, but a real timely one given the mega-opening of The Hunger Games film is how director Gary Ross landed the director gig over heavy hitters like Sam Mendes and David Slade.  I quote from a piece in Entertainment Weekly:

“When he first met with Lionsgate executives, he brought storyboards, character arcs, and a seven-minute film in which he interviewed his teenage twin son and daughter’s friends about the effect of the book…

“‘It was a watershed moment in the project,’ says Lionsgate president of motion pictures Joe Drake, ‘because it showed how well he understood the materiel and that we were going to be able to live up to the promises that we made to Suzanne (Collins, the author of the uber-popular young adult series).”

There’s no easy way to making a sale or making something work.  You can see right through fake delight and zeal. Pretending you know about something you don’t is a recipe not just for failure, but humiliation.

If it’s worth anything to you, make sure you feel it and know it.  And can convince others that you do.

If not, move on to something you can.
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