The Power of Pull: From Passion to Potential
If you read only one book about how the social web is changing individuals and institutions in the 21st century, read ‘The Power of Pull‘, by John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison.
I first listened to the book as an audiobook, but I have since bought myself a copy on Kindle for bookmarking passages and gifted several copies to my favorite people.
One of the most important ideas in ‘The Power of Pull’ is the personal transformation from passion to potential.
If we integrate our passions and professions, the stress of an ever-changing environment turns into stimulus that helps us to learn and achieve our true potential.
The authors specifically distinguish between the passion of the true believer and the passion of the explorer. Explorers see a domain, but not the path. The absence of clear paths is what attracts them to the domain.
The authors also distinguish between passion ans obsession. Passion in a broad subject opens us up to new possibilities and enables relationships, but obsession with an narrow object close existing possibilities and inhibits relationships.
Passion operates at three levels. Passion compels even the most shy of us to reach out and take risks to form new relationships. However, passion not only motivates us to seek out others who share our passion, it becomes a beacon attracting others to us and leads to serendipitous encounters that often result in long-term relationships. Finally, passion brings together unlikely communities into dynamic creative spaces that thrive due to their members’ diversity and help them achieve their true potential.
Essentially, pull works at three primary levels, each of which builds on the others –
1. Access: At the most basic level, pull helps us to find and access people and resources when we need them, using sophisticated search engines and networks.
3. Attract: At a second level, pull is the ability to serendipitously attract people and resources to us that are relevant and valuable, even if we were not even aware before that they existed.
3. Achieve: Finally, at the third level, pull enables us to pull from within ourselves the insight and performance required to more effectively achieve our potential.
The authors have shared snippets from the book in six PDF booklets which provide a preview of the richness of the rest of the book –
Booklet 1: Pursuing Passion (PDF)
Booklet 2: Shaping Serendipity (PDF)
Booklet 3: Talent: The Dilbert Paradox (PDF)
Booklet 4: From Passion to Potential (PDF)
Booklet 5: Three Levels of Pull (PDF)
Booklet 6: Passion versus Obsession (PDF)
Once again, if you read only one book about how the social web is changing individuals and institutions in the 21st century, read ‘The Power of Pull‘.
If you would like to interview me for a story or invite me to speak at a conference, please e-mail me at gauravonomics@gmail.com, call me at +91-9999856940, or connect with me on Twitter.
