If we follow the well-intentioned advice to “think big,” is it possible that we’re still thinking too small? In my career as a business journalist, author, and columnist, I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to meet leaders who are changing the world. Transformational leaders have one thing in common—their vision is bigger than average. And not just a little bigger, but on a different planet. While many of the world’s most successful people “think big,” transformational leaders think moonshots.
I recall a conversation with Teach for America founder, Wendy Kopp. As a Princeton student she embarked on a mission to “reduce educational inequities.” For most students who “think big,” being accepted into an Ivy League University would be a dream come true. Kopp said her vision was a “moonshot,” inspired by John F. Kennedy’s vision of sending a man on the moon. The Soviet Union was thinking big in 1961 when it sent the first man into outer space; Kennedy was thinking moonshot.
I often think about some of the leaders I’ve interviewed. “Thinking big” doesn’t adequately describe their visions. Howard Schultz returned from a trip to Italy to tell his Starbucks partners that they should start selling coffee at their Seattle store, which, at the time, specialized in beans and equipment. Schultz’ partners were afraid to take the risk. For Schultz, serving cappuccinos was just a stepping-stone to “creating a third place between work and home.” Selling coffee was thinking big; building a third place was a moonshot.
Tony Hsieh once told me the story of how he started Zappos.com in a San Francisco apartment. Hsieh wanted to build a company that completely re-imagined customer service, building its foundation on the happiest employees in corporate America. Selling products online is thinking big; delivering happiness is a moonshot.
During the research for one of my books, The Apple Experience, I learned that Steve Jobs did not want to build a retail store to sell computers; he wanted to create a unique space that would enrich people’s lives. One former Apple Store executive told me that Steve Jobs wasn’t interested in growing Apple’s market share from 3 percent to 5 percent. Instead Steve asked, ‘How do we reinvent the customer experience?” In 2001 selling computers in a company-owned retail outlet was thinking big; enriching people’s lives was a moonshot.
While business leaders make up the majority of my interviews, a schoolteacher provided one of the most profound interviews of my career. Ron Clark was Disney’s Teacher of the Year in 2000 because he was capable of inspiring moonshots in others. Clark told me the story of how he took a fifth-grade class in Harlem, New York, that was scoring at a second-grade level and, within one school year, had convinced the students that they could outperform the school’s ‘gifted’ class. They did and their lives were forever changed.
In every commencement season there are a few breakout speeches. We’ve had several this year including this one from comedic actor Jim Carrey. “So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it. I’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it…My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that it was possible for him,” Carrey told graduates of Iowa’s Maharishi University of Management. Carrey’s dad settled on a “safe” job, which didn’t turn out to be safe at all when he lost it and the family fell on hard times. The Carrey family lived in a van for a short period of time. “You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love,” Carrey said.
When he was a struggling comic, Carrey drove to the top of Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles and wrote himself a check for $10 million for ‘acting services rendered.’ He postmarked the check for three years in the future, by which time he was making $10 million a picture. For most comics appearing at the famed Improv comedy club is thinking big; writing a check to your future self for $10 million is a moonshot.
Yes, Carrey is an outlier and we can say the same about Steve Jobs, Howard Schultz, Wendy Kopp, Tony Hsieh, Ron Clark, and the many others who have found uncommon success. Are the rest of us potential outliers who place limits on our own dreams?
Earlier this year I was hitting golf balls at a practice range when I noticed a PGA tour professional nearby. We struck up a conversation and I mustered the courage to ask him for a tip. He watched my swing, took the club from my hands, and hit the longest, most accurate ball my driver had ever seen. He used the same equipment as I did, but did so more effectively. While I have yet to replicate his 300-yard drive, I immediately started hitting my driver a longer distance because the pro had taken the lid off of my thinking and had shown me that my basic, off-the-rack driver was capable of doing so much more than I had ever dreamed it could. The average human brain is said to have more than 100 billion neurons and capable of storing a gargantuan amount of information. The ‘equipment’ we’re all born with is pretty much the same, but some people use their brain to accomplish so much more.
I know what you’re thinking: All of this sounds great, Carmine, but I’m just hoping to get a promotion at work. Exactly. That’s why transformational leaders—outliers—are so rare. They don’t place arbitrary limits on their potential. A promotion is thinking big; owning the company is a moonshot. Isn’t it time you created your own moonshot?