If you’ve never had a chance to watch Ray Cooper perform, do yourself a favor and put this book down and make that happen before you continue reading. A quick YouTube search will net you a bunch of results. Take 10–15 minutes and truly appreciate what a showman and performer Mr. Cooper truly is.
For those of you not willing to put the book down, here’s a snippet from his Wikipedia page:
Raymond “Ray” Cooper (born 19 September 1947) is an English virtuoso percussionist. He is a session and road-tour percussionist, and occasional actor, who has worked with several musically diverse bands and artists including George Harrison, Billy Joel, Rick Wakeman, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and Elton John. Cooper absorbed the influence of rock drummers from the 1960s and 1970s such as Ginger Baker, Carmine Appice, and John Bonham. Incorporation of unusual instruments (for rock drummers of the time) such as cowbells, glockenspiel, and tubular bells, along with several standard kit elements, helped create a highly varied setup. Continually modified to this day, Cooper’s percussion set offers an enormous array of percussion instruments for sonic diversity such as the tambourine, congas, crash cymbals, cowbells, roto toms, tubular bells, the gong, snare and timpani. For two decades Cooper honed his technique; In the 1990s, he reinvented his style. He is known for the 7-minute percussion and drum solos he performed during the years 1990–1991 for Eric Clapton and for the 7-minute percussion and drum solos during all the 1994 Face to Face Tours with Billy Joel, and Elton John, and the tours with the Elton John band during the years of 1994–1995.
From Robb: I had the opportunity to see Ray Cooper perform with Elton John, and it was single-handedly the greatest display I have ever seen of an individual perfectly melding passion and excellence into their profession. And then I got to meet him and chat with him after the show and it was one of the most amazing conversations I have ever had. It solidified my opinion that in order for one to perform at the top of their game, passion and excellence need to work hand in hand, not against each other.
When Ray strikes the drum, you know when he is playing the drums. However, Ray also understands that in order for him to most effectively deliver the most impactful percussion elements in the song, he needs to be precise about when he enters the light and when he exits the light, so as not to take the focus from the main stage performer. If you aren’t aware enough to be looking for him, you likely will never see Ray on stage. But if you do get the chance to see him, it is a thing of beauty. You’ve never seen a man smile as big as he does or play as enthusiastically as he does. But as soon as his moment is over, he disappears in the shadows and allows everyone else to play the starring role in the show.
This, to me, was a perfect example of passion and excellence working hand in hand. Ray clearly is passionate about what he is doing when playing his instruments. He lives to play music. And at the same time, he has honed his craft over decades in order to provide the right fill at the right time. His commitment to being at the top of his game is on a par with the greatest athletes or entertainers or business leaders that we read about.
Like I said, I had the opportunity to meet him in person and the first thing I did was to complement him on his stage presence and how amazing he was at disappearing when he wasn’t playing. We both laughed about that and then I followed up by appreciating the passion that he shows when he is playing. His response was remarkably poignant and spot on.
“Well, if you don’t have passion, then nothing else you do really matters!”
It was an interesting dichotomy – the opposite ends of the relationship between passion and excellence. Here was a man who for multiple decades had worked to perfect the technical or excellence portion of his job, but he was only able to be successful at doing that by maintaining a passion for what he was doing in the first place. There is a big giant lesson in that!
From Robb:
Having spent almost a decade in the bicycle industry, I was surrounded by people who relied very heavily on their passion for the industry and the activity in order to execute their job. Excellence fell by the wayside or was ignored completely. Instead of a melding of passion and excellence, it turned into passion versus excellence. I was definitely one of these people for many years. However, I came to find out that, like myself, many people who try to use passion as a crutch to overcompensate for a lack of excellence don’t last long.
I was of the opinion that loving cycling and loving the industry and loving the bicycle business was enough for me, and if I could communicate that effectively to a customer, if I could transfer my enthusiasm and excitement to them, it would help them become passionate about cycling, as well. And if I dropped the ball or screwed up or didn’t execute, it was okay. After all, I was so passionate about what I did that I could make up for any shortfalls in my execution with enthusiasm. Boy, was I wrong.
Then I had a chance to meet some C-suite people who were very focused on excellence. It was all about KPIs and lead activities and ROIs and the other buzzwords that come up in all those fun, business-jargon drinking games. I felt a huge disconnect with all these people and I’m sure the feeling was absolutely mutual.
Operating in the sweet spot between passion and excellence should be the goal of any human being, let alone any professional. Having spoken with literally hundreds of people who are focused on passion and hundreds more who have been focused on excellence, I’ve found that figuring out how to integrate the right amount of both is the secret sauce to keeping yourself and your brain set up for optimum performance.
I’m seeing this firsthand as I spend time observing the independent bicycle dealer network. There are many shop owners who are very intelligent business people. However, there are also many shop owners who just love to ride and want to spend all of their time around bikes and riding and the people who love to ride. After all, it’s the number-one activity that brings them joy.
But then go to the forums online and spend time in the shops, and no amount of passion can make up for the lack of excellence that people experience. It’s one of the big reasons for the decline in independent dealers. It’s not Amazon, and it’s not a shift in consumer purchasing behavior. It’s people and owners falling out of the sweet spot of passion and excellence working together to provide a unique valuable and memorable experience.
Passion pursuit industries like cycling or golf or tennis or skiing or photography are easy examples of where passion and excellence need to work hand in hand to be successful. But there’s plenty more in virtually every industry that exists.
So it begs the question, does a passion for what you do drive you toward a pursuit of excellence in that career or does a commitment to excellence spur a higher level of passion for the job at hand? It’s probably a bit of both, but you can leverage each individually to enhance both.
Take a look at your current job. Are you passionate about what you do? Does it genuinely bring you joy to show up and do what you do, day in and day out? Would you still do that job if you didn’t get paid? If so, great! If not, why not? Where is the gap? Is it in technical knowledge? Lack of processes? Lack of experience? Did you just settle?
If it’s a job you enjoy and are passionate about but seem stuck in (as in “where do I go from here?”), what can you focus on in the “excellence” world to help improve your situation? Would you benefit from taking a sales training class? Or a presentation skills course? Do you need to join the industry association? Get a new license?
Remember the Symposium for our dental clients? What can you do to create the mental breakthrough you need to execute your job at a higher level? Maybe it’s not that you lack the desire to achieve excellence, but you just lack the skills. Remember that skills can always be learned.
If you have a role that allows you to display a high level of excellence and aptitude, but you are not excited about it, what can you do to boost that? Sometimes just the repetitive nature of completing tasks can boost confidence and elevate your level of passion and excitement for what you do. If that’s not doing it for you, who can you go to to help elevate your passion? Seek out a mentor. Specifically, someone who has experienced the same path that you are on. Learn from them. Ask great questions and, more important, be open to hear the answers.
So how do you master the right mix/balance of passion and excellence to stay on top of your game? Who knows? It’s up to you to figure it out, but one experiment certainly won’t help you figure it out. And like one of our favorite motivational speaker lines, you won’t find the key to that answer as it happens to be secured by a combination lock.
It takes a “cocktail” approach to finding the right mix for you. Here’s what that means:
Have you ever stayed at an all-inclusive? You know, the places that typically are in some tropical location with lots of activities, a beach, and a swim-up bar. The resort always has a signature cocktail. It’s usually sweet and has a bunch of different kinds of booze in it, and maybe it’s topped by an umbrella, but it’s not overly strong so as to keep the guests “under the threshold” for at least most of the day.
But it’s typically not for everyone. Meaning there are some folks that want it sweeter, or stronger, or with light rum instead of dark, or in a bigger glass. But that variation is all based on what the guest wants to experience that day. Some folks are in for a day of drinking and order the drink a bit weaker so they can have fun all day. Some folks want to go hard, pass out for a while, and then ramp back up after a siesta.
Ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer for how to make the drink. It all comes down to the combination that the guest needs to have the experience they are yearning for. The same thing goes with mastering your cocktail of passion and excellence.
It’s never one or the other. There has to be both, but each ingredient needs to be used proportionately in order to achieve the goal.
Working with highly technical, specialized people (i.e., accountants, lawyers, dentists, engineers) may require a bit more use of excellence (data, numbers, proof points, rationality). These professionals tend to rely on data and numbers and proof points and rational conversations. The experience you have in these areas will help you communicate more effectively and close the deal with fewer moments of thinking about it.
So take the time to do your research, practice your presentation, and know the numbers before you engage with these folks.
That being said, you will never get them fully on board with just numbers and hard data. The ability to tap into their passion and emotion can help guide them down the path.
If you have ever watched the show Shark Tank, you know that the sharks (the investors) always hammer on the numbers with the people pitching. It’s all about sales and valuations and purchase orders and dollars. But then once they get all that “excellence” information, it’s the story behind why the entrepreneur is there in the first place that leads to them making an offer and opening their checkbook. It’s the farmer who wanted to make it easier to grow trees on his property, or the single mom who had an idea of how to make her life a little easier. In most cases, crying leads to buying. As in, when the person or people pitching start tearing up about why they believe in their offer, the Sharks start to make the offers.
On the other end of the spectrum, when you find yourself working with artists, athletes, musicians, educators, or nonprofits, your ability to go off-script and flex your passion muscle (not that one!) a little more will help you connect better with this folks.
Tapping into their emotions helps them connect better with you. They are looking for the human element in the deal. Helping paint a picture of what their life will be like with your solution is what is needed to motivate them to work with you.
And then eventually the numbers will need to be discussed. The contracts will need to be drafted and the work will have to begin.
From Robb—I just got back from completing my second Triple Bypass bicycle ride. For over 30 years, cyclists have participated in this one-day event in which they pedal 120 miles, climbing over 10,000 vertical feet over three mountain passes, each above 10,500 feet elevation, with the highest just under 12,000 feet. In talking with people about the event, the biggest question that comes up is “You live in Chicago, how the heck do you train for that?”
The short version to that answer is what this chapter is all about. I was able to find the blend of passion and excellence needed to achieve the goal. My cousin joined me on this event and really benefited from this approach.
It all starts out with having the passion and excitement about completing the event. We both wanted to have the feeling of accomplishment after having completed the event. We got jazzed up about the idea of standing at 12,000 feet and then screaming down hill at 40-plus miles per hour. Most of all, we were excited to raise a celebratory beer in the air the end and congratulate each other.
But pictures and stories and smiles weren’t going to get us over those hills. We had to create a dedicated plan to train. We had to physically prepare our bodies for eight-plus hours in the saddle. We had to get our bikes fitted to allow our bodies to be in that position that long. We had to adjust our diet in order to be able to fuel ourselves over the course of the event. We had to research the course profile in order to learn when and where the aid stations were so we could make it to each one without running out of energy.
And then come event day, it was a commitment to the blend of both passion and excellence that got us across the finish line. Passion alone wasn’t going to keep me on the bike, and being too focused on the numbers wasn’t going to allow me to enjoy the experience. Only a perfect mix of both (and it was a fluid relationship between the two all day) allowed us to achieve our goal.
Ultimately, it will come down to the proportions that you use in order to execute your job at a high level. Sometimes you’ll have to exhibit excellence in your approach, with just a flash of flair and passion. And other times you will need to inject everyone around you with enthusiasm and passion for what you are doing, but maintain excellence while you do so. But you will need to screw up a bit, too. You will need to try out a few different approaches to see what works for you. Just like trying a new drink for the very first time: you may not like it at first, but over time you will tweak the recipe and try it again and again until you discover the right combination that works for you. And at that point, you will have become a success mixologist master.