CHAPTER FIVE

SPARKED BY SITUATIONS

Charles Best had no idea how privileged his educational experience had been until he took a position as a high school teacher at Wings Academy in Bronx, New York, in 2000. During his own high school years, Best and his fellow students took field trips, read numerous books, interacted with guest speakers who came to their school, and had access to virtually any technology they needed.

Those resources didn’t exist in his new history classroom. “I saw firsthand that schools were not treated equally,” he said.¹

So as a teacher, Best paid for classroom supplies like books, writing implements, and even photocopies from his own wallet. It turns out, he is in the majority. Public school teachers spent $1.6 billion of their own money on classroom supplies during the 2012–2013 school year, reported the Education Marketing Association.

In fact, it was while making photocopies of Little House on the Prairie at the twenty-four-hour Staples copy center off Manhattan’s Union Square that Best’s mind wandered. He was photocopying parts of the book because he didn’t have the classroom budget to get the actual books for his students. “I started thinking about all the other resources that my colleagues wanted for their students and figured that there were people out there who would help teachers like us, if they could see where their money was going,” he says.²

His challenge was connecting teachers who had resource needs with donors interested in supporting educational programs. One afternoon he sketched the design for a rudimentary website that would allow teachers to describe their projects and donors could search for projects they wanted to support. Then he paid a recent immigrant from Poland two thousand dollars to create a simple website for that purpose under the URL DonorsChoose.org.³

Once the basic site was operational, Best turned to fellow teachers at the school and baited them with some of his mom’s delicious roasted pears in exchange for posting requests for support for their projects at the new DonorsChoose website. Ten teachers posted requests that ranged from a Baby Think It Over infant simulator for a new pregnancy prevention program to test prep books to help students study for the SAT, and fabric, needles, and thread for a big quilt another teacher wanted to teach the students how to make.

To demonstrate public support for the concept, Best himself funded all ten of the projects anonymously, unbeknownst to his colleagues. Surprised by the idea that people outside the school wanted to support their work, the teachers got excited. Really excited. They began posting hundreds of requests for support.

Immediately realizing there was no way he could fund all of the projects, Best’s students offered to help initiate a letter-writing campaign to two thousand potential donors. Those letters, sent nationwide, generated $30,000 in support. Best was shocked and excited.

Wanting to continue fueling this growth, Best turned to the media to ask for support. Then September 11, 2001, happened and few media outlets were interested in stories that didn’t have a 9/11 angle. So he came up with stories about projects on DonorsChoose from teachers and classrooms that were impacted by the attack and secured coverage in Newsweek and the New York Times.

The reporters proclaimed DonorsChoose as “the future of philanthropy”—a microphilanthropy initiative that pioneered the crowd-funding industry. From there emerged organizations such as Kiva, Indiegogo, Kickstarter, Fundly, and Crowdrise, to name a few later entrants. By 2019, Best’s concept had connected 3.5 million donors with more than 1.3 million teacher project requests at eighty thousand schools to the tune of more than $785,000,000. Fast Company magazine named DonorsChoose one of the fifty most innovative companies in the world in 2014.⁴

CIRCUMSTANCE AS AN INSPIRATION SOURCE

The third and final set of engines driving sparks of inspiration are related to specific situations: when conditions surrounding an individual or group or event are the trigger that spark inspiration.

While previous chapters focused on the self and others as sources of inspiration, we turn our attention here to what frequently comes to mind when people think about inspiration: what’s in their immediate environment. This might include common settings, like a beautiful sunset or a wedding, or hearing a great orator speak. But sources of inspiration are not limited to the beautiful and eloquent. Negative experiences or circumstances can also inspire us, largely from the opportunities they bring to light. Witnessing an injustice or someone being treated unfairly can spur people to take action to prevent similar situations in the future.

Being sparked by these sources of inspiration entails a mix of engineering circumstances you know will inspire you, like stepping outside to witness that beautiful sunrise, combined with maintaining an openness and presence so you notice inspiring circumstances that unexpectedly come your way.

There are six engines of inspiration that come from specific circumstances or situations including

1. Seeking out environments that move us

2. Overcoming constraints

3. Witnessing excellence

4. Using your unique passions or qualifications to make a difference

5. Sharing experiences with large groups of people

6. Experiencing grief, loss, or failure

1. SEEKING OUT ENVIRONMENTS THAT MOVE US

An intentional or unintentional change to make the environment around you more emotionally moving can be a source of inspiration. Imagine that this can happen through something specific about a new milieu, such as a different culture that piques curiosity or admiration, inspiring music or art that fuels creativity, awe-producing nature that encourages being in the moment and appreciating beauty, or a school or museum that is particularly meaningful.

A common theme from our interviews is that particular environments frequently spark inspiration—and the more novel and the more outside one’s comfort zone, often the bigger the impact. Part of this may be due to the novelty, part of it may be due to the environment itself, especially in nature, and part of it may be due to the specific experience within that environment. Recent controlled experiments that examined walking in nature versus walking in urban settings showed that walks in nature increase well-being, positive affect, and cognition and decrease negative rumination.⁵ And yet novel environments, whether they are in nature or not, seem to increase openness and creative thinking. Inspiration can be sparked unintentionally, such as by moving to a different location, or it can be brought forth purposely, by heading to a place that has proven inspirational in the past.

In our interview with Margaret Greenberg, she talks about snowshoeing, spirituality, and writing, explaining that experiencing new environments, especially in nature, is a consistent engine of inspiration for her.

“I was putting on snowshoes, walking around the property, enjoying the beauty of the blue skies, the trees, and out of nowhere popped a title for a LinkedIn blog post, and I thought, ‘Where did this come from?’”

—Margaret Greenberg, Executive Coach and coauthor of Profit from the Positive

Being in nature is inspirational for Greenberg. “Nature for me… I feel spiritual, close to God, more so than church; nature is where I find inspiration to write and take photos.” Even when she isn’t necessarily on the hunt for inspiration, it can appear, she says. “[I’m] not necessarily thinking about something and it just comes out of nowhere.”⁶

The benefit of spending time in nature has been found to have a number of health-improving properties. From reduced blood pressure to reduced stress levels and increased white blood cell activity, forest bathing⁷—the practice of spending time in the woods, immersing yourself in the environment, and focusing on the nature around you—is another way to reset your brain and clear the way for inspiration. Stanford researcher Vinod Menon reports that even a few minutes spent in nature can encourage mind wandering, which is conducive to creativity and inspiration.⁸

Researcher Adam Galinsky studies connections between international travel and culture and creativity and has found that foreign travel increases cognitive flexibility. In his 2014 study in the Academy of Management Journal, he and three other researchers studied 270 creative directors in fashion. The more often they lived abroad, the more creative the fashion lines they produced. Maybe people love to travel because it typically inspires them; being in new cultures and environments encourages us to pay more attention to our surroundings, and through the resulting cognitive flexibility, we open ourselves up to new possibilities.

In fact, a trip to Milan is what sparked Howard Schultz’s idea for Starbucks. He wasn’t there looking for inspiration, but he found it nonetheless. One day in 1982 he walked into a coffee shop and was treated to an experience unlike anything he had ever had before. He describes the process of the preparation of his cup of coffee in great detail, characterizing the barista’s act of pouring the drink “with precision,” and the group of customers in the shop as more like a “community.” Watching the employee prepare the coffee, Schultz thought to himself that “this is not his job, it’s his passion.” He was inspired.

“For a tall guy who grew up playing football in the schoolyards of Brooklyn, being handed a tiny white porcelain demitasse filled with dark coffee crafted just for me by a gracious Italian gentleman called a barista was nothing less than transcendent,” he says.⁹

Schultz was so taken by this experience that he was inspired to try to replicate it in the United States, returning home and pursuing local investors to start his own retail coffee company, Il Giornale, and later purchasing Starbucks.

While Schultz inadvertently stumbled on inspiration in his travels, it is possible to pursue inspiration, to take targeted, purposeful steps to tap into environments that are emotionally moving. That is what Pixar filmmakers do when they go on research trips to locations where movies are set. During the production of the animated film Ratatouille, for example, filmmakers traveled to France and ate in Michelin-starred restaurants to get a true feel for the environment and the experience of fine dining that they could then incorporate into the movie about a chef in an upscale restaurant. They also went to San Francisco to investigate whether it was possible for a fish to survive traveling down a drain and out to sea as part of their research for Finding Nemo.¹⁰

Professional artists in need of a steady stream of inspiration often take steps to create environments that will be conducive to creativity and new ideas. Designating or even building a space they consider a sanctuary,¹¹ where art is formed, is a proactive approach to generating inspiration when needed.

“With my art I get really inspired by things around me, the energy, passion around what I do when I’m outside painting landscapes. It’s the people I observe, the nature, the colors I’m trying to mix, birds playing in a pond, kids running up and down the stairway, through that energy I feel awe.”

—Madeline Adams, MFA, fine artist and art educator

Environments don’t need to be physical spaces. We can create an environment of sound just by putting on headphones or turning on a sound system. Those who appreciate music can escape to a new world by listening to recorded or live performances of favorite pieces or new works. Similarly, one can create a “space” by diving into a book of visual arts and immersing oneself in the beauty within it. In fact, this is where new trends in virtual reality and augmented reality are going, as they attempt to produce compelling and emotionally moving environments through technology.

“If I have to inspire myself… music is the quickest path to that. The music that works best for me when I need inspiration to face a challenge is probably electronic music… this is the music I listened to coming up in high school. So there’s a bunch of tracks that I will play that can click me into that gear if I need to. And I will do that sometimes when I’m coming into work. I put headphones on, get my playlist together, and just use that to try and blast myself into the right head space.”

—Didier Elzinga, Chief Executive Officer, Culture Amp

Certainly, some people are more attuned and sensitive to their environments than others. What we learned in our research is that we often underestimate the power of our environment to influence our emotions.

Close your eyes and transport yourself to your favorite place, one where you feel a heightened sense of possibilities and emotions. Where are you? Look around and notice the qualities that make it inspiring to you. How can you bring the critical aspects that distinguish this place into your everyday environment? What new places you have not yet visited might also have these same characteristics?

2. OVERCOMING CONSTRAINTS

Psychologists Angela Duckworth ¹² and Karen Reivich,¹³ at the University of Pennsylvania, study grit, perseverance, and resilience: the ability to stick with challenging goals and bounce back in the face of adversity. A major obstacle, challenge, or constraint—whether at a micro level (someone else’s expectations of you) or at a macro level (involving cultural mores or social oppression)—that requires grit or resilience to overcome can actually ignite inspiration. When someone says, “You can’t do that!” that person has a fixed and limited mindset about you. For example, acceptance of women in combat roles within the military is still a struggle for some, as is recognizing the legitimate role of stay-at-home dads. Cultural and social barriers can confine us within certain roles and set expectations that constrain us.

For some people, this external challenge ignites intrinsic motivation and inspiration to drive their own destiny.¹⁴ It seems counterintuitive that a negative, limiting comment can inspire. And yet this phenomenon is what prompted Malcolm Gladwell to write the book David and Goliath¹⁵ about the power of underdogs and researcher Dan McAdams (Northwestern University) to study redemption stories,¹⁶ how facing our greatest fears and overcoming difficulties leads to increased well-being. Fighting these societal constraints or disproving underdog status is a true inspiration engine.

For example, Steve Squinto, original founder of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, gets fired up when he’s told no. He told us, “I get inspired when I see a problem that requires a call-to-action. The one thing that inspires me the most, and motivated me throughout my career, is the two-letter word no.”¹⁷

Being told that “no, something is not solvable” excites Squinto and gets the gears in his brain moving. “I’ve been told no a lot,” he says, so it’s not a rare occurrence. But while 90 percent of the people who are told no back down, Squinto takes that as a challenge and becomes determined to find a way past the no he’s just heard. It’s as if he wants to prove the other person wrong as he proceeds to brainstorm all the ways to work around the challenge in front of him.

Squinto isn’t the only person to step up when everyone else backs down. Somewhat surprisingly, again and again in our interviews, we heard stories of leaders inspired by obstacles and constraints, sometimes seemingly insurmountable. While no one likes being told some variation of no, for some people, that response is a rallying cry that fuels new thinking and action—a combination of invincibility and possibility. It inspires them.

Consider an obstacle or constraint you are facing now. Can you turn it on its head, into an opportunity? A challenge? A way to stretch yourself or learn something new? Rewrite your story for how you are thinking about this constraint and what overcoming it can look like.

3. WITNESSING EXCELLENCE

Interestingly, simply witnessing the excellence of others can move us to feel more confident and see greater possibilities for ourselves. This can happen while watching elite athletes perform (i.e., the Olympics), attending a performing arts concert, or taking in a fine art show; it can also occur when witnessing moral excellence. In areas where you want to feel more inspired, such as a work project, a productive step can be seeking out examples of excellence of others in that specific area. If you’re prepping to deliver a talk, search for and watch the best TED Talks of all time. If you’re looking to enter a new market or launch a new product, observe those who set the mark for excellence in that area.

Psychologists Sara Algoe and Jonathan Haidt have studied this and explain the rush we get from seeing others exceed our expectations. We feel elevation, gratitude, and admiration.¹⁸ Unlike other positive emotions, such as happiness or amusement, these “other-praising” emotions make us want to be better ourselves, motivating us to want to do more good in the world and to connect with others more. When our appreciation of excellence turns to awe, we experience both psychological and even physical health benefits. We are motivated in the same way to do good in the world. Recent research shows that experiencing awe is related to increased life satisfaction and lower risk for heart disease.¹⁹ While these studies did not look specifically at inspiration, positive emotions like these are often correlated and experienced together.²⁰ In our interviews, we found that many leaders experienced feelings of inspiration when they witnessed excellence or activated feelings of awe and admiration.

Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue was interviewed by Krista Tippett for the podcast On Being about his experience at a concert at Lincoln Center and expressed this sense of wonder and appreciation for the skills of the musicians onstage:

When I came in to New York last Thursday evening and checked into the hotel, I found out that there was a Tchaikovsky concert on in the Lincoln Center. And I went over there, and I got a ticket, one of the last tickets, which was two rows in the front. And I’ve never been so near an orchestra, and I said, ‘My God, I’m too near.’…

But I knew why I was given the ticket then, at the end, because it was Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D, and Lorin Maazel came out to conduct it. And then this beautiful violinist, Janine Jansen, a Dutch violinist, it was her debut in New York, and she played this. It was just unbelievable. I cried. After the first movement, people spontaneously stood up and wanted to give her a standing ovation, and she just held it, and we all went back again into our seats.²¹

And then, at the end, people were just blown away, because an event, an ecstatic event had happened. This is a complicated piece of music. Everywhere—she was playing a Stradivarius from 1727—everywhere she went on this violin, she got exactly what she was looking for. She held it. And Maazel was so sovereign and so—like a huge patriarch. And three or four times—I was up close enough to see them—he looked at her with the wistful, proud gentleness of a grandfather. And there was this woman, this beautiful, slim body, and you could almost see the music hurting her, even when she wasn’t playing. So it was a huge—everybody, and there were hardened New York critics there, but everybody was so touched.

Janine Jansen’s transcendent violin performance was riveting, bordering on spiritual for O’Donohue and reminded him of what beauty really is.

That appreciation for the years of practice and dedication to excellence is why we love watching the Olympics, cheering on competitors from all countries who demonstrate commitment to their sport. We are enthralled by witnessing excellence in action, marveling at what others achieve when they push themselves to their limits. The experience of watching the Olympics on TV alongside others who are cheering for their favorite athletes is another opportunity for emotional contagion—for personal emotions to be shared and transferred to those who are witnessing excellence with us. Emotions can actually shift in positive ways when we see others’ success.

When was the last time your jaw dropped witnessing what someone could do? What types of excellence move you: Is it in the arts? Athletics? Excel spreadsheets? Parenting? Giving a presentation? Look for—meaning actively seek out—opportunities to witness and savor the kind of excellence that matters most to you more often.

4. USING YOUR UNIQUE PASSIONS OR QUALIFICATIONS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

There are times when a situation calls out for what you uniquely bring to the table. We have found in our interviews that when people see situations where they can use their distinct passions or qualifications to have a positive impact, they feel an inspired motivation to take action.

A great example of this is Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University, who has a unique ability to empathize with animals. Diagnosed as autistic with Asperger’s at a young age, Grandin uses her unique neuropathology to advise slaughterhouses on how to make their environment more humane.²² In her book Thinking in Pictures, she talks about how her unique neurology helps her see things other people don’t and experience an environment more closely to how animals would experience it.²³ She goes into slaughterhouses and lies down on the floor, puts herself into cages, and crawls through metal chutes to understand the animals’ experiences and then makes recommendations to reduce stress.²⁴ “I think we can eat meat ethically, but we’ve got to give animals a good life,” she said in a National Geographic feature. As the article highlights, “you would think slaughterhouses were primed for someone like her to come along.”²⁵ However, it hasn’t been an easy battle to fight for thirty years; what has inspired Grandin all along is the possibility for improvement. What gives her the confidence to make these changes is knowing that her unique way of thinking and feeling could make a difference.

“Lost Boy” Salva Dut, who walked for months from his former home in Sudan, leading 1,500 other young boys away from civil war and to a refugee camp in Kenya, was eventually resettled in the United States in 1996.²⁶ After earning a college education, Dut wanted to do something to improve conditions in his homeland. He knew access to water would alleviate many of the tensions between tribes and provide opportunities for education and income earning. He formed the nonprofit Water for South Sudan and began raising money to buy well-drilling equipment to install wells. His unique knowledge and ability to network with local leaders, negotiate with tribal elders, and navigate the sometimes dangerous terrain are the reason the organization has successfully drilled 304 wells in South Sudan as of 2018 and is in the process of repairing existing wells, digging new ones, and shifting its educational emphasis to hygiene in order to continue to improve lives in the region.

Many know the story of Steve Jobs’s departure from and then return to Apple. But we don’t often view the story in terms of what inspired Jobs to return to Apple over ten years after he first left. When Jobs was asked to leave Apple in 1985, his passion for his own ideas (to the exclusion of others) was noted as his downfall.²⁷ In Jobs’s absence, the company, under John Sculley, experienced multiple failed products and strategies. The company was operating at a loss by the late ’90s, in need of creative direction to bring it back to its former glory.²⁸

So Jobs returned in 1997, now celebrated for his “zealotry” in pursuit of great products, in part because Jobs had managed to focus his passion toward commercially viable endeavors and in part because he’d smoothed down some of the hard edges of his management style.²⁹ But the most significant factor in his return was his unique strengths—his passion for product innovation and his unwavering pursuit of things thought to be impossible—made him a perfect match for Apple’s needs at the time. That fit of distinctive strengths and talents to a specific need or opportunity lights a compelling spark of inspiration.

We’ve already discussed finding more opportunities to use your strengths through personal engines of inspiration. Here, our focus is on situations that call for your distinctive passions, abilities, and capacities. What situations are calling for you? Nothing coming to mind? Think hard and start asking around. Your contributions are needed.

5. SHARING EXPERIENCES WITH LARGE GROUPS OF PEOPLE

Attending events with others can have an impact on our perspective and emotions—how we feel and how we view our lives and the opportunities around us. Going to concerts, performances, movies, shows, special events, or political rallies are all examples of what psychology scholars call the amplification hypothesis. Research shows that having a common experience with another, whether or not there is any interaction between you, enriches the experience; the experience is amplified.³⁰

We often reflect on significant experiences from the viewpoint of who we were with at the time. That was certainly the case for generations of diehard Chicago Cubs fans who had dreamt of a World Series win for their beloved Cubbies. The last championship win was in 1908. Every new baseball season would begin with hope and promise, only to be dashed by a loss somewhere down the line, ending that year’s playoffs chances. Finally, in 2016, the Cubs were victorious, bringing their fan base of an estimated 9.9 million people³¹—more than any other MLB team—the World Series Championship trophy. That win brought their fans joy, euphoria, pride, bliss, and gratitude—feelings often associated with inspiration.

Similar emotions were felt by fans of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, which had never won a Super Bowl. Sure, the team had played in two previous championship games—in 1980 and 2004—but had never succeeded in winning until 2017.³² Legions of Eagles fans took to the streets, as is their custom in Philly, to celebrate the long-awaited victory.

In businesses, shared group experiences can take the form of town halls, all-hands meetings, even department gatherings and retreats. Meaningful experiences that are shared with others can be potent drivers of inspiration.

What meaningful shared experiences are coming up in your calendar? It’s worth seeking them out and even consider organizing ones if you’d like to find more.

6. EXPERIENCING GRIEF, LOSS, OR FAILURE

When channeled properly, loss or failure can be a source of inspiration. In some ways, it is counterintuitive, even off-putting, to think of grief, loss, or failure as being inspiring. Yet, in many of our interviews people mentioned these as sources of inspiration to them when the difficult emotions that ensued were channeled properly and held close—but not too close. When people make constructive meaning out of their grief or loss, it can then inspire them to take action in meaningful ways.³³

A number of organizations and professional endeavors are rooted in loss. Dr. Leah Osowiecki of Holistic Home Veterinary Services feels passionate about supporting families in helping their pets go through their final stages, offering deep care and partnership through the process. Although the work itself is emotionally difficult because of the loss she witnesses every day, she said that she is inspired by the work. It enables her to bring peace to families and meaning to the final stages with their beloved pets.³⁴ Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg was transparent about her grief when she lost her husband, using that as a catalyst for authoring the book Plan B.³⁵ Additionally, Joe Kasper, an MD who also has a master’s in applied positive psychology, created a model called Co-Destiny, which helps people create legacy in loss by doing good in the names of people they have lost.³⁶ Kasper was inspired by the loss of his nineteen-year-old son Ryan.

There is a body of research on post-traumatic growth (PTG),³⁷ the phenomenon that occurs when people are able to create powerful narratives and experience positive personal and social outcomes in the face of serious illness, trauma, loss, or grief. It is currently unclear why some people experience post-traumatic stress (PTS) and struggle to recover, while others can move from PTS to PTG. Although we would never propose seeking out grief or loss as an engine of inspiration, our interviews and the research on PTG shows that when it occurs, if we are mindful about it, we can use these difficult experiences to gain meaning and move forward stronger and in inspiring ways.

Jenna Bell, a keynote speaker and heart disease survivor, is a great example of this. She received an incredibly difficult diagnosis of cardiomyopathy at the young age of twenty-three. When told that she required a heart transplant to stay alive or would face a premature death and that she would be unable to have children, she grieved the loss of a normal life.³⁸ Bell shared that because of her size and weight, the odds were against her as she competed with younger patients who would be higher on an eligibility list, but she received a transplant on February 16, 2016. In her interview with us, she shared that rather than letting the trauma of her situation get her down, she learned from it. She learned how to say no without having to justify it. She learned how to use her voice—both in advocating for herself medically and telling her story. She learned how to express gratitude, writing thank-you notes to everyone who came across her path (“cafeteria staff, x-ray staff, custodial staff, nurses, doctors, everybody”) because she wanted them to feel valued and do their best as part of her team, and she learned to look out for her true tribe, the people who would help her and support her when she really needed it. She now gives keynote presentations on how she has grown and what she has learned as a result of her trauma.³⁹

Finally, the experience of failure, when accepted and viewed from a growth mindset lens, can lead to inspiration. One example of this is Stacy London, TV fashion guru and bestselling author who was fired from Mademoiselle magazine. Being fired from the magazine devastated her, but it also opened a door for her and inspired her to audition for the TV show What Not to Wear. In an interview with Whitney Johnson, Stacy London said this situation “made me realize that I had been unhappy in that job for two years and I had stayed two years too long out of pure laziness. Knowing that I had a 401(k), knowing that I had insurance.” Rather than letting this public, professional failure define her and discourage her, she felt inspired to take action and eventually thrived on the TV show.⁴⁰

It’s critical with loss to let yourself feel it, to process and acknowledge it. Seeking inspiration is not a way to avoid trauma. But, when you are ready, you can allow yourself to create meaning in what you’ve experienced and create new possibilities and newfound confidence. Think about a time in your past when you’ve experienced a hardship and from which you’ve grown. Going forward, as you confront losses and failures—small or large—allow yourself the opportunity to write an inspiring story from what you lost or how you overcame it.

Like all the other engines, these engines of circumstance drive the initial spark of inspiration that combine feelings of invincibility and possibility. There is a leadership opportunity inherent in these engines. Leaders can work to create circumstances that will inspire those who work for them. Warren Bennis, a highly respected scholar on leadership, describes the opportunity to set the stage as follows: “One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.”⁴¹