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When these forces collide, a powerful chemical reaction called the Blue Flame can be ignited. The Blue Flame has the power to ignite careers, to turbocharge companies, and —dare I be so bold —to change the world. And there hasn’t been a more important time than now for leaders and their teams to lean into the performance-enhancing, life-altering, growth-accelerating, world-changing power of the Blue Flame.

This book was written primarily for people in leadership roles. The research-backed and battle-tested ideas that we will explore in this book can help you to get the best out of your people, and in doing so, make their life and your company richer. If you’re like me, getting the best out of your people that they have to give probably matters to you quite a bit, as leaders who are up to big, important things need a team of people who have come alive.

The ideas that follow are rooted in four fundamental beliefs that leaders hoping to harness the power of the Blue Flame in their business should embrace. Before passing go, it is important that we level-set here.

Belief #1: Every person is exceedingly talented in their own way.
Sometimes, people themselves don’t know their talents or don’t use them fully. As we will discuss in Chapter 4 there can be some real psychological and cognitive impediments to understanding our own talents. But great Blue Flame leaders, those who get the best that their people have to give, believe that there’s extraordinary talent to be found, unearthed, and unleashed in every person.

Belief #2: The role and responsibility of a leader is to help unleash this talent.
Blue Flame leaders feel a strong sense of responsibility to help each of their people discover their own Blue Flame, and apply it in a way that can have big impact. They view themselves as the catalysts who spark the reaction between an employee's talents, passions, and purpose, and the goals of the organization. Leaders who are up to big things need to get the best out of those around them. As you will see in Chapter 11, Blue Flame conversations can be invaluable in helping leaders to do this.

Belief #3: Companies should exist to enhance the lives of those they serve, starting with their employees .
Companies, and the leaders who lead them, should embrace a strong sense of responsibility and commitment to making the workplace a force for good in the lives of their employees. Research has shown that employees who work in enriching workplaces reward their employers with higher levels of productivity, greater loyalty, and ultimately, better business performance. Blue Flame leaders understand that building a culture that puts their people’s talents to good use, crafts their role around work they find invigorating, and helps them find meaning in the work is integral to maximizing profits, rather than in opposition to it.

I can distinctly recollect the first time I saw the video of comedian and actor Jim Carrey’s original 1980 Saturday Night Live audition. I was in stitches, totally bowled over by the performance. At the time of its filming, Carrey was just 17 or 18 years old, and was scraping by as the opening act at a comedy club in Toronto called Yuk Yuk’s.

As the cameras started rolling at NBC Studios, Carrey seemed confident and relaxed, despite an environment that must have been far from relaxing, given he was performing for a small and hyper-critical audience of “seen it all before” SNL staffers.

Carrey launches into his bid, his opening gambit an impersonation of “post-nuclear” Elvis. You need to see the clip to fully understand the “post-nuclear” aspect, but picture a normal-sized Elvis with hands sticking directly out of his torso.

His perfect Elvis sneer reaches halfway up one side of his face. His hips sway and his legs have taken on that rubbery quality that was so characteristic of Elvis’s style. Carrey’s floppy hair seems to be doing a decent impersonation of the Elvis quiff all by itself.

With his face fixed into a perfect replica of Elvis’s trademark sneer, he starts to sing: “Uhhh … I said one for the money …” His hips roll. His knees flick right and left. Pause. A chuckle or two emerge from the small audience.

“Three to get ready now go cat go …” His “post-nuclear” arms now flap and flail in time with his legs, as he breaks into a full-on dance that appears plenty Elvis-like, but for the undersized arms fluttering as he moves.

Carrey brings “Blue Suede Shoes” to a big finish and drops to his knees. It is a dazzling early glimpse of the trademark physical comedy that he would go on to become known for.

Standing up, he regroups, grabbing a prop for his next bit. Carrey turns his back to the camera, putting on a fishing hat and a pair of big, wiry glasses, then turns back around again. He knits his eyebrows together, squints his eyes, and purses his lips, with the corners turned down in an expression of mournful suffering.

In an instant, he has transformed into Henry Fonda in his role as Norman Thayer, a curmudgeonly septuagenarian retired professor from the 1981 film On Golden Pond . He will soon shapeshift again into Katharine Hepburn, who plays Norman’s loving wife, Ethel, as he plays both parts in the now-famous “strawberry scene.”

Go pull the audition up on YouTube to get the full effect. It is truly a bravura (and at the same time, strange) performance, one that would become a defining moment of the “before they were famous” chapter of Carrey’s career.

Even at this early age, Carrey was doing what he could do best, making great use of his signature talents: physicality, wit, expressiveness, and versatility. Case in point: he shifts seamlessly from Elvis to Henry Fonda to Katharine Hepburn in the span of two minutes.

“I watched the effect my father’s love and humor had on the world around me, and I thought, ‘That’s something to do, that’s something worth my time,’ ” Carrey reflected. “It wasn’t long before I started acting up. People would come over to my house and they would be greeted by a seven-year-old throwing himself down a large flight of stairs. They would say, ‘What happened?’ And I would say, ‘I don’t know—let’s check the replay.’ And I would go back to the top of the stairs and come back down in slow motion.”

For much of Carrey’s childhood, his mother was unwell. She had arthritis and phlebitis, and struggled with depression. The young Carrey loved his mom dearly, and like his father, dedicated himself to cheering her up. “I wanted her to be free. I wanted her to realize that her life was worth something because she gave birth to someone who was worth something.”

Later in life, he better understood the higher calling—in Blue Flame language, the thing that he cared deeply about, or his purpose—that had drawn him down this path so early in life.

“When I was about 28, after a decade as a professional comedian, I realized one night in L.A. that the purpose of my life had always been to free people from concern, like my dad. When I realized this, I dubbed my new devotion, ‘The Church of Freedom From Concern’—‘The Church of FFC’—and I dedicated myself to that ministry.”

This is what lit him up. Entertaining people in this way was not only invigorating in itself, but it was something he drew a great sense of meaning from.

This is the Blue Flame. It is the powerful intersection between what you can do best, what you find most invigorating, and what you care deeply about. Like Carrey, when you find the convergence of these three forces—your Blue Flame—you are then in a position to decide how to use it.

In a commencement address that Carrey delivered in 2014, he posed a question, the significance of which can’t be overstated: “What’s yours?” he asked, referring to the area where you can have the greatest impact. “How will you serve the world? What do they need that your talent can provide? That’s all you have to figure out. As someone who has done what you are about to go do, I can tell you from experience, the effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.”

They are doing the thing they were seemingly meant to be doing, playing in their proverbial “sweet spot.” And it can be a beautiful thing to watch.

Now, imagine walking through the halls of your office and finding everyone in your company on fire in this way … in unison. It is a nirvana that leaders dream of achieving. What might a team or a company that is functioning at this high of a level be capable of?

What’s more, imagine what would be possible if you were living in that same sweet spot. How would it turbocharge your effectiveness as a leader? How might it improve your life? How would it help you maximize your impact on your team and your company? On your family? On the world?

And, taking this line of thinking to its logical conclusion: Can you imagine what would be possible in a world where all people are acting, living, and working in alignment with their Blue Flame?

The goal of this book is to teach leaders everywhere this simple but powerful idea that has the power to tap into deep reservoirs of potential, motivation, and capability in others. In a world where leaders like you and me are always looking for an edge, the Blue Flame presents us with a real opportunity to get the best out of our people, and in doing so, propel our businesses to new heights.

I have spent years working with growth-stage companies as an investor, executive, and coach, and have grown especially fascinated by the people in these companies who appear most on fire. People who are making big things happen, and who appear totally lit up while they’re doing so. People who are having a huge impact in areas that matter to them. These are people whom you simply can’t help but notice.

I wondered: What makes them tick? What makes them special? What kind of Wheaties do they eat for breakfast? And where can I get my hands on some of those?

The reality, of course, is that there isn’t a single factor that drives human performance in the workplace. There is no secret ingredient or magic potion. And, despite the life-hacker headlines that try to convince you otherwise, there is no one key to success. I won’t ever claim that the Blue Flame is a panacea, but in meticulously observing these stars—driven in part by my own fascination with human beings and what gets them firing—I noticed four things about them that seem to come up time and time again:

(1) They seem to focus on what they can do best: They know their talents, have put in the hard work to cultivate those talents, and put them to good use.

(2) They seem to have passion: A spark. A certain kind of energy. They have a clear sense of the types of activities they find energizing, and they try to focus their time, and talents, in these areas.

(3) They seem to be inspired: They all find some level of purpose and meaning in the work they do. Something about it brings them deep and intrinsic satisfaction, which provides a potent and seemingly endless fuel source that powers early mornings, late nights, and intense workdays.

(4) They seem to consciously use their talents, passions, and purpose in ways that can have great impact: They have figured out how to apply their talents, passions, and purpose to great effect within their companies. But many don’t stop there. They use these same talents, passions, and purpose to have an impact within their families, communities, and the world at large.

In short, they've found and navigated toward something I later started to call their Blue Flame, which was an expanded take on an idea by the same name that I learned about years back in a great book by Keith Ferazzi, Never Eat Alone . In the book, Ferazzi talks about the intersection of "talent and desire."

As growth-stage investors, my colleagues and I realized that working with leaders and teams who were playing in their Blue Flame wasn’t just exciting to watch, but was absolutely vital to our success.

We reoriented our entire business toward putting people and their Blue Flames at the center of our strategy for success. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this simple idea—and all of the execution that was involved in incorporating the idea into our business model—has paid off in a big way in the form of outsized growth and above-market investment returns.

But this book isn’t just about sharing these tried-and-true practices, and the brain science, organizational research, and anecdotes that support them. It is about something much bigger: inviting other leaders into this quest to bring this focus on people —and their talents, their passions, and their purpose—to the fore in American companies. It is about the far more universal idea that in a knowledge economy dependent on human capital, to achieve anything significant, our organizations need people who are on fire and burning blue.

As I discovered and brought this idea of the Blue Flame into the workplaces where I held leadership roles, its simplicity and usefulness quickly struck a chord with those on my teams. The idea of focusing on things that you can do best, that invigorate you, and that you care deeply about is rather uncontroversial, and quite commonsensical. But I soon realized that this idea resonated at a much deeper level, as it played to a few fundamental longings that most human beings in the workplace have: to be seen for their talents, to find their work energizing and meaningful , and to have an impact on their company and the world around them.

However, as I observed dozens of growth-stage companies over time, I noticed a disconnect: many workplaces aren’t set up to encourage and foster this type of transformational Blue Flame leadership.

Though organizations generally recognize that helping people discover and lean into their talents, passions, and purpose is useful, many of them ultimately foster a culture that places greater value on the seemingly more important and urgent aspects of the business. The fires to put out. The monthly targets to hit. The deadlines to meet. After all these more pressing priorities, there isn’t much room left to spend time on what one manager I worked with called “that fluffy people stuff.” (Perhaps unsurprisingly, this manager’s team was significantly underperforming.)

However, these urgent issues—while important by their very definition—can distract short-sighted leaders from the critically important, but oftentimes less-urgent focus on the most powerful growth lever they have in their business: their people.

People, it turns out, are the single most basic and important input to a business. In the same ways that “cells are the building blocks of a human life,” humans are the fundamental building blocks of business. What else is there to a body than cells? In the same light, what else is there to an organization than people? (Okay … and office space, paperclips, coffee makers, and the like, but you get the idea.)

In many organizations, responsibility for maximizing the return on a company’s investment in personnel has been primarily assigned to the HR department. Many managers look to HR to roll out broad-based, programmatic performance management and talent development initiatives to help uplevel their people. They have abdicated their own responsibility in this area.

To illustrate, I once asked a manager in a new team I inherited why, based on an employee survey we commissioned, our employees were so thirsty for mentorship and development. “We’ve been waiting quarters for HR to roll something out, but it has never come!” the manager said. “You should ask them.” This manager seemed to be missing a key point: that it is ultimately our responsibility as leaders to ensure that we are maximizing the impact that the talented humans we are leading are able to have.

I originally began writing this book to help change this paradigm in the companies that I worked with. To re-center managers at all levels of the organization on the performance-enhancing power of refocusing on people . And to equip them with the elemental-but-transformative idea of the Blue Flame—and the skills and confidence to have catalytic Blue Flame conversations. All as a means of helping them take their employees, and by extension their organization and companies, to new heights.

My original plan as I first put pen to paper was to draft up this concept for the purpose of sharing narrowly with the leaders in the organizations in which I worked. My hope was to use it to create a shared language and an enhanced way of leading within the team—one that stood for elevating and unleashing our people. It was to inspire them to lean into the power of Blue Flame leadership, which can be thrilling, rewarding, inspiring—and profitable. It was to create a mini-movement within our company around the idea of helping people discover their talents, their passions, and their purpose, and use these to have the greatest impact possible.

But I realized as I got into it that this idea—which I soon saw was abundant, limitless, and transcendent—shouldn’t stay confined within the four walls of the companies I was working with. The world needed this now more than ever, and this idea needed to spread its wings. Its message was too important.

This book was designed to be a field guide for leaders who are looking for actionable, repeatable ways to get more out of their people and to deliver better results for their company. This includes:

In the chapters that follow, we’ll talk about why this concept is so important in today’s knowledge economy, and we’ll go on to cover each of the three components of the Blue Flame—helping your people find what they’re best at, what they find most invigorating, and what they care deeply about . We will shorthand these as “talents,” “passions,” and “purpose,” and look at each through the lenses of stories, research, brain science, and battle-tested firsthand experience.

Not only will I teach you how to use these ideas to elevate your leadership and ignite your team, but I will help you understand how to use these same ideas to look inward and discover your own Blue Flame. My hope is that in reading this book, you will uncover new facets of your own talents, passions, and purpose, and get in touch with new ways you can use those in your leadership at work, at home, in your community, and beyond.

The final chapter will provide a highly actionable playbook for using the ideas in this book to have transformative Blue Flame conversations with your team, peers, family, and other important people in your life.