What do You, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Bono have in common?

It's easy to tell you what you likely DON'T have in common with them - fame, fortune, and good looks

...Okay, Fame and fortune... 

... but here's what you DO have in common with Bill, Warren, and Bono.

24 hours in a day, and a sphere of influence.  

The same thing every human on the planet gets.

It's what you do with those 24 hours, and that sphere of influence that matters.

As a leader, or an aspiring leader, we study successful people and look to emulate them.  Too often however, we limit our perspective of what makes them successful to money, position, titles and influence.

"Work hard and get rich" are goals that will leave you empty.  How will you know you've arrived?

Each of these people are highly successful in what they do, have earned a great deal of money in the process, but have followed their passions and have individually committed to using their resources to make a difference in this world.

Dan Pink, in his latest book Drive:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us highlights the research that shows that in cognitive based tasks, money is a poor motivator for increased performance.  What does drive performance (or results) is the amount of Autonomy ( the desire to direct our own lives), Mastery (the urge to get better and better at something that matters), and Purpose (the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves) we have in our careers and lives. (If you would prefer the animated version of the book, check out RSA Animate's treatment of the book below or at the link here)

Note: A version of this post has been previously published on my blog.

Images: Used under Creative Commons License

About the Author:

I'm convinced that IT leadership needs to dramatically change how IT is delivered rather than being relegated to a costly overhead department.

In addition to transforming IT in my role as CIO, I look for every opportunity to talk about this... writing, speaking and now blogging on BeBee (www.bebee.com/@kevin-pashuk) , LinkedIn, ITWorld Canada, or at TurningTechInvisible.com.

I also shoot things... with my camera. Check out my photostream at www.flickr.com/photos/kwpashuk