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5 • Drive - Part 2

Drive increases the efficiency and productivity of a person. He is not distracted by "little" things or unimportant details. He is, psychologically speaking, a much "healthier" person because unimportant irritations do not have a chance to build up and multiply in his mind—his mind is busy with more important things. The driving person is not afraid to express himself—he doesn't worry about ridicule. He is in a way much less dependent upon other people. In fact, he may frequently feel that other people hamper and handicap him in his efforts. He will probably be much closer to the real world of nature; he will not be too patient with abstract thoughts and fuzzy concepts; he would rather do than talk about. He will probably be a relatively happy person because one of his motivating forces is the feeling of ac­complishment—the knowledge that he is making progressive contributions and using his natural abilities and talents to the utmost. And, because he does not exercise his drive without di­rection, he will probably be much more interested in the future than in the past or even the present.

The president of one of our major companies summed up his feelings about people with drive this way: "If I am trying to decide between two men of fairly equal ability, I know that the one with the more enthusiasm will go further than the other because enthusiasm acts as a self-releasing power and helps focus the entire force of personality on any matter at hand. Enthusiasm is infectious; it carries all before it."

Now how do you develop this drive? This, unfortunately, is a question no one is really prepared to answer or even give very firm opinions on. We do know that there seems to be a correla­tion between general creativeness and drive. People who have taken courses in creative methods and who, according to tests, have shown an increase in their abilities to produce ideas have also shown an increase in what the psychologists call "dominance" —a manifestation, at least, of drive.

It may only be that it was the exercise of will power to com­plete the course that improved the drive. After all, will power can be developed by practice. Every time you exert your will to make yourself complete a difficult, complicated, or unpleasant task, you make it that much easier to do that same type of task the next time. Your self-confidence gets a boost. And will power, we know, is an important part of drive.

Will power, for instance, helped a young lawyer, Fidel Castro, overthrow a powerful dictator and become the master of Cuba. When Castro first began his revolution, he had only a few followers, and no one paid any attention to him or gave him any chance to win.

Will power carried Dr. Wilder Penfield to world honors as a neurosurgeon in the field of epilepsy. In his trail-blazing days in this exceptionally difficult specialty he was, at times, regarded with actual pity by his contemporaries. A famous British surgeon, commenting on Penfield's accomplishments, said: "Penfield de­voted his life to epilepsy research at a time when the subject was regarded by the medical profession as fruitless. He persevered for twenty years in a medical desert, in the face of every kind of dis­couragement."

And it was sheer will power that kept the brilliant mathemati­cian, Dr. John Von Neumann, going when he knew beyond a doubt that he was dying of cancer. Even when his illness was far advanced, he continued to serve as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. U.S. Cabinet members and Air Force and other top military officials consulted with him almost daily up to the time of his death. And Von Neumann insisted that it be this way.

Perhaps we can sum up the importance of drive to a creative person with this quotation, author unknown: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determina­tion are omnipotent."

Related terms include business tools and business theory.