The secret of success is enthusiasm
Goodbye, 2008! It was a year of loss in so many ways. (My mother, who was my best friend, died this year.) In the spirit of ringing in 2009 on a positive note, I’ll share some wisdom that my friend Sue Callaway has posted on her desk in Laguna Beach, California. Sue, as you may know, is Fortune’s car columnist extraordinaire. And when she was a senior editor a decade ago, we started the Fortune Most Powerful Women in Business list together.
Sue is also my coolest globetrotting friend. During her recent visit to Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy, Ferrari Spa chairman and CEO Luca Cordero di Montezemolo gave her a card that lays out his philosophy of doing business and living life to the fullest:
“The real secret of success is enthusiasm.
You can do anything if you have enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hope rise to the stars.
Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eye,
It is the swing in your gait, the grip of your hand,
the irresistible surge of your will
and your energy to execute your ideas.
Enthusiasts are fighters.
They have fortitude, they have staying qualities.
Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress.
With it there is accomplishment.
Without it there are only alibis.”
Happy New Year!
P.S. Read Sue’s take on the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and other “Cool Cars for Tough Times” in Fortune.
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Patricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm and joie de vivre, Pattie! You are an inspiriter! Have a great New Year and keep us focused on the pragmatic visionaries! God bless!