Patrick Lencioni: Let Passion be Your Guide

Patrick "Pat" Lencioni, author of best-selling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and founder of organizational management consultancy The Table Group, embodies what The Popped Kernel is all about - follow your passion, even in the face of risk, to reach your full potential. We interviewed him recently to understand who he really is and what's behind his success. Here are a few takeaways from our conversation (we plan to post the audio interview soon).

Pat is a faithful family man. He makes it very clear that family comes first. Knowing his priorities early on allowed him to set up his company and manage his time in a way that affords him both professional success and personal fulfillment.

He insists that his success - or at least the degree to which he's realized it - was not planned, but simply a side effect of doing what he loves. He genuinely believes that if you do what you're passionate about, then everything else will fall into place (and then some). His experience has proven it.

He remembers facing several risks as he contemplated jumping from secure corporate gig to starting his own firm - his savings, his reputation, the careers of four founding employees. With knowledge of the risks, strong faith, and lots of support from his wife, he said no to two corporate job offers - one from Steve Jobs and the other from Eric Schmidt (now CEO of Google) - in favor of opening his own firm. He started very small, remained positive in outlook, and focused his energy on simply making it work.

When making the jump to do your own thing, Pat's view bucks conventional wisdom. He does not believe that it makes sense to pursue your passion part-time to test the waters, while maintaining your corporate gig. Rather, if you're passionate about something, let that passion work to your advantage. Don't hold it back.

Pat's view of failure is real and comforting - don't fear it, embrace it. It will help you find your path. For Pat, that failure happened early in his career at Bain & Company when he realized number crunching wasn't for him. That realization led to an interest and pursuit of organizational management. Today, he is one of the most widely recognized forces in the field of organizational management.

Pat is living proof that if you follow your passion, then good things will happen.

Check out the audio interview here: