Passion is Contagious - 9:08 AM, Feb. 17, 2006

Here is another wonderful story from Cynthia Kersey, Author of ''Unstoppable'' that I would like to share with you today. The story is about taking risks and creating something so huge that you can't even imagine it and then what you can create coming from your passion...

In Their Own Words

Ken Kragen

"Without a doubt, one attribute that has contributed greatly to what I've accomplished is my enthusiasm. I am not afraid to get excited about things, and I've found that passion is contagious.
 

"This attitude has worked for me not just in the entertainment business but with projects designed to help others.  Often these have been far more rewarding than my personal or career successes. One of those nonprofit projects was Hands Across America, which I produced in 1986. The inspiration came from the USA for Africa We Are the World campaign, in which dozens of top musicians and singers gathered to record a song that raised $60 million to feed African families suffering from the famine there. From my involvement as organizer of We Are the World, I developed the idea of creating a human chain across America on Memorial Day 1986 that would send a message about our commitment to solving the problems of the hungry and homeless. As crazy as it sounds, I envisioned millions of people holding hands to form an unbroken line of humanity, spanning more than 4,000 miles across seventeen states.
 

"When I first started discussing the idea, people thought it was fantastic--but also logistically impossible. Frankly, I didn't know exactly how I would pull it off, either. But I was so excited about it, I had complete faith that it would happen. I took my enthusiasm to Sergio Zyman, marketing vice president of the Coca-Cola Company, and convinced him to put up $5 million to help make Hands a reality. With that seed money, we started organizing and promoting the event and quickly found out how daunting a challenge we'd taken on. We had to work through endless red tape to get clearances from community to community--the insurance alone cost us $3 million. The media took potshots at the idea from the start, and Hands Across America became the subject of standup comedy jokes.  I even gave up sitting in window seats on airplanes to avoid looking down at those endless miles of land that we would have to somehow fill with people.
 

"Every day, I flew to three or four different cities, giving speeches and television interviews, trying to stir up volunteers. Yet with less than two months to go before the May 25 event, we had fewer than a million people signed up, less than 20 percent of what we knew we needed.  So we kept going, promoting the event and encouraging America to join in.
 

"On Memorial Day 1986, 5.5 million men, women, and children of every race, creed, and color turned out to join hands. In addition to raising $34 million, Hands Across America became the single biggest participatory event in history, a symbol of hope and generosity witnessed by an additional hundreds of millions of people around the world.
 

"If you want to achieve great things in your life, you have to take risks. The first risk is daring to feel deeply, to be passionate about what you want and care about. Enthusiasm is the key to breaking through barriers, whether your dream is to touch one person or millions."

Ken Kragen is one of Hollywood's most respected and successful personal managers and producers, handling such clients as Kenny Rogers, Travis Tritt, Trisha Yearwood, and Lionel Richie.

The above is excerpted from, UNSTOPPABLE: 45 Powerful Stories of Perseverance and Triumph from People Just Like You. Click here for more information or to order this best-selling book.

© 2006 Unstoppable Enterprises Inc.
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