What inspires us to invest creative energy into projects? Turns out, there’s a formula, something I chatted with Golden Globe Award winning actor Colin Farrell about, before wrapping up my time at City Gala and heading back home to write this. City Gala, often referred to as the Oscars event with a conscience, brings together entrepreneurs in the thousands, with Hollywood celebrities and business leaders to create a world-class business acceleration experience.

This year’s 4th annual event awarded Farrell their Inspiration Award for overcoming adversity in life, while simultaneously staying the path and contributing to the good of the world around them. For Farrell, this includes commitments to STAND UP!, an anti-bullying campaign he dedicates time to, or his time spent working with the Special Olympics.

That Got Me Thinking About the Path

Why do we choose to stay the path? What inspires us to invest ourselves and our energy in projects? How do we become entrepreneurs on a path to change baseball, or luxury items, or how we innovate? This is the question that permeated my time at City Gala, and Farrell had some interesting thoughts on this.

A Billion Plus

In the past, I’ve talked about how the billionaires of the future will be the entrepreneurs who impact a billion lives, rather than stockpiling a billion dollars, and that statement really has nothing to do with the money. Entrepreneurship has been slowly shifting towards social good for some time now, and it seems the only reason business is even involved is because, let’s be real, it takes money to move mountains. Our business economy today is more fluid than it ever was static, and the rapid change gives birth to constant potential and opportunity.

Creating Room for Inspiration

During our conversation, Farrell talked about how he is so easily inspired by other human beings, nature, and the world around him. This space he creates and allows for inspiration is so important to the process of ending up where we belong, in terms of business and projects we dedicate our time to.

“If there is no room for inspiration, there is no room to pursue possible new opportunities.” – Colin Farrell

What this means is: if your eyes are closed to the possibilities, you will never see them.

Let’s Talk Formula

Passion + Impact = Energy + Engagement

Let’s break that down.

• Passion: Your curiosity will lead you to your passions if you let that happen.

• Impact: Your concerns will show you where you could have an impact. Think about the causes you care the most about and then think about how you fit into that picture.

• Energy: The energy we retain around our passions is much more than what we apply to our day-to-day tasks. This increased energy allows us to attract what is necessary to make an impact.

• Engagement: This increased energy will also attract results, because we already know that everything is energy and people are drawn to energetic causes. With increased engagement, you will make faster progress, thus creating a bigger impact.

This formula explains how our own curiosity and concerns inspire us to invest in creative products and projects. The more we recognize this, the easier it will be, as entrepreneurs especially, to more easily settle into paths where we can identify our ability to have a much larger impact.