Noah Kagan, president of software development company Kickflip, will tell you what he does for a living, but don’t make that your lead if approaching him at a cocktail party. “I hate that question,” says the 25 year old Berkeley grad, who has worked for at least four separate companies that should have made him rich, if he had stayed around long enough. Although money is a final result, this self-proclaimed “results oriented guy” is more concerned with making decisions in the moment, not building his 401k. He quickly brushes over stories about Intel, Microsoft and Facebook to name a few, working his way toward current and future projects with far smaller companies.

Noah has a voracious appetite for action, something that is underappreciated in the world of large corporations. No bother. Noah finds places that fit his tastes, not the other way around. Money, to the Cupertino, CA native, has never been a driving force. Rather, Noah looks at jobs like relationships, investing emotionally, working hard, yet keeping in mind that it may just not be the perfect fit. It is an outlook that has made Noah a desired mind in just about any company, and has led him to start his own.

Nathan Kaiser, founder of npost.com, was not sure what to do with his degree in microbiology from the University of Washington. Working for a large medical manufacturer, he began, in his free time, to interview interesting people about their jobs and their career paths. From this sprang nPost, a resource for people looking into the world of technology start-ups. The site is a collection of interviews, and also job listing specific to the tech start-up world.

Nathan has denied listing jobs from Fortune-500 companies, simply because, in Nathan’s view, it would hurt the overall character of his website. Many people thought he was crazy for leaving a well-paid position to start nPost.

“I’d rather be crazy than working unhappily,” Nathan says, “People don’t realize what they’re missing.”

Nathan may not be fully maximizing the profits of his business, but if he is concerned with that, he hides it well. “When you’re doing your own thing and supporting yourself,” says Nathan, “there’s nothing better in life. Plus, he adds wryly, “I’m wired, so I do a lot of work from friends’ sailboats.”

Kim and Jason help people to escape adulthood. Running their website out of Madison, WI, the married couple strive to cure what they call ‘adultitis.’ Jason says, “We can pull back, into our adult lives, things like playing, being curious, and dreaming big. That’s kind of the core message that we talk about.” Jason, an artist, and Kim, formerly a kindergarten teacher, have together created a series of characters that inhabit a comic strip, both on their website and in print. They use their site to sell retail merchandise and keep a blog, all about allowing the inner child to speak.

The two also maintain a busy public speaking schedule, often to a multi-generational audience. In that, they actively maintain the attention of young children, and adults; at the end, Kim admits, more then a few dads approach them and whisper how much they got out of the talk, which is a mixture of speaking and digital artistry Jason’s part. Not too push the envelope too far, Jason mentions the difference “between the childish and the child-like.” Yet he furthermore distinguishes a childish fear in “selling your soul for benefits.”

Kim and Jason offer unique advice to passionate pursuers; Jason says, “Be complete yourself. And be bold.” He adds, “You can never go wrong with that.” Kim, speaking more specifically to the struggling entrepreneur, says, “If you have a vision of where you want to go, but it seems really far away, just give it one more day.”

Barry Moltz knows something about being an entrepreneur, and he’s happy to share in his experience. After more than one bad experience in the world of businesss, Barry has gleaned some incredibly realistic, gritty, and sensationally useful information over the years. He is, in the nature of full disclosure, one of the men responsible for the success of the Pursue the Passion tour, both in its current incarnation, and in its primordial existence in 2006.

Barry preaches a realistic approach to life goals and planning. When he says to “downsize your dreams,” he doesn’t mean downsize them to nothing. He simply means that if you aim for the stars, you will consistently fail to achieve you goal, even if landing on the moon isn’t all that bad. Instead, aim for the moon, and come through with what you say you’re going to do. In this way, people can dream proportionately to their abilities, and never be disappointed even in their success. It is a cliché free approach to setting reasonable, attainable goals, and then growing from there. Make sure to look out for Barry’s latest book, Bounce: Failure,
Resiliency and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success, which will be in bookstores in January 2008.

Tom Gimbel, CEO and founder of the LaSalle Network in Chicago, IL, relishes in “being an advocate for people who are looking for jobs.” Directly out of college, he quickly learned, through experience, what he did not want to do. Soon, through collegiate networking, he found his way into the staffing business, and has not since looked back. After staggering success at his first post, Tom set out upon the world himself, and quickly proved he belonged there.

Although he could have continued working for someone else, Tom held specific goals dear, and is not the kind of man to wait for someone else to fix what he wanted fixed. Although starting his own company led to periods of extreme stress, Tom persevered, and continues to help people find employment in the Chicago area. He says about work, “It’s possible to be passionate about anything, but a lot of people think they have to so something.” He finishes simply, “you can find a way to apply your skills to anything you want, just have fun every day, regardless of what you do.”

After college, California author Rick Barrera found himself out of a job. Although he helped establish a store, under the tutelage of a retail marketing guru and mentor, and was well on his way to buying it, the opportunity instead went to the family of the owner. The son of a restaurateur, Rick set out to find a way to
communicate all that he had learned in his life, to the world in need of inspiration, and coaching in the tumultuous world of sales.

What came of his attempt are numerous books about scrupulous marketing, something Rick sees as lacking in today’s society.

“Integrity,” says Rick, “Is key to everything. It’s clarity of values, doing what you say you’re going to do.” Rick’s books offer his method of selling without misleading, gimmicks, or dishonesty. Rick focuses on a customer oriented sense of business, where seeing from the customer’s point of view is vital. Everything from the connotation of words used, to the empathy required to understand the
fickle choices of customers. When asked for advice to those searching for their path, Rick offers this: “Even if you don’t have financial success for some reason, make sure to enjoy every day of what you’re doing.”

Pursue the Passion visited the University Research Park in Madison, Wisconsin a few weeks back, and talked with some passionate entrepreneurs in the biotech industry. Despite pouring rain, and showing up at 4:30pm on a Friday, we had a decent turnout. Below is the video from our day.

Daren Friesen, owner of the Moksha Yoga Studio in Chicago, IL, advises anyone to embrace their situation. “Embrace whatever you are doing,” says Darren, “whether you like it or not. To distinguish what is true from what is not true, fully embrace the moment.”

The Omaha born, USC educated yoga instructor, speaks with an incredibly calm calculation, like a man who knows something about inner peace. With the support of his parents, Darren traveled through Japan as a high school student, and later studied the practice of yoga in India. It was there that he saw the life beyond the yoga studio, the life that was practiced by many people without material wealth, yet seemed happy beyond American standards.

Yoga is about “learning how to open yourself” to what will make you truly happy, and it doesn’t necessarily take place in a studio. Daren says that simply making better choices at the grocery store can be a form of yoga, where choices lead the chooser down a path to self-improvement. Yoga is, says Darren, “how to work with the mind,” and better control it to help with personal fulfillment and satisfaction. He uses yoga as a method of defeating his own fear. “Fear holds us back from embracing our true happiness,” says Darren, “Everyone needs a tool or technique to battle their fear.” Meeting Darren, you immediately sense he knows exactly of what he speaks.

“I have been passionate about everything in my life. I have to be passionate or I just don’t do well.”

If you had told Barbara Russell when she was graduating from Lesley College that she would one day retire after selling her company for millions of dollars she would have laughed. Barbara was representative of the generation that helped to break the glass ceiling, where, as she said, women were teachers, nurses, secretaries, or mothers.

Growing up in Massachusetts, Barbara knew that she loved learning and wanted to share her passion for education with others. She majored in education at Lesley University and became a teacher.

Several years later, Barbara was approached, after giving a presentation, by the Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Wellesley, Massachusetts, about joining a small educational publisher just starting up. Beginning as the only full-time employee ascending to the role of Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Barbara twice helped build and rebuild the company (after the sale of half of their product line to another publisher) to $20 million. After nineteen years, she realized that there was no opportunity to become more than a vice president; the current President and owner vowed he would die at his desk.

Taking the lessons she had learned, Barbara pursued a new direction, using grit and determination. She wanted to build a company equally as successful in the education publishing world, using what she had learned from her 19 years at another publisher. With her husband’s support and $500,000 in initial capital which she raised from peers who knew her in the educational publishing world, Barbara formed Options Publishing in January of 1993.

When she started the company she knew it was time “to either put up or shut up.” Forming a new company from the ground up can be extremely difficult and there are many tales of failed ventures. But Barbara’s enthusiasm for Options’ product, sales and marketing, and her ability to surround herself with dedicated people with strengths in areas that supported her own, resulted in a team and company that claimed great success.

Three years ago, Options Publishing was acquired by Haights Cross Communications for $50 million. Barbara, although officially retired, stays deeply connected to her passion for education. She sits on the Board of Trustees at Lesley University and the Crittendon Women’s Union in Boston. She and her husband formed the Russell Foundation whose mission is to preserve land in their local watershed. Barbara consults for other entrepreneurial owners as they build their own companies.

While Barbara remains true to her passion for education, her career took several twists and turns along the path to success. She offered this piece of advice to those who are traveling their own paths. “There will be doors that open – opportunities. Don’t be so afraid that you might make the wrong decision, that you don’t take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Every experience is a good one if you learn from it.”

In the end, it all comes to back to learning.

In 1968, at 22, Keith Covart and two friends founded Electric Fetus, an independent-minded record store in Minneapolis, MN. Nearly four decades later, Keith is the sole-owner of the thriving store, to which he added two new Minnesota locations, in Duluth and St. Cloud. When asked his motivations for starting the store, Keith says, “I certainly wasn’t thinking as much about business as I was about music.” Following that direction, or lack thereof, Keith has shaped a customer-centric music store concerned more with what is for sale, than how much is sold.

Keith spent 2 years juggling a second career as a claims adjuster before realizing that he must commit himself to his passion. “Play music you want to play,” Keith says with a smile, “And that’s your job.”

Without an advance business degree, Keith is as suited as any to run a company. “Customer service,” he says, “Is not an MBA term.” By maintaining a “wonderful staff devoted to the store,” Keith is able to offer music to “every segment of the population.” Asked for the secret to employing knowledgeable and motivated individuals, Keith says simply, “We like each other more than many stores.”