Julie & Julia: Caused by French Cuisine

My wife Kim and I rented the movie “Julie & Julia” last weekend. We’d seen it in the theater when it was released five years ago and liked it better than most reviewers, so we decided to view it again.

I found an interesting lesson in the movie; it reinforced my belief that if we find work that we can be truly passionate about, it doesn’t feel like work.

I intend to share this lesson with my group members and executive coaching clients this month and I thought it was a topic worth blogging about.

If you don’t remember it, the movie follows the life of Julia Child in post-WWII Paris as she learns to cook French cuisine and co-authors “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” the best-selling cookbook of all time. Julia’s story is juxtaposed with that of Julie, a newly married woman in post-911 New York City with a dull government job. Her two joys in life are her husband and cooking in their cramped, poorly equipped kitchen in a tiny apartment over a pizzeria in Queens.

Over a great dinner that includes a side course of encouragement from her husband, Julie sets a big, hairy, audacious goal for herself: to prepare all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s epic cookbook in 365 days and write a daily blog about the experience.

The movie does a good job of spotlighting the parallels between Julia and Julie: They’re both full of love for their husbands, French food and cooking. The parallel that is most significant to me, however, is that they were both caused by their passion for French cuisine. Julia Child is possessed by her desire to be the first American woman to graduate from Le Cordon Bleu; she’s equally passionate to share what she’s learned by writing a cookbook that will introduce American women to French cuisine. Her young 21st century alter ego, Julie, is equally possessed by her cause to prepare all 524 dishes in Ms. Child’s cookbook in just 12 months.

I believe we all need a cause—what others call a purpose in life, or mission, or vision of the future we want to create.

And a few among us embrace our cause so intensely, we’re so motivated by it, that in the words of the oft-quoted Lee Thayer, we become caused by our cause. I’m a lucky guy, I get to work with a bunch of highly motivated men and women; they wouldn’t pay good money to be in one of my peer groups or retain me as their executive coach if they didn’t have a cause.

In working with these terrific people, I’ve found that a handful of them are so intensely passionate, so driven, that they are had by their cause; in Dr. Thayer’s words, they’re caused. And they compel their followers to embrace their cause as well.

My cause is to transform my coaching clients and group members, to make them fabulous leaders. What’s your cause?

Is it so compelling, so motivating that you’re had by it? If not, why not? Can you think of other examples of people who are had by their cause? If you can, please let me know. I’d like to hear about them.