Chad recently had the privilege of seeing classical musician Benjamin Zander at a client conference. There is a lot to say about this infectiously passionate man – mainly that he is his very own challenger brand – on a mission to awake the world to wonders of classical music. At Chad’s suggestion, I watched his talk on TED, and like the thousands of other viewers, was very, very moved.

There are buckets of Benjamin-gems, but one of my favourites was about ambition; and how reframing an ambition can inform each and every one of your actions. He tells us that, most classical music lovers’ believe that all classical music’s problems would be solved if they could move the amount of lovers from 3% of the population to 4%. He tells us, grinning all the time…”How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you be if you thought 3 percent of the population likes classical music?” He then reveals the power of a bold ambition and says “How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you be if you thought everybody loves classical music — they just haven’t found out about it yet.”

I love the power of this truism. Perhaps if we all had grandiose ambitions like that, we would act in such a way that the simple ambition (another 1%) would just happen naturally and effortlessly. It’s definitely a novel and admirable approach and one impossible not to be inspired by. O, and he also measures success by how many shining eyes he can create. Fascinating stuff. Benjamin, my eyes are shining… and the classical-lover needle is edging slightly closer to 4%!