91 pages • 3 hours read
Jon GordonThe Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Power of Positive Energy
Bus driver Joy explains to George that everything in the universe is made of energy. Einstein’s famous equation E=MC^2 proves that even matter is made of energy. Energy manifests in a person’s spirit. When that energy is negative, others feel it draining them; when it’s positive, others feel uplifted.
The outcomes in life aren’t dependent on circumstances like good and bad luck or good and bad employees or family members. Instead, outcomes depend on the energy people bring to the challenges they face. Negative attitudes tend to discourage those around us; team efforts stall, and results wither away. Positive enthusiasm, though, brings exuberant energy to daily tasks, inspiring everyone and adding to their joy.
Positive or negative energy is transmitted through a field emitted by the human heart. The field can be detected up to several feet away. Others know at once if a person is emitting positive or negative energy, and that energy will influence them strongly. It’s vital, then, for every team member and leader to practice a positive attitude, which automatically gets broadcast via the heart’s energy field and contributes beneficially to the team.
A positive attitude can be nurtured by feeling grateful for the good things in life, by taking all problems as challenges, by loving others, and by developing a sense of fun in every situation. Visualizing successful outcomes helps generate the positive energy that will create those results.
Anyone, and especially leaders, can add to the total energy available to their teams by bringing positive feelings to the task at hand. Positive energy manifests as enthusiasm, and it’s infectious, filling the spaces where it’s needed. Negative energy can do the same, so it’s important to be in the habit of positivity, so that all conditions surrounding a team are filled with the energy of success.
Every team faces obstacles, including resistance from team members who may be in conflict with each other or simply not want to support the team’s purpose and goals. These people are Energy Vampires who “will suck the life out of you and your goals and vision if you let them” (73). The leader must engage directly with them, inviting them to recommit to the team’s purpose with a positive attitude; if they cannot or will not do so, the leader must remove them from the team, lest they bring down the whole effort.
Positive energy works in any situation, including at home with the family and in matters of health and well-being. Everything a person does will succeed or fail in accordance with the energy applied to it. Instead of blaming others or fate, a person can meet every situation with positive enthusiasm, and the situation will transform, changing into something better. The results can be remarkable.
Joy’s Energy Bus is a rolling symbol of the power of positive energy. The passengers are committed to love and enthusiasm and to helping others achieve the same. A powerful way to nurture peoples’ positive energy is to “invite them on the bus” (161) to join in a worthwhile team effort.
Team members, and not just the leader, can always invite others to “join the bus” and work to support the team’s efforts. Doing so transforms any worker, from a janitor to a top executive, into a Chief Energy Officer (CEO). The more such CEOs on a team, the better its results will be.
The Power of Love
The most powerful form of positive energy is love. The most powerful way to manifest that love is to share it with everyone. Loving the people on one’s team is as important, if not more so, than loving the team’s purpose and goals.
Team members who aren’t listened to, recognized, and encouraged to grow are people who aren’t being loved by their leader. They may try hard to please their leader, but eventually they will resent their situation and may pull back from full engagement in the team’s projects or even sabotage the team’s goal.
The cure for this situation is for the leader to love everyone who works for him. This will inspire his people more than anything else. Passenger Jack, who runs a corporation, gives George a five-part system for loving team members that he calls “Five Ways to Love Your Passengers” (122): (1) make time for them; (2) listen to them; (3) recognize them; (4) serve them; and (5) bring out the best in them.
The leader who loves all team members commits him or herself to their betterment. By spending time with them and listening to them, the leader signals that they are valued. By acknowledging and recognizing their achievements, the leader tells them that their work matters to the success of the project. By helping them and bringing out the best in them, the leader makes clear that their growth as professionals and as people is important, not just so the team can reach its goals but so that each of them can succeed in their own right.
Many people believe that love is a weak emotion, something inappropriate in the worlds of work or athletics. Passenger Marty disagrees, saying, “really it’s the strongest most powerful emotion available to us” (117). He gives the example of weightlifters who can press more iron when thinking loving thoughts.
Though love is a vital asset to have when building a team, it’s also vital in sales; when customers feel that the salesperson loves them, they’ll feel safe and will be eager to make purchases. A sales rep who evokes this is called a “Love Magnet” (114). A Love Magnet isn’t some cheesy bar hopper but a person of positive enthusiasm who behaves in a loving manner toward team members, family, friends, and—as far as possible—everyone they encounter. The Love Magnet’s enthusiasm and compassion attract customers and increase their appreciation for the product.
Love, then, is the most powerful form of positive-energy enthusiasm, the power that creates dedicated, purposeful team members who are passionate about their work and go the extra mile for their team.
The Power of Purpose
The energy of positive enthusiasm can do great things for a team working on a project, but what happens when the project comes to a successful completion? Must the team wait for another big project to become inspired again?
In Chapter 29 Joy tells George that having a purpose is “the ultimate fuel for our journey through life, George. When we drive with purpose we don’t get tired or bored and our engines don’t burn out” (131). A purpose should be much larger than the tasks on a to-do list. It should encompass a great dream that dignifies work and makes it an inspiration to undertake, even the tedious parts.
Joy offers the example of the NASA janitor whom President Lyndon B. Johnson complimented for his hard work ethic. The janitor replied that he wasn’t merely sweeping floors; he “helped put a man on the moon” (132). When team members can see the inspiring big picture that surrounds their daily efforts, those tasks acquire meaning and purpose. Thus, it’s important for the leader to make clear the overriding purpose of each project.
Rule 9 is “Drive with Purpose” (131). Otherwise, a person’s Energy Bus may go in circles. With purpose, a person or a team can see the destination ahead that draws them forward over the rough patches in the road and through the brambles of setbacks and difficulties. Knowing the purpose gives value to all the little chores involved in a project. Without purpose, those tasks merely drain a person; with purpose, every task’s completion adds a jolt of energy that speeds progress toward the big goal.
Along with love, purpose is one of the great drivers of accomplishment. It adds fuel to anyone’s Energy Bus tank, a power that burns smoothly and steadily as people move toward their goals. Grim necessity can prod us forward, but we do so sullenly and slowly. Purpose animates our every step and pulls us along, so that each day’s tasks become effortless.
Joy drives a bus, but her big purpose is to help people grow into lives of positive enthusiasm. George, for a time aimless, rediscovers his old drives—great accomplishments at work and loving family relationships at home—and learns to channel those yearnings into positive energy. By sharing his enthusiasm, he enlarges his family and team’s energy of purpose as well. George learns a simple approach to life: “Focus on the path. Keep your head up and your heart full of joy” (152-53).
In the end, with shared goals and mutual respect and love, George and the people in his world become more purposeful, more connected, and more joyful.
