“Life doesn’t care about your passion, and I don’t care about your passion,” Herjavec recalled Cuban saying during a show taping one season.
“I don’t care that you love golf or basketball or AI or cyber, I don’t give a shit about any of that. What I want to know is, what are you obsessed with?” Herjavec added to Fortune. “Passion is easy, because passion is a wish, but obsession is an action. Passion doesn’t demand anything of you. Obsession requires everything of you.”
For Herjavec, that lesson was personal. Early in his career, he wasn’t sure what path to take—he considered everything from becoming an FBI detective to working in film. But once he discovered cybersecurity, he found himself thinking about it constantly.
“When you’re 21 or 22, you feel a desperation about tomorrow, and some of that’s good because it’s rocket fuel,” Herjavec said. “But too many people make short-term decisions in their 20s and don’t take the long view.”
For Herjavec, the question was a surprise, but he answered yes. However, Avis’ next question hit even harder: “Okay, you’re in a car accident. You lose the ability to walk. Are you still in control of your own destiny?”
“Business is so hard and unpredictable that it’s your ability to adapt to situations on a constant basis to move the ball forward, so I love to find out how people think,” Herjavec said. “It’s great to be a critical thinker, but you have to be an adaptable thinker to the situation.”
