What is Your Pursuit?

How Jerry Jones and bagel sandwiches taught me that narrowing your focus expands your world.

I'm running through the University of Indiana campus, earbuds in, listening to a podcast about Jerry Jones. Yes, that Jerry Jones. The oil and gas wildcatter turned NFL owner who transformed the Dallas Cowboys into a $10+ billion empire.

You might wonder why a marketing guy is studying the life of someone who made his fortune drilling holes in the ground. But that's exactly the point. When you're in genuine pursuit of something, you look for wisdom everywhere. Today it's Jerry Jones. Tomorrow it might be a lesson from the local bagel shop owner (Gable’s Bagels in Bloomington is the best, iykyk) or a insight buried in a sci-fi novel.

See, I'm in pursuit of something specific: mastering the craft of marketing and understanding what truly moves people to take action. That pursuit shapes everything. It means absorbing lessons from business books and philosophy texts, studying psychology and behavioral economics, and yes, even finding marketing wisdom in unlikely places like NFL ownership stories. When you're truly devoted to mastering something, every experience becomes a potential teacher.

Which brings me to a question I've been thinking about lately: What are you in pursuit of?

Not your goals or your five-year plan. Those are important, but I'm talking about something deeper. What's the one thing that gets you excited to jump out of bed? The challenge that makes you lean forward in your chair? The puzzle you'd solve even if no one paid you to do it?

The Power of Singular Pursuit

Walt Disney was obsessed with one thing: telling better stories through animation. That's it. He wasn't trying to build theme parks or revolutionize merchandising or create a media empire. He just wanted to push the boundaries of storytelling through cartoons.

But here's where it gets interesting: That singular pursuit led him down paths no one could have predicted. To tell better stories, he needed better technology, so he innovated with synchronized sound in Steamboat Willie and pioneered the multiplane camera for Snow White. To fully immerse people in these stories, he imagined and built Disneyland. To fund these increasingly ambitious projects, he revolutionized merchandising and corporate sponsorships.

One pursuit. Countless innovations.

We see this pattern repeat throughout business history. Phil Knight's obsession with building better running shoes led Nike to revolutionize sports marketing itself. Steve Jobs' pursuit of perfect design transformed computers, music, phones, retail, and animation (bringing us full circle to Disney through Pixar).

This is the beautiful paradox of pursuit: The narrower your focus, the wider your lens becomes. When you're truly devoted to mastering something, you start seeing connections everywhere. A psychology paper about decision-making becomes a breakthrough in email marketing. A lesson from architecture reshapes how you think about website design. A story about an oil tycoon buying a football team offers insights about brand transformation.

The Compound Interest of Pursuit

Here's something they don't tell you about pursuit: it compounds. While most activities follow a linear path, true pursuit creates compound interest for your life and career. Each step forward multiplies. Think about it.

When you're genuinely pursuing something, every bit of knowledge builds on what came before. Every conversation opens doors to new insights. Every "failure" becomes data for your next attempt. Nothing is wasted because everything feeds back into your pursuit.

This compounding happens in three powerful ways.

First, your knowledge compounds. Each piece of information you gather connects with everything else you know. That Tarantino film you watched last night suddenly improves how you structure your sales pitch. A Taylor Swift lyric reshapes your understanding of emotional hooks. The exceptional service at your favorite restaurant transforms how you think about customer onboarding. Your brain becomes a network of interconnected insights, each making the others more valuable.

Second, your network compounds. When you're clear about your pursuit, you attract others who share your fascination. The marketer diving deep into behavioral economics. The writer dissecting what makes dialogue crackle with life. The entrepreneur building customer experiences that feel like magic. These connections multiply your opportunities for learning and growth.

Third, and perhaps most powerfully, your clarity compounds. Each decision informed by your pursuit makes the next one easier. Should you read this book? Take that course? Accept that project? Your pursuit becomes a filter, cutting through the noise and pointing you toward what matters. While others chase trends or bounce between opportunities, you move forward with purpose.

This is why having a true pursuit matters more than having mere goals or plans. Goals can be achieved or abandoned. Plans can succeed or fail. But pursuit? Pursuit compounds. It turns every experience, even the seeming failures or detours, into fuel for growth.

The Call of Pursuit

So I'll ask again: What are you in pursuit of?

Your pursuit is probably already whispering to you. It's in the articles you can't help but read. The conversations you can't stop having. The problems you solve in your head while waiting in line for a bacon, egg, and cheese on a salt bagel. The topics that make you lean in when someone brings them up at dinner.

You don't need a framework to find your pursuit. You just need to listen to what already has your attention. What fascinates you. What makes you forget to check your phone. What makes Tuesday afternoon feel like Friday night.

That thing? That's your pursuit. Time to get going.