Rijn Vogelaar

Superpromoters personify the power of enthusiasm. They spontaneously share their enthusiasm about products, brands and companies and influence other people by doing so. Their infectious enthusiasm is vital to the success of any business. It’s the battle between them and their alter ego, the antipromoter, which decides if the reputation of brands are built or broken. They not only affect sales growth, but also innovation and employee motivation.

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”, Ralph Waldo Emerson The Enthusiasm Trilogy is a book about the dynamics of enthusiasm in our personal lives and in organizations. Comparisons are drawn with the dynamics of enthusiasm in other areas, such as music and sport. The fundamentals are the same everywhere. What is the purpose of our actions and how do we affect the people around us? How do we find inspiration and when do we pass it on? With whom do we cooperate best and how do we find an audience? The role that enthusiasm plays in the arts, in social life and within organizations is fascinating. It can almost be described as an unseen hand that steers people’s behavior in a particular direction. What makes this so special is that the hand often leads us in the right direction. The way in which our talents and passions lie. It connects us to people with similar interests. Once the dynamics of enthusiasm begin to flow wonderful things start to happen. Flame: You can compare the Flame to the Olympic flame. The flame symbolises the fire of the athletes. The Flame we talk about in this book is in a similar vein. The first part of the trilogy is about finding and fanning the Flame on a personal and an organisational level. Flow: In part two, Flow, we explain the basic principles on how to achieve a state of Flow by steering towards enthusiasm and appreciation. A jam session with musicians where sparks are flying, players in a football team who intuitively know how to find each other or the business unit that runs like clockwork. Flood: This is the moment that an artist has won over the audience, an idea that sweeps across the world or a product that suddenly becomes a hype. How does the enthusiasm spread and how can we support this? In part three we try to explain the mysterious waves of Flood.

How positivity can win the battle against negativity in our brain, our work and society as a whole. Our society is permeated with negativism: the media publish mainly bad news, the education system focuses on avoiding fail grades and and employees are corrected when they make mistakes. The result is an epidemic of burn-outs, depression, intolerance and narcissism. This has major consequences for our society. It creates political turmoil and reduces solidarity, creativity and well-being, even though we are living in the safest and most prosperous period in human history. How did we get into this Negativity Mania? The cause can be found in the limitations of human thought. People have a natural brain alarm that is prone to short-term thinking and groupthink and has a sensitive antenna for danger. Historically, this was important for survival, but in modern times it’s becoming more and more of an obstacle. Especially now that technology is racing ahead and the consequences of our flawed reasoning are becoming even greater. Fortunately, recent insights gained from brain sciences and psychological research provide indicators for turning the tide. Innovative movements within the fields of journalism, education and business are pointing the way to new, more constructive forms of co-existence. Something we can all contribute to.