I’ve been think­ing lately more than a lit­tle about inspi­ra­tion and by asso­ci­a­tion, pas­sion. What is it that dri­ves peo­ple to be cre­ative, or inven­tive, or innovative?

In doing so, I’ve come to the con­clu­sion that it’s a com­bi­na­tion of both nature and nur­ture. Let me explain, and then show you what I mean; give a man a fish, and all that.

I am by nature a curi­ous per­son. I will con­sume as much as I can about any sub­ject that grabs my inter­est. That said, my atten­tion never stays in one place ter­ri­bly long; a few months often at best. At a pre­vi­ous job, I was referred to as “Ask Steve”, reflect­ing my abil­ity, like the old Ask Jeeves web site (now just plan Ask), to answer any ques­tion put to me. Or at the very least, rapidly come up with a source for the answer.

I think peo­ple who, like me, are curi­ous by nature, find inspi­ra­tion in the world around them as their nev­erend­ing thirst for infor­ma­tion and knowl­edge seeks to be quenched. With my Dad a teacher, my god­fa­ther a uni­ver­sity pro­fes­sor, and my Mum an encour­ager of seek­ing knowl­edge, I grew up in an envi­ron­ment that nur­tured my curios­ity. I am for­ever grate­ful for this, for I now have a life where I have achieved many things, but know I have so much more to achieve.

And I know that these things are pos­si­ble, with just a lit­tle inspi­ra­tion and passion.

Like JP Ran­gaswami, I am a vora­cious con­sumer of the fab­u­lous TED Talks. Today, on a flight from Mel­bourne home to Can­berra I watched Ben Dun­lap’s (read his TED Bio, too) amaz­ing talk. It is about noth­ing and every­thing — peo­ple, places, atti­tudes, over­com­ing great adver­sity. He is an amaz­ing speaker, per­haps the most riv­et­ing of the TED Talks I have seen. This is a man for whom pas­sion and inspi­ra­tion seems to come naturally.

Watch Ben Dunlap’s pre­sen­ta­tion. You won’t be sorry.