Passion

Teams and communities are held together by the glue called passion.

This is the topic of a recent ChangeThis manifesto by Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian - a heart surgeon, Internet infopreneur, and social entrepreneur whose passion for helping children with congenital heart defects receive life-saving treatment resulted in building an online business that grows and thrives on its purpose.

Passion should be one of the 4 new P's of marketing, along with purpose. What do you think?

Product, Purpose, Passion, Performance

I've written about passion two years ago using Ferrari, the car made in my home town, as the metaphor of made in Italy: ignites passion and emotion. Which translates into high performance, by design.

The most amazing executions give us that kind of experience - or rather we infuse our own experience into them. Let's take another look at that list:

1. Vote for yourself –- know what you want and what you need and then go get it. Be confident in your skill even when you are tempted not to like what you see. We’re all kind of funny seen from the inside out.
2. Unleash your passion –- don’t let things you don’t know or don’t understand get in the way: learn them, join them. "But each time I seemed to be climbing into a roller coaster and finding myself coming through the downhill run with that sort of dazed feeling that we all know." [Enzo Ferrari]
3. Listen with one ear and forget with the other –- you are in the driver seat, you decide what makes sense keeping.
4. Stay soft on the people, including yourself –- on your way anywhere, you will meet mates and you’ll meet the other kind. To some people you’ll be but a blip on their radar, to some you’ll be a source of great inspiration. Know the difference, you are accountable for it. Remain human, don’t keep score, it bogs you down.
5. Develop stamina –- think of yourself as a marathon runner. Don’t look at the time, build on the distance. "Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines." [Enzo Ferrari]
6. Take risks –- invest in your vision, explore the opportunities. When you go for safety, you shop at that price. "As bend followed bend, I discovered his secret. Nuvolari entered the bend somewhat earlier than my driver's instinct would have told me to." [Enzo Ferrari]
7. Design your context –- chisel away all the marble and what you have is the masterpiece. Edit down as appropriate, sculpt your experience - you decide.
8. Have a “to be” list –- be interested, adaptable, and open to new ideas, including yours. Many call this attitude, I call it spirit (Lat. spiritus = breath).
9. Stage and experience –- and you will learn something new every time. This is not rehearsal, it’s the real deal. Go at it with gusto and panache. The verb perform is built into performance.
10. Be very clear that you will succeed –- and you will.

Performance is a highly emotional business. Emotion (Lat. ex = out + motio = movement) leads to action. Passion leads to performance.

Dr. Sivasubramanian says passion is energy, it shatters barriers, it hates apathy, it shakes you up, it's positive and it comes in flavors. Passion is more - it's contagious it fuels longevity and it's satisfying. From the manifesto:

Behind every successful operation, be it business or non-profit, personal or social, small or big,
there is a person or group fired by passion. A burning ambition to see change happen or results
achieved—and unwilling to let anything stand in their way. 

Passion keeps you going. No matter how long it takes. No matter how hard the path is. 
No matter how hopeless the outcome seems.

Here's another definition of passion I found in my early authoring days. What's yours?

Comments

[Armando Alves]

Guess i nailed it on my new year resolution
(http://twitter.com/armandoalves/status/1091925846):

"New Year resolution: find passion in every work i do, so i can bill clients with the same determination."

[Rich Nadworny]

A great list. Up on my wall it goes so I see it every day.

[Efrain]

Great post Valeria! Thanks for sharing. I totally agree with you. If we find our passion, or in others our calling in life, we'll always have clarity on where we want to get and what we want to do.
Finding our passion is half the way on the road to success.
Best!

[Paula Farrington]

Thank you for this terrific post, and especially for including that incredibly wonderful definition of passion from your early authoring days - it's one of the best I've ever seen, and stirred me to express my gratitude for the many fine posts and information you share on an ongoing basis. The ripples of impassioned compassion and unfettered joy in our lives, our work, and our conversations, can radiate out into the world in beautiful ways yet to be imagined. A thousand thanks for doing what you do so well, so ... passionately!
Grazie Mille!

[Sarah Montague]

I think passion connects us to our souls purpose. I think it also makes work effortless. Connecting to passion is a blueprint for success.

I think what creates an obstacle for people is they spend time doing what they think they should do (usually because of money or fear of taking a risk) instead of what they want to do. And many times we spend so much time doing what we don't like that we have forgotten what it is we do love. I joke sometimes that I should do marketing for the National Park service (because I adore hiking) or the Animal Rescue League (love animals)or my son's daycare center (love kids and early education). Yet I know in my heart if I did connect my love of marketing with another passion of mine I would be much more fulfilled.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Armando - it's good to start the year in high gear.

@Rich - glad to be a source of inspiration.

@Efrain - as you know well, it's important to communicate passion though our words and actions.

@Paula - thank you for taking the time to read and for your kind words. Yes, I do love the word "compassion" - it's so inclusive.

@Sarah - I've been thinking a lot recently about loving what we do instead of spending so much time wanting to do something else. That might be the true definition of being in the moment. Happiness is a decision we make, not something someone else can give. Just a thought.

[Mads Kristensen]

Absolutely spot on. Passion and Purpose are what's going to take us through to the other side of the current crisis. It's about high time we rediscovered these virtues, too.

[Brian DR1665]

What an outstanding way to begin the new year! As Thoreau said, "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." You might not become fabulously wealthy doing what you love, but you will be happier every day, and there is immeasurable value in being happy.

I particularly like the part about taking risks. Every decision, no matter how small, affects the future. Remaining pensive and cautious can limit your exposure to pain, but you limit your potential for gain as well.

We are all amazing creatures, especially when we think we are. Believe in yourself and go all-in when you bet on YOU. The biggest risk, it would seem, is holding back when considering your own sense of worth.

Walk boldly in 2009.

[Jonathan Blank]

A great post and a great comment by Mads about how passion will take us through this crisis. I absolutely believe we will look back in a year and see how the passionate peoples thrived and the apathetic peoples barely survived.

[Jason Falls]

Passion is that which takes a perfectly normal mind and unnecessarily distracts it, much to the delight of the mind itself.

[peter]

Dear Valeria,

Yet another thoughtful post. Though it may be passion that has led us to this crisis -

Curiously, antiquity considered passion somewhat of a vice and not a virtue ( let alone a lost one):

- passion is derived from the word to suffer
- "The cords of passion and desire weave a binding net around you" ( Lao Tzu)"
- “Which is as poison in the beginning, but is like nectar in the end; that is declared to be "good" pleasure, born from the serenity of one's own mind. That which is like nectar in the beginning from the connection of the sense-object with the senses, but is as poison in the end, is held to be of "passion". (Bhagavad Gita),
- Buddha too had a difficult relationship with passion.

The list goes on to which I could add Jason's ( Sounds like something Pope might of said).

I have seen nothing in my years to suggest that antiquity misjudged the human condition.

Not that I find you or your writing passionate. In my experience those who love thrive.

A pleasure as always.

Peter

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Mads - I couldn't have said it any better. Thank you.

@Brian - happiness is very attractive. The passion I am talking about here is not the all-consuming, must-have, danger the ancient sages warned us about. It is the tranquil recognition of what is core and the pursuit of that. To your "walk boldly" I add and carry yourself with humility.

@Jonathan - we must be passionate listeners as well, for that to be realized.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Jason - I had not refreshed the browser when I responded here. Another interesting quote "We all need to look into the dark side of our nature - that's where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we're busy denying." -- Sue Grafton

@Peter - passio, yes. I am well aware of the evidence through mythology on. That which enchants us, prevents us from thinking clearly or sanely. Did you mean that you do find my writing passionate? It sounds like you do not in the exposition here.

[Claudia Benassi-Faltys]

Dear Valeria,

Dear, because after having been reading your posts for a couple of months, now, I feel fueled by the passion you put into your articles. Passion, compassion, generosity... you give in an open way and in the same time you "embrace", a word that comes repeatedly in your writing, like an incantation.
(The position you have on your blog's banner illustrates this perfectly: an onward movement, open and embracing - almost roaring!!)
Somewhere in the middle of emotion and passion there's connection, right?
The more passion, the strongest the connection?

Anyway, I'm going to do what you suggest: push on the pedal of my inner Ferrari's engine!

Thanks for sharing so passionately and following you on your road.

[Peter]

Valeria,

No, I do not consider you or your writing passionate- I believe
you serve others with enthusiasm and love.

To my mind, this is the opposite of passion with its tendency to serve the self and disconnect ourselves from others. I've noticed that loneliness and longing keeps company with passion.

Then again (and as an aside), I wonder what we notice.

Thanks for the quote from Sue Grafton - Though it begs the question - If its energy - where is it going and how do you give it a different direction to the last couple of years.

Peter

[Leon]

That was a great post! Thank You!!!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Claudia - "push on the pedal of my inner Ferrari's engine!" that's a great way of putting it. And thank you for your kind words.

@Peter - if I were to use one term for how I operate I would use "energy", that's what fuels my engine. In that case I will need to ask myself about direction :) I'm glad enthusiasm and love come across. The point on longing you make merits revisiting.