My Take on Passion

I've been told I'm passionate about marketing and learning. Passion has been my life long engine for innovation and growth. John Hagel recently wrote an extensive post on pursuing passion, on which we will do a follow up here within the context of his project. Can business and passion coexist? Good question.

In many instances, your passion is great until you're part of the team, then you've got to tone it down. It is not only corporate executives who are ambivalent around passion, it seems that people who get things done are not very passionate at all; they're more process-oriented. Are the two mutually exclusive?

As John describes, especially in large organizations, "the day to day practices and processes of the firm seek to contain and mute the very passion that executives so eloquently celebrate."

Do a search, and you'll find two common kinds of popular definitions of passion - sacrifice and lust. Some of the words associated with passion in the post are - pursuit, progression, pull, about connecting, about discipline, about authenticity. An interesting grouping for sure.

I agree that passion is becoming increasingly important to our personal success and we must learn to harness its magic without yielding to its unpredictability. I'm most interested in the performance side of passion. This is a highly emotional business. Emotion (Lat. ex = out + motio = movement) leads to action.

As I've written before, the most amazing executions give us that kind of experience - or rather we infuse our own experience into them. My own take on how to express passion to have high performance by design in business:

(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. This is very hard to do.

(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, curious, adaptable, and open to new ideas, including yours. Many call this attitude, I call it spirit (Lat. spiritus = breath).

(9.) Stage an 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.

My post yesterday was one of my most passionate posts in a long time, which made it perhaps a bit unfocused to you. The core idea there? If you know more, lead and teach, use your passion to collaborate and connect.

What's your take on passion? What are other practical applications of passion you've encountered and experienced?

[image of question of passion by Emily's mind]

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Elizabeth Sosnow]

Valeria: Dynamite post. I have a thought that underscores a number of your points. To me, passion is expressed as "expect to give more than you will receive."

As a parent, wife, friend and colleague, I've found that if I share/connect without reservation (also expressed as = give with complete, almost unchecked passion), I am usually rewarded with more than I could have hoped for.

Restraint is important to protect relationships, but passion is a necessary ingredient to start/maintain/evolve relationships.

Thanks, as always, for your superb blog.

[Brent McConnell]

Simply awesome post! You've provided a great roadmap for people following their passion.

Mine goes something like...

Passion leads to Excitement which generates Action

[Ari Herzog]

Scenario: You have a job opening at your firm. You post the job description and begin interviewing candidates. You ultimately need to decide between two candidates, each with similar experiences, but one speaks passionately about why he'd be a great employee working for you; and the other doesn't invoke that passion but past roles indicate she'd be awesome orienting to your company's process.

Me, if I was the person responsible for hiring the right person? I'd choose the passionate one.

Seen differently. Valeria, would you rather listen to a CEO talk passionately about the brand or talk process-oriented about everything that has happened to that point?

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Elizabeth - giving to oneself is also passion. We cannot give if we don't build a passionate reservoir within. Being generous has its moments for sure. The parent part is probably the strongest pull to give, isn't it? What an amazing opportunity!

@Brent - excellent contribution, thank you.

@Ari - people tend to hire the same kind of person they are. My question in your example would be are you sure the process doesn't need to adapt to the changing market conditions? How would you go about enrolling people to transition to a new one? Have you done this kind of work before? Passion alone is not enough, action needs to follow the words (referring to the CEO example).

[Alex Grech]

Passion is a totally subjective, individual driver - the spark to make us make things happen, to go the extra mile, take risks, burn the midnight oil, turn our lives into a totally different direction, inspire others, surprise ourselves... For me, your points 3 and 4 really hit the target. Because trying to build a life and work around your passion is never going to be easy. And there will be many doubters, particularly the quiet voice inside. All of these variables have to managed.

[Robyn]

I couldn't agree more. Great post

[Sam Foster]

Is passion expressed the same way in various every day activities?

My passion is wadja.com for example. Create and Follow #Labels. I think there is something there.

[peter]

No. 11 Nothing blinds like passion - passions obscure in equal measure to illuminate .

[Ed Wheeler]

Good post!

And enjoy what you're doing!

I think that with the right mindset, we can find enjoyment in even the most mundane tasks.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Alex - motivation is intrinsically-driven, passion is a good starter. The insecure ones, including the voices on the inside, will want to disrupt creation. On that you can count. A good strategy is to build a network of people who want you to succeed, may be constructive in their feedback, but will support you in the end.

@Robyn - thank you for stopping by.

@Sam - not familiar with either... in practical terms, what we put our attention on, develops.

@Peter - indeed, that has also been my experience.

@Ed - attitude and approach. We talk abut both here. Thank you for stopping by.

[peter]

Ed,

Enjoy all you do - there's some hefty philosophers who'd argue that passion and the notion of enjoying all you do are in opposition. How curious then that we often see them on the same continuum.

Thanks Valeria. A real pleasure to think out loud in the chorus of voices found here.

Peter

[Christine Adams]

Valeria, I really enjoyed your post! Life doesn't make sense without passion! We must have a purpose for which we strive. I particularly like your comment: if you know more, teach and lead. I think it is the responsibility of those blessed with a drive to learn to be an inspiration to those that need direction. You are spreading an important message! Keep up the excellent work. ~Christine

[Joe McCarthy]

Great set of pointers on passion!

A few years ago, at O'Reilly's Foo Camp (an annual "unconference"), I proposed a session to explore the following:

"What if everyone followed their passions, liked what they did and did what they liked? I suspect Foo Camp represents an unusually high proportion of people who are following this trajectory. Are we a privileged class? How generalizable is this formula? How would the world change if everyone acted this way? Could the world move in this direction?"

I wrote a blog post on the discussion that ensued:
http://gumption.typepad.com/blog/2007/06/passion-privelg.html

At the end, after exploring what passion means to others, and considering that each of us is wired differently, I came away with the broader question of "whether passion is a Good Thing that I / we ought to wish on anyone else".

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Peter - wishful thinking?

@Christine - thank you for your kind words. An example of teaching and leading is parents with children. What's interesting is that many, if you ask, will tell you that they learn as much from their children as the teach - or more. Children don't wonder about passion, they just go for curiosity and exploration.

@Joe - is that why so many go into communications and marketing? Because they think they follow their passion? Kidding! It seems like the environment we grow up in and the expectations placed upon us by others do have influence over what we choose to do "when we grow up". Indeed, sometimes passion consumes us. Looking forward to your putting ore in the bio. Really nice meeting you here and spending time at your place with your ideas.

[Andy Michaels]

Ah yes! I loved reading this post! I'm keeping it! I especially like that point in #3. We gotta decide what's trash and not. And yes, only people with passion can run a marathon ;)

------------

Andy Michaels
http://www.andy-michaels.com/