Passion seems to be a polarizing topic in business. Is it or is it not important? Is passion all it’s cracked up to be or is it just one of those warm fuzzies that make people feel good down the road to ultimate failure? Is your passion enough? Are we too narrow with our focus on passion?
If talent is overrated, is passion overrated too? Do we overstate what role passion plays in our success? That is a question that keeps coming to mind as I think about passion. My initial thought is that you can’t be successful without having some desire behind what you are doing.
An example from my own life is running. I ran cross country in high school and was also able to compete in college as well. If you asked me if I liked running, I would probably tell you that I like it but I don’t love it. Running in college allowed me to compete in running at a high level. How was I able to do that without loving it? Competition.
Competition was the driving force behind my desire to run. I stumbled upon running almost accidentally. Growing up I competed in soccer, football, baseball and basketball. Hell I even bowled in a league in junior high. Running was never in the mix except for as a compliment to the other sports that required quite a bit of running like soccer (sorry to my European friends who are reading this by not calling it football J)
Some friends talked me into running in high school and it turns out that I liked it and, more importantly, I was good at it. Not only did running allow me to scratch my competitive itch but it also allowed me to scratch another itch that I have which is winning. We won two state championships while I was there and we didn’t lose a meet in our conference for almost three years.
So what does this have to do with passion and your business?
You don’t have to love coffee to run a coffee shop. You don’t have to love plumbing to run a plumbing business. Do you think that if you ask a plumber if he/she is passionate about toilets that they would say “Yes!”. I don’t think they would.
What a plumber would tell you is that they like solving problems and helping people. They like being independent, etc. This is the same feeling I have about running. I don’t love running but I do love competing and winning. Running supported those desires.
Don’t be too narrow focused when looking for a business opportunity that you want to get behind. The other thing is don’t just look at what the business is, look at all the by-products that may exist around the business that may support your passion.
I don’t think that passion is overrated but I do think that we limit what our passion can be and look like for us professionally.
Do you agree? Has this been true in your own life? I would love to hear your story.
In short:
1. My time is limited, so why should I waste it doing the things I am not passionate about?
2. I think passion keeps me trying if I don’t get the results… 🙂