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| This way please. |
I’ve been thinking a lot about
passion lately. I keep coming across job descriptions that say things like “must
have a passion for brand marketing” or “must be a passionate, team player”. Everyone
seems to think that it is the key to success! So what is passion? Passion is an
intense emotion compelling, enthusiasm or desire for something (Thanks
Wikipedia!). This simple definition is quite positive; everyone should want to
have intense compelling enthusiasm and emotion for something in life! Some say
it’s impossible to start a business or grow professionally and personally
without it and everyone loves to quote the cliché “love what you do and you’ll
never work a day in your life”. There are even passion heroes! People whose
passion is infectious and inspiring, whose passions changed the world we live
in. People like Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Sir Richard Branson, Al Gore, Nelson
Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, even Prophet Mohammed and
Jesus fall in this category. They were all passionate about what they believed
in and made sure everyone knew about their passion. Passion is different than
talent in that not everyone can have talent but pretty much every human being
has the ability to feel passion—an intense emotion compelling, enthusiasm or
desire for something. So this would mean that anyone who is passionate enough
can be successful right? Just like Steve Jobs.
Passion has definitely been a
present driver in my life; my father set the perfect example for me growing up.
His job required him to be on-call 24/7 and even when he worked 16-18 hour days
that started with a phone call at 2:30am, he would come home with a giant smile
on his face ready to tell stories of his heroics at work to anyone who would
listen. His energy and happiness was infectious and throughout my 20’s I looked
for that one thing that would give me that amazing high. I’m lucky enough to
say that I found it! (Whew!) I’m passionate about what I do and I get do it
everyday. I’ve also been lucky to have worked with a team of young
professionals also full of passion and ready to blindly ride into the sunset of
triumph with me: a very Jobs-esque
scene.
So, with all this passion, I’m
probably writing to you from my lake-view corner office in a very tall downtown
building right? Wrong. In reality, the group of young professionals (myself
included) were not the decision-makers, we were not the ones steering the boat
as is the case for most professionals. Suddenly, our great passion became an
external liability—it became increasingly hard to not show frustration or
disapproval when decisions which we didn’t agree with were made. It showed in
our faces and demeanour, some of us were even brave enough to openly disagree
and because we were so passionate, we talked about it to death: in our free
time, during lunch time, weekends, and parties, everywhere. You see, what no
one likes to admit is that passion can also get in you into trouble; after all,
it is an intense emotion and humans tend to have a hard time dealing with
those. Passion is an intense emotion that draws you towards something you desire, so what happens when what you desire
is, for lack of better terms, “not doing so well”? As an intense emotion,
suddenly your passion can morph into a burden, an unwelcome frustration or a
sensitive element in your life, even a weakness. Michelle Obama describes
passion similar to how people view love: “At some level when you put your heart
out there, there’s a level of passion that you feel and it’s a risk that you
take”[1]. The
risk is disappointment, because no matter how much heart and soul you put into
your work, it can fail or you move on and get another job, or no one likes what
you have to say. You may find yourself criticized for being “too invested” and
“too emotional” and identified as a sort of troublemaker for the team you work
with, always trying to go against the grain. And like a broken heart, you may
have to pick up the pieces and find a way to revive your passion and re-live
that high you once knew.
So why does everyone put so much
value on passion? It seems it is clearly a necessary ingredient for
success. In his 2005 Stanford
commencement speech, Steve Jobs explains:
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| Young Steve Jobs |
“[After being fired as CEO of Apple in 1985,] I was a very public
failure, and I even thought about running away from the [Silicon] valley. But
something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of
events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was
still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”[2]
You know the story after that, he became Steve Jobs! Jobs was 30 years old when he was fired, then he spent the next 10 years fully driven by the same passion he had for one of his great “failures” before changing the world with the iPod, Pixar, etc. When he founded Apple, Steve’s passion was externalized. It had to be because he was trying to convince people that his ideas were worth listening to. His passion had to be expressed in such a way that he was credible. It was easier to believe that this quirky young guy that didn’t shower and spoke intensely and determinedly was going to change the world with his idea than to believe some 60 year old suit. He acted on his passions and was then criticized by the board of directors for being “too invested” and “too emotional” and was let go.
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| Steve Jobs holding an iPod. |
This is not the type of person that I remember
when I think of Steve Jobs. Later on, Steve still had to convince people his
ideas were worth listening to but now he did it in a completely different
manner. When he came on stage during an Apple Event he was the definition of
chill. He spoke calmly and confidently, he expressed his wonder and
satisfaction for whatever new gadget or feature he was introducing making it
incredibly intriguing and convincing to watch. You could see that he no longer
allowed his passion to be blinders and understood what the whole picture was. Steve
Jobs learned to use his passion as an internal driving force and
expressed it differently. What
resulted was spill over into everything else he did, you just wanted to get in
line and buy anything he sold you. He still loved what he did but by using it
as an internal driving force, rather than externalizing it and creating a
liability, he also inspired and drove everyone else to love what he loved. He
became a leader.
Similar to love, passion is something that
requires maturity. You have to learn to express it appropriately in order for
it (and you) to grow. It’s a conscious effort as any change is. As for me, I no longer work with the group of
young professionals, and I no longer work where I grew to love what I do. I had
to learn to not be so outspoken, to not put my heart on my sleeve, and not be
blinded by my passion. I’m learning everyday to make passion my internal
driving force. It’s spilling over into other areas of my life and changing my
definition of success. And what about work you may ask? What work? I love
everything do. :)
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