The Power of Passion

Recently I was speaking with an attorney; talking about their business and what they wanted from their networking. We discussed the idea of focusing their initial dialog on their preferred aspect of their business and an interesting thing happened. When I asked what really set them on fire - what passion fanned the flame – they answered, "It's not Law."

Understand this: this person is successful by all standards as an attorney. They have a wonderful, engaging personality and I would trust them to handle any case. They nearly froze when I asked that question. As the conversation went on, we discussed the fact that many people hold the idea that one cannot make money doing what one is passionate about.

As I see it, that's the one true way to really make money – to live a full life; to really make a contribution to the world.

In order to make money there is some transfer of energy. It can be either goods or services, yet, although I have both to offer, the concept that I’ve struggled with in the past is that it’s about the selling. I’ve been taught that I need to be able to close the “sale;” I need to be able to move in that arena in order to make good money. If nothing else I’m selling myself, my concept.

As much as I've hated selling in the past I have discovered a different way of thinking about it.

*IF I believe in what I do, I'm driven by my passion and my passion is the driving energy behind what I do…
*IF I know that what I bring to the banqueting table is honorable, viable, and beneficial to human kind and
*IF I know that I am on the right path…
*THEN I am morally bound to pursue that passion
*AND I am bound by that same moral code - that same integrity - to be sure that everyone understands what I have to offer and give them every opportunity to "get it."
That means that it isn't about the selling at all. It's about using every resource I have to speak the language of my clients – using skills that I may or may not have developed yet to be sure that I've exhausted every avenue in order to educate them about the benefits and options my company brings to them.

An recent article in The Kentucky Kernel speaks about the decline in job satisfaction among employees between 35 and 44 and the power of passion to create positive results. Another article in CNN quotes Explorer Robert Ballard, who has spent most of his adult life exploring the ocean floor and combing the deep-sea for lost shipwrecks (notably he was the discoverer of the Shipwreck Titanic), as saying, "Follow your passion. Chase your passion whatever it is. If you don't do what you love you'll never get where you want to be."

Following a passion, believing in dreams, has been a successful model for a multitude of individuals: Walt Disney, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates, just to name a few.

When we fan the flame on our passion, move toward our freedom, doors open. Opportunities are created out of what seems to be thin air.

If you find that your activities are neither in line with nor support your passion, take some time today and let yourself dream. Ask yourself what your world would look like if you were doing what you were wildly passionate about. What would it look like if you were as successful as you knew you could be? Give yourself the gift over the holidays; imagine how you might achieve a passionate life and know that it all starts with being who you really are from the inside out.