People with Passion Can Change the World for the Better

Though I didn't say that when my daughter asked me what is passion about 2 hours ago -- serendipity at work again as it is the topic of the next Great Leadership traits.

She actually asked me why I liked the color red. My passionate reply was it represents fire [inside oneself], passion. And then she followed with "what is passion?" Instead of the philosophical answer that is the subject of this post that she might not understand, I responded with passion in my voice "Feeling excited and wanting to do stuff." Then I started to mentally put passion into my eyes and said "See it in my eyes!", followed by elevating my voice with passion and said "Hear the passion in my voice!" :)

Steve Jobs said "Build from the heart. We are doing this because we have a passion about it and really care about our customers, not because we want to make a buck." during brainstorm sessions [youtube].  In his Think Different video, he believed "People with passion can change the world for the better." Passion is deeply ingrained in the products that he and his teams built, and I believe it is one reason that Apple products are so appealing to people.

When Steve Job talks, you can feel passion from him. Passion permeates from the speaker. That is one of the golden rules of public speaking from Jeff  Weiner. When you are passionate about what you are speaking, your audience will resonate. If there is no passion, be ready to hear snoring or see your audience slowly fading away to their phone. 

More than for speaking, passion is the emotion that drives execution and enables us to do everything better. No obstacle can stand in the way of passion. Passion is like premium oil that lubricates execution so things are not just done faster with better quality but with consistency and persistence that never dwindles.

For example, my wife asked me to fix the front yard many times as grass were growing wild and it was falling apart -- literally from termite damage, and I always procrastinated as it's not a priority for me. But as she persisted, I told her that she can always do it herself and hire someone too if needed -- as she always rely on me to do stuff, I insist that she does things herself so she can learn to be more independent. She did hire someone to replace the fence, but aside from that, she spend many hours creating a vegetable garden -- she built the boxes for the vegetables from wood boards, laid down the brick tiles, bought all the plants/vegetables -- essentially created the entire vegetable garden all by herself. That is passion at work and it looks great! ^_^ The kids love playing there every day. 

Whatever that you do, try to apply passion to it. If you really can't, then you might want to find something else that you can be passionate about. With passion, no matter what you do, you will do well and excel! 

How do you find your passion? That's a tough one. I think everyone should try everything at least once, and maybe twice as tastes do change over time, and then either passion naturally surfaces or you just pick the one that you like the most and it grows from there. 

I also like to think passion is one's natural true self. It's the emotion that represents who you are. And that is why when you follow your passion, you naturally will be happy and excel at it. It is just you expressing your inner self as an emotion. Let your passion out, let yourself out, just be yourself! That might be gibberish as it is just a feeling but hope that you feel it too. :)  

Be passionate! Be you. Be happy.