25 Mar Passion Isn't Enough
I just watched this TED talk and although I found it interesting (as so many TED talks are), I do think that there is a missing piece. Lots of people talk about passion and how that is the key to finding a successful career and/or business, but those who have thriving businesses know that passion isn’t enough.
The key point of this economist’s message is that unless you do something that you are extremely passionate about, you will undoubtedly not have a great career. True, you must be passionate about something in order to be successful, but more importantly you have to work at it. Everyone is passionate about something, but not everyone is willing to work hard…really hard to get it!
How many times do you hear people complain about their job or business? They share all of the reasons they dislike what they do and it usually follows with excuses as to why it is impossible to make it better. They also often talk about the reasons they couldn’t possibly get out of their current situation and find something new and act as if that is simply not an option. They’re probably passionate about a ton of things and have some really great business ideas. The question is are they willing to skip going home and watching tv or hanging out with their buddies to actually pursue that passion and turn it into a successful career?
It’s so much easier to make excuses as to why you aren’t going to pursue something that deep down you know you would love than it is to actually work for it. It’s easier to convince yourself that people like Sarah Blakely or Mark Cuban (and tons of others, but these are just two of my favs at the moment :)) just got lucky or knew the right people, but when you hear their stories you get to see just how hard they worked to build their business. You hear about they challenges they went through, the amount of people that said “no” to them and that no matter what…they never gave up. Do they have passion? ABSOLUTELY!! And they also pursue that passion with everything they have.
So yes, while passion is definitely important (let’s face it, you’re not going to be motivated to be a huge success at something you aren’t excited about), hard work, perseverance and doing whatever it takes is ultimately going to make you a success!
What do you think? Share your comments below…we’d love to hear them. 🙂