The Essense of Passion

Filed Under , Phychology, Professional Development

Well…I have been asking number of people on ”What makes you wake up in the middle of the night to think about what you do (for a living)?” Why you are doing it? Why this industry? and I must confess I get perplexed when I find no passion in the profession a person is engaged into. I think being passionate about the cause of your actions is so important. It is like having a quality experience. It is like being in a continous process of extending your imagenary limits….I can understand people have mortgages to pay and children to feed. But, why not find something you enjoy and be passionate about it and get the bills paid? I also observed that in some industries there is a bigger percentage of passionate people than in others. Why? In my opinion, there are variations of passion in the industries that have those: it could be a strong brand of the company that drives the culture and creates a cult (which is not a bad thing), or the venture is so exciting and going to change the way we do things. But, I will never understand doing things just because you have to…why not do the things you care about and can invest maximum energy?  I also found that being around passionate people creates an invisible aura of can do attitude which actually gets realized in real life. In reverse, lack of passion is so infectuous that it makes me want to run (cause I do not wish to catch it). Am I too idealistic in what I expect? Do not think so.


Comments

2 Responses to “The Essense of Passion”

  1. Walter on March 15th, 2007 6:52 pm

    Yulia,

    I’ve been reading and enjoying your memesponge blog, and I had to reply to your latest post.

    Passion is something that I have always seen in you, so it is not surprising for me to read a post from you about passion, lamenting the way people get trapped into passionless jobs to ‘pay the mortgage and feed the children’. It is not that those things are bad to do, far from it, but it true that they can become the goal in life, rather than life having the goal of LIVING!!

    And that’s what we really are here for, to LIVE!! Whether it is in work, in play, in love, passion is what makes life worth living!

    If we make good choices, and are fortunate, we can end of working in a job that excites us, motivates us, and is rewarding financially as well. I often have that experience in what I do, but certainly not all the time. I hope that you are finding it where you are now…. :-)

    Is is worth working in a passionless job, to be able to pay the bills to live a more passionate existence away from work? Maybe so, but that is a tough choice…. because we want it all!

    I knew a woman that worked 6 month contracts as a nurse in remote, barren northern communities, so that she could afford to spend the other 6 months in a home she owned in Belize, diving. That didn’t sound like a bad lifestyle at the time, and still doesn’t. Her work was a means to an end for her, and that’s a reasonable choice, but she spend half her life in places where she didn’t really want to be.

    If you look at strong brands, Apple (formerly Apple Computer) is a company that has a cult following, at least partly because of the passion for design of CEO Steve Jobs. Jobs is said to have a ‘reality distortion field’ which he casts over people near him and which makes his vision become real to them. THAT is passion in business, I would say.

    Anyway, bye for now,

    Stay Passionate…. ;-)

    Walter

  2. Yulia Smirnova on March 16th, 2007 12:26 am

    Walter, I am glad to hear from you and to know that you were compelled to share your thoughts about passion in what we choose to put our energies to. I can totally relate to your position and I am happy to see other people defending the essense of it!

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      Everything posted on this blog is a product of my own thoughts, ideas, reflections based on the professional interests. It is based on the public information, works of the colleagues and fellow researchers that are cited respectfully and my opinions as an industry professional.