Deluded on passion?

A few days after I'd made the post on finding others with similar passions, I happened to read Jon Carroll's column in the San Francisco Chronicle (June 22, 2006). I really like his columns when I do read them, though admittedly it is not on a daily basis.

It was an amusing and timely (to me) column. He'd quoted Nancy Friedman's post 'Our Passion is Your Problem' - which was an entertaining read too. She (and Carroll) focus on the obvious disconnect between corporate words (aka marketing) and corporate actions. Yes, it is hard to believe that everyone in a large corporation making widgets is passionate about their work, and honestly, most corporations are passionate only about the bottom line. They may specialize in pharma, beauty products, earth movers, whatever - drumming up 'passion' for the speciality is a often hype for maintaining focus in their specific business.

But, when I read the statement 'I know no one who approaches the daily grind with passion' it gave me pause. While it may be true if what you do is a grind, but there are many, many people out there who're fired up about their jobs and don't think of work as a chore. If what you're doing is interesting to you, and you're working with good people, at the very least you're not dragging yourself to work, and most likely you're looking forward to it. Personally, even when I was in the corporate world, there were long periods of time when I was absolutely consumed by, and loving, what I was doing, and couldn't think of a better word than passion to describe my feeling.

Then there's the entrepreneurial angle. I've mentioned passion as being non-negotiable for an entrepreneur about a kazillion times and see it proven true almost on a daily basis. In fact, entrepreneurs don't lose their passion even when their companies become large corporations. Examples are obvious and plentiful - Ford, Gates, Jobs, etc. They insist on passionate people by their side when they're starting out, and will most likely continue to favor them as they grow, though the focus of passion may change.

Discounting the excesses of marketing speak in other arenas, in the entrepreneurial world, looking for people who're passionate about their work is not a fantasy quest - and not doing so could lead to dire results.