Put Passion in Your Work

Written by Jay Abraham

This article addresses a subject that's so obvious that most people blatantly overlook its importance. This subject is passion. More specifically, why you must put passion into every product or service you market. Most people tend to get into business enterprises or activities they don't love. How do you expect to achieve superlative feats when you're ambivalent about what you're doing? It's totally incongruous with the concept of success. At one particular juncture in my life, I was impacted three separate ways in the same week by this truth. First, I read a book by a famous entrepreneur on how he made his fortune—and how you could earn one, too. To my surprise, the single most important point he advised was to do something in a field that both interested and excited you. One that you would become passionate over. Then, I read a fascinating article about four successful "boutique" movie studio presidents and it attributed their success totally to the fact that, unlike the big studios that churned out tons of mediocre films hoping for something to hit big—these boutique producers only did projects they and their writers and directors could get impassioned over, and which they could nurture and cultivate if they got off to a bad start. Where a big studio needed to do $50 million just to break even, a boutique studio could make money on a $10 million sale. More importantly, they concentrated on films the thinking or intelligent viewer wanted to see. Finally, of the hundreds of clients I've worked with or counseled, I can almost instantly tell, in advance, whether they're destined to succeed or not—merely by gauging their level of passion with the product or service or industry they're involved in. How passionate are you about what you're doing? If the answer is "not very," perhaps you should consider finding a new field of pursuit or attempt to rekindle your enthusiasm or love for what you're involved in. I find that by talking to other people in one's field—people who genuinely love what they're doing—you can get recharged because their excitement, enthusiasm and passion can't help but be contagious. It's also good to spend time talking to young people just starting out in your field because their views and perspectives are fresh, vibrant and untainted. Try to remember what got you originally smitten with the field, what your hopes, dreams and excitements were back when you started out. Don't fall into the trap of being frustrated because you didn't achieve the big "end-product" result you expected. Rather, keep engaging in the ever-changing, ever-challenging process. And remember that 99% of the problems or dissatisfactions you probably have with your product, field or industry ARE IN YOUR HEAD, not outside of it. Moreover, if you still can't get re-enthused with what you're doing, get out, or sell out, and get into something you can love. Please—for your sake—fall in love with what you do, or find a new love. Jay Abraham is the founder and CEO of Abraham Group, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. Jay has spent the last 25 years solving problems and significantly increasing the bottom lines of over 10,000 clients in more than 400 industries worldwide. Visit www.abraham.com or www.business-breakthroughs.com