Why Passion Equals Success

What kinds of people do we most envy? I'm not talking about envy in the negative, covetous sense of desiring someone else’s luxurious car or palatial home. This isn’t about yearning for material wealth. This is a more positive envy, about admiring the people who are doing what they want, whose profession is their passion.

Think of it another way. What are the qualities of your ideal manager, someone you’d be eager to work for and with?

A friend of mine, who I'll call Tim, is such a person, someone I’ve long admired. Early in his career, he aimed high. He chose his path, the business he wanted to be in, and identified the appropriate milestones he needed to hit along the way to reach his goal. It was never easy. He built his company from scratch, putting in long hours for many years, while taking a lot of risks along the way to achieve it. But he has arrived.

The business Tim owns is thriving today. Over the years, he hired and cultivated competent managers, which ultimately freed him from much of the day-to-day hassles of running the business, while giving him more free time. He has assumed a senior advisory role in his company, which allows him time to travel extensively and play lots of golf. Once, I asked him what exactly it is that he does, now that he has achieved his intended goal.

“I manage the life of Tim,” he replied.

What a perfect reply. While on its face it seems self-centered, in fact, it says in six simple words what we all crave at our core… the sense of “I’m in control of my life.”

In the end, that's what we envy most about the people we deem worthy of our respect: they are in control of their lives. How they spend their time and what they choose to do with it is not dictated every day by the ebb and flow of the business, or by the whims of the marketplace. They worked hard to lift themselves above the daily fray. They were able to do so because they were (and still are) driven by their passions to be their best and achieve their goals.

Consider a different example. Think about certain sports stars in the limelight, those whose energy and dedication to excellence are so intense that it fairly oozes from their pores. The one that pops into my head is Dustin Pedroia, the Boston Red Sox’s All-Star second baseman. Pedroia is so plugged into the game, so excited to play baseball, it seems as though he would play for no salary.

Sidelined for much of the 2010 season with a broken foot, he nevertheless was in the dugout for every game, on crutches. You could sense his frustration at being sidelined, yet you could also see on his face the same eagerness and engagement that he has when he’s on the field. He was champing at the bit to be back playing the game he loves and excels at, the game for which he won Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in consecutive years (2007 and 2008, respectively).

What goes into that attitude? What shapes that approach to our chosen field? What makes people like Dustin Pedroia and Tim excel while another guy in the same field just plugs along, not deriving a lot of joy from his workaday life? The core driver may seem ineffable. But I think it’s essentially a positive attitude toward life, an innate optimism, and a passion at one’s core that makes it unthinkable to do anything halfway.

Ian Bostridge, the English tenor, opera star, and lieder singer, perhaps said it best when explaining to an interviewer how he approaches his art: “You can't stand there singing prettily. You have to seize the audience and not let go until you leave the stage. You have to burn. If you don't, it's a waste of time. Why bother?”

Exactly.

What kind of people do you want to associate with? What kind of people do you want to work for, to have on your team? Don’t you want a guy like Dustin Pedroia, Ian Bostridge or my friend Tim? Absolutely.

You do because you connect to and want to share in their passion, enthusiasm, and optimism. And frankly, that enthusiasm, that passion for doing what they love, and their optimism are contagious. Imagine being part of a team led by a guy like one of them, aiming for perfection in everything they do.

They don’t strive for perfection for its own sake, but rather because they know they’re always capable of doing something better – with perfection as the ultimate aim. They go all out for that new level of excellence the next time they try. So even when they fall short in their own eyes, you know the result is going to be pretty damn good.

Does Pedroia bat 1.000? No. Does he ever make an error in the infield? Sure he does. Does Bostridge ever miss a note or fail to satisfy himself with a given performance? Of course. But the energy each expends in striving for his own version of perfection is, for them, a reward in itself.

It’s also a beacon for their future journeys toward perfection, a baseline on which to build their next quest for success. Fueling that effort, always, is their optimism, their enthusiasm, and their passion for doing what they love. I say, God bless them.