Chapter 77. Be Passionate and Bold

If you’re not going to be passionate about your work, what are you going to be passionate about? Look, you spend more time at work doing work, living, breathing, and being at work, than anything else except perhaps sleeping. You must be passionate about what you do. You’re passionate about sex, but that doesn’t last as long as your career. You’re passionate about food, and you only eat three times a day—work is continual. You’re passionate about your life, your hobbies, your family, your holidays. And yet an awful lot of people see their work as something to dread, a chore to be endured. If it’s like that for you, then go home—and stay there. Make room for someone who is going to be passionate about it. But I’m positive that isn’t you.

When I first started my career—of which I have had several—I read up on the industry before I started training. I read about its history, the famous people in it, stories about it, how it evolved and the legislation surrounding it, and how certain traditions associated with it came about. I went into that job a walking encyclopaedia of facts and information, anecdotes and history. And I had my breath taken away by how little everyone else in that industry knew. I was passionate and it seemed no one else was. I found only a terribly small group of people who cared about what they did. Over the years I have met many others, but never enough.

When you are passionate you can be bold because you have that drive, that enthusiasm, that courage, that excitement. Being bold means you can take risks. And taking risks means they pay off—not all the time but often enough that you get a name for yourself as a high-flyer, a go-getter, a success.

Being passionate means caring about what you do. Not just going through the motions but really caring. Being driven—being constantly excited and enthusiastic. What you do makes a difference—it’s not just about the money or the status or the perks. It’s about making a real contribution to people’s lives and the environment and society. If you’re not passionate, what are you? If you are passionate, what are you passionate about? If not now, when?