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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Passion: The Key Differentiator

Excellent organizations separate themselves from everyone else based on the passion of their people. You may think of it as “fire in the belly,” excitement, enthusiasm, or zeal for your life’s work. Whatever you call it, passion is the emotion that makes you jump out of bed in the morning, itching to get at it.

Passion drives the discipline you need to accomplish the big goals you set for your life, career, and relationships.

Passion is an impatient state of mind. Nothing moves as fast as you’d like when you have a burning desire to convert your vision into reality.

But if you can harness and apply your passion with rigor and discipline, it will lead you to discovery, then mastery and, finally, to excellence.

Without passion, you can muddle through, but success (and lasting excellence) will allude you. If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, sooner or later that will become apparent to your colleagues and your clients.

BOTTOMLINE: Never settle for good enough. If you can’t keep your internal fire burning, you are in the wrong business. Passion is the key differentiator.

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