Today I have the joy of presenting a guest post written by fellow Bibliomotion author, Bill Ferguson. In Bill’s new book, The Wisdom of Titans; Success Secrets from Entrepreneurs Who Rose to the Top, he reveals the lessons learned from some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs. Based on his interviews, Bill has identified passion as an essential ingredient in the recipe for success. Consider how much passion you bring to your work as we continue our conversation on professional happiness. What are you passionate about and how can you infuse more of your work days with those things you truly enjoy?
Passion as a Motivator of Success
By William J. Ferguson
Among athletes it’s known as “love of the game.” For the creative it is “art for art’s sake.” For entrepreneurs, too, there is an intrinsic driver of achievement—passion. Simply stated, passion is the ultimate motivator; it is what gets business builders going and keeps them going, even in the face of challenges and setbacks.
Entrepreneurship is hard work, requiring an unbelievable amount of time and commitment. Even when there are significant extrinsic rewards—such as the case of a “brand-name” entrepreneur who earns a fortune by turning an idea into an empire—the financial, alone, cannot compensate for the proverbial blood, sweat, and tears involved. Instead, there must be an internal driver—the satisfaction that comes with success.
As I conducted interviews for my book, The Wisdom of Titans: Secrets of Success from Entrepreneurs Who Rose to the Top (Bibliomotion, May 2013), I was struck by how passion serves as both catalyst and sustainer. From entertainment to engineering, hospitals to hospitality, passion is the success secret behind emotional and intellectual engagement. The best ideas, the most developed business plans, access to investment capital, the ability to recruit and develop a talented team are all necessary ingredients, but without passion, they will fall flat.
So what does passion look like for an entrepreneur? In simplest terms, you know you’re passionate about something when it is the reason you get up in the morning. For entrepreneurs that “something” is creating, building, expanding, and/or sustaining a business. Even when there are challenges and setbacks (and there will be), excitement is not dampened.
Bill Marriott, executive chairman of Marriott International, described it as having fun at work. As he stated, “If you can’t have fun doing what you’re doing, you’d better find something that you enjoy doing because you won’t be successful unless you do.”
What holds true for the creator and builder of a business also applies to those who work for established companies. Although compensation is important, it is not the main reason why people work. A far bigger and more sustaining motivator is a sense of making a difference, of being part of something significant, of creating the new and different. It is discovering a sense of alignment with one’s passion and the purpose of the organization.
An example outside the business world is in education. Many great teachers talk about being motivated to make a difference in the lives of their students, to help them see and attain what’s possible. That same sense of mission and vision enlivens the entrepreneurial spirit, to do what others have not done before—or to do something better, more efficiently, and with greater value to customers and other stakeholders.
In the entrepreneurial world, passion links with opportunity. With the idea that there is, indeed, a “better mousetrap” to be made, passion drives it to completion. The learning curve will be steep and pitted with obstacles (opportunities to learn disguised as failures). The only way to navigate such as path is with the hunger to learn, the commitment to perform, and the genuine desire to make a difference. That’s true passion—the ultimate motivator.
About William J. Ferguson and The Wisdom of Titans
William J. Ferguson is chairman and CEO of Ferguson Partners Ltd. and Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of FPL Advisory Group. He is also the author of The Wisdom of Titans: Success Secrets from Entrepreneurs Who Rose to the Top (Bibliomotion, May 2013).