Recently, my friend and informal mentor, Larry Winget, posted a fairly controversial blog post entitled, “Passion Has No Value.” When I saw that post, I knew that once again, Larry was going to light some fires. And indeed, after a week and a lively debate on Larry’s site, it seems I was right.
I might have opted into the dialogue on Larry’s site, but I wanted to spend some time with this one, rolling it around in my brain.
My initial gut reaction to Larry’s post was that indeed, passion itself isn’t enough for success. As Larry and I have always agreed, it takes expertise (and other things) to be successful. Ultimately, you’ve got to have the goods to back up whatever you promise, there’s no way around that. If you’ve got passion but no expertise, you can look forward to a short business life, leaving a lot of unhappy clients and customers in your wake.
But…the whole “passion has no value” thing…that’s got me feeling like a doorknob snagged my sweater: I can’t shake it loose.
I admit, I’ve evolved over the last year. I don’t really talk much about “passion” these days. I admit, I have talked about passion’s role in the micro-entrepreneurial business, but I never really felt quite settled about it. Passion is a word that has been overused and misunderstood.
These days, instead of “passion,” I talk about “fervor,” which the dictionary defines as “great intensity of feeling or belief.” Why fervor? Because just about every mega-successful person I know is intense in his or her own way, including (and perhaps especially) Larry. Passion, though, as Larry suggests, is a word that refers to an “uncontrollable” emotion, that frankly, doesn’t have a place in business.
Emotion in general certainly has a role- it’s how we connect with people. After all, people do business with people and emotion plays a role in relationship-building. But uncontrolled emotion (passion) often gets in the way of an open, evolving, questioning mind, a necessary ingredient for success.
I do love working with entrepreneurs and I love helping small businesses grow. But I love the results I get more…and so do my clients.
And even if fervor and intensity are different from passion, they still aren’t enough for success. You can never exclude expertise from the equation. Without the “chops” to back up your fervor, you’ll never be successful (or at least, not for long). Successful business lies in the “sweet spot” that’s found in the cross-section of what you’re fervent about, what you’re really good at, and what sets you apart (the “power triad”).
I assume that Larry would agree with me that even if you’re great at what you do, you still have to find something that sets you apart, something that distinguishes you from the rest of the world (whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur). Why do I assume Larry would agree with me? I mean…have you seen his boot collection alone? Larry himself has build a successful brand that fuses his unique personality (and fashion sense) with what he’s fervent about (cutting through the nonsense) and what he’s really good at (communicating that “straight shooter” vibe through multiple mediums).
I’ve worked with micro-entreprenuers who set up shop solely under the premise of turning their “passion into profits” and failed before looking for help. I’ve worked with small business owners who focused only on what they were good at, but didn’t enjoyed it and didn’t find much success before deciding to make a change. And I’ve worked with folks in both of those categories who never packaged their business in a way that set them apart from everyone else in their industry, couldn’t reach their audience, and didn’t understand why.
Fervor, expertise, and packaging (or branding) are the first keys in success. They’re not the only keys, but they’re a good place to start.
And as for passion…as Larry suggests, perhaps that uncontrolled emotion is perhaps best left to the personal realm. Passion is what you feel about the things you want to create in your life- the ultimate outcomes like more time with family or creating a feeling of stability, safety, and security. Passion about what you’re working towards is what keeps you motivated…and that does have value.
Don’t miss The Experts Series today, as I interview Larry Winget, the “Pitbull of Personal Development” about how to make your business REALLY succeed! We’ll talk about the current state of things, the way to achieve true success, the Law of Attraction, and much, much more!
The call is FREE, so visit http://TheExpertsSeries.com to sign up to listen in and ask Larry your own questions!
If you’ve been reading my blog, my e-zine, following me on Facebook, or watching my Tweets, it would be impossible for you not to have noticed my new program, The Experts Series. This series is a yearlong, interview-and-integrate series. Each month, I’ll interview a top name in small business. The current lineup includes several bestselling authors, power players in marketing and PR, and heavy hitters from the real world, and all year long, we’ll be talking about ways for you to grow your small business.
So why should you join the series? Here are my top five reasons:
You’ll learn from the best. I’ve invited some of the world’s most well-known experts in small business, marketing, public relations, and branding to participate in this series. The lineup includes:
Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and co-author of The Go-Giver and Go-Givers Sell More
Jay Conrad Levinson,author of Guerilla Marketing, the best-known small business marketing book series of all time.
Jack Trout, author of Differentiate or Die and Positioning, among other bestsellers, and the guy I learned a ton about branding from.
Larry Winget, author of It’s Called Work For A Reason and You’re Broke Because You Want to Be and the guy I turn to for “get real, and get off your butt” advice.
David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Eyeball Wars, and Cashing In with Content, among others, and one of the guys I’ve learned the most about marketing and PR from.
(I’ve actually got several more incredible people signed on to participate, but I agreed not to reveal their names or promote that they’re appearing in the series until we get a couple of months closer to their dates. I have to admit that it’s kind of killing me not to tell you who they are, because these are huge names, and I honestly can’t even believe they agreed to let me interview them. But you’ll see the announcements coming up as soon as I’m allowed to share them, I promise!)
You’ll figure out what’s missing in your business that’s keeping you from taking that next step forward.
I don’t plan to just ask these folks what’s in their books or what they always talk about. Sure, we’ll cover that stuff, but I want to go deeper and find out what you can’t learn from their books. What are their best-kept secrets for growing your brand, getting the word out, drawing in clients, getting booked for speaking gigs, and heck, just making money? Was there one thing that they did that took their business to the next level? Was there something that “clicked” in their business? What’s the one thing they think you can do to grow your business and achieve success? I’ll be asking them more in-depth questions than you’ve heard in other interviews, to get to the heart of what these true small business masters can teach us.
You’ll have a chance to get up-close and personal with the top names in small business and ask them your questions. When I’m done grilling these experts, I’ll give you a chance to ask your own questions. You’ll be able to talk to the biggest names in small business and ask them whatever’s been burning in your mind about their books or your business. How often do you have a chance to ask someone of this caliber for a little turbo-coaching?
You’ll be working directly with me to integrate everything we learn during the interviews into your own business. The evening after every interview, I’m hosting a second call. I’ll do a brief recap of the expert call, and then I’ll take your questions. We’ll cover integrating the material we learned the day before, or you can ask me other questions about your business. Point is, I’ll be coaching you live and giving you my best business advice on the spot. This is absolutely the most affordable way to get some real, authentic business mentoring from a seasoned pro. Plus, just like any other Mastermind (I call this my “mastermind lite”), you’ll learn from the other folks on the calls. Remember, we’re all in this together. Whatever you’re going through in your business, I’ve probably been there…and you’ll discover other people who are in the same boat as you, so you can learn together.
Each month you’ll get closer to achieving true business mastery, and building more freedom, flexibility and purpose into your life. Listen…let me be candid. Just listening to the interviews and Q&A calls probably won’t change your business too much. But if you act on what you learn in the series, your business could completely transform. Just imagine if you knew what to do and how to structure your time so you really did achieve small business mastery? Can you imagine if you actually had all of the freedom and flexibility that small business ownership promises? Can you imagine what would happen if you were able to create a vision for your business and then achieve it? The best way to achieve all of that is to learn from authentic leaders who have mastered it themselves, and know how to teach what they learned. And that’s what The Expert Series is all about.
Bonus Reason: These are real experts. They’re authentic people. And they’re interested in helping you. When I invited these folks, here’s how I describe the series: “a new teleseminar series for my subscribers and clients to help them learn and grow in areas they may miss on their own.” And you know, what really amazed me about the responses I received is how generous these people were. I mean, maybe it’s my own jaded perspective, but I never, in a million years, expected anyone as famous as some of these folks are to thank me for reaching out to them and to be enthusiastic about participating in the series. But they’ve all been so generous with their time and they’re excited to join in this series, because this is all about casting off the formality and the suits and rolling up our sleeves and getting real about small business growth today.
This afternoon I had a pleasant chat with none other than Jack Trout, the man, the legend. And I’m pretty sure I’m dreaming, because he agreed to do the interview for the series, and he’ll be featured in March.
I have to say that it is just weird to see e-mails in my inbox from these guys. I mean, I see their names on my bookshelf all day long — these are the guys whose books sit next to me for easy reference. So it’s fairly surreal to see my Inbox with an e-mail from Jay Conrad Levinson (telling me he’s a notoriously late sleeper, so please don’t call him too early) sitting next to an e-mail from my dad, asking if we’re coming by for Sunday dinner.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you a bit more about how this series is going to work. You can sign up to join in for a month, or you can sign up for all 11 months. I recommend that you participate in all of the months, because you’ll only get access to the calls you pay for. So, if you join in June, you won’t get access to any of the calls before June.
As a member of The Experts Series, you’ll also get access to a second call during that month, which will be a Q&A teleseminar call with me. We’ll operate the call a first-come, first-serve basis, and I’ll answer your business questions one by one and get to as many as I can during the call. It’s a great way to get access to my advice in a very affordable way.
I’d planned a really fun series for you guys called the Wednesday Wine & Business Series, in which I planned to interview some of my favorite experts and mentors…I’d thought it would be fun to talk a bit about our favorite wines and then discuss business.
Then something BIG happened. I happened to be wishing my Facebook buddy, Bob Burg, a happy birthday, when I just decided to invite Bob to come and talk to you guys about his new book, called Go-Givers Sell More. Well, knock me over with a feather, Bob said yes!
So I took another leap and e-mailed my buddy Larry Winget, author of You’re Broke Because You Want to Be, and asked him if he’d like to come and talk to you, and…he said, “Sure…glad to do it.”
Then I started thinking…”I can’t have Bob Burg and Larry Winget come and talk to a Wine and Business Series. I can’t be sipping wine while I’m interviewing dudes of this caliber!”
And that’s when a new idea, a bigger and better idea, started forming in my head. What if this was something much bigger? What if this series became a lot more substantial and meaningful?
So I started contacting more of my favorite authors and mentors, and…guys, this is big. It’s bigger than big. Now, I’ve still got a few folks reporting back in, so I don’t have the full lineup yet, but…here’s what I can tell you:
Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and The Go-Giver
Larry Winget, author of You’re Broke Because You Want to Be and It’s Called Work For A Reason
Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerilla Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green
John Rowley, author of Climb Your Ladder of Success Without Running Out of Gas
David Meerman Scott,author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave
I’ve got several more on the list but I can’t mention their names until we get the dates solidified. Suffice to say, though, it’s going to be absolute freaking extraordinary.
You will want to be there. Period. And, you will definitely want to tell your friends.
