Passions & The Importance of Passion

Let's talk about Passions today.

I think Passions allow a person to dynamically focus and combine his Time, Energies, Emotions, Faculties, Learnings & Perspectives into an unbeatable whole, into a "killer" combination. In short, Passions anchors, focuses and forces (in a very good way) the productive use of the person's Time, such that there is no unproductive time, no "down time", eg., a person deeply passionate with learning, philosophy and literature will not "kill time" at a Starbucks or a Coffee Bean whilst waiting for a friend, he will invest his Time, Energies, Emotions, Faculties, Learnings & Perspectives whilst waiting to read and reflect on Marcel Proust, Kenzaburo Oe, Haruki Murakami, JMG Le Clezio, FA Hayek, Bertrand Russell, Niccolo Machiavelli, Plato, or for that matter, any literature or philosophy at the current time which catches his attention, energies and fancy.

In this line of thought, a person with many Passions therefore enjoys a very dynamic (and, in my mind, impossible to replicate) interplay of Time, Energies, Emotions, Faculties, Learnings & Perspectives on his many areas of Passions, catalyzing a learning, a perspective, and a teachable POV (point-of-view) on issues which only broad reading, deep reflection and wide learning over many Passion areas, dynamically through Time, can engender.

In a previous blog post, I had mentioned the magical combination of Wisdom = Intelligence + Good Judgement + Eloquence; and that countries, organizations and teams need to look beyond Intelligence to nurture and grow leaders who emphasize and possess all aspects of being Wise. I will today take this argument one step further.

Leaders with genuine & deep Passions (for the areas they sincerely care about) and who are also Wise (demonstrates Intelligence, shows Good Judgement and exhibits deep Eloquence) will be more natural & more inspiring as Leaders, especially when their Leadership spans those areas of Passions. All things being equal, such Wise & Passionate Leaders are more likely to be followed and respected.

In Leadership, it is important that we keep learning, keep growing, keep improving. All of us can get better, yes, even the very good ones.

Reflect deeply --- especially if you happen to chance upon this article and were somehow entranced enough to read it all the way through --- ask yourself sincerely, and write down in your journal or in your heart's journal, am I a Wise Leader with Passions, with the right perspectives and teachable point-of-views (POVs)? Am I as good a Leader as I can be? Is there more I can achieve? Which are the areas where I can get better, where I need to get better? Then imagine the benefits to you, your team, your organization, and also your society & country, when your Leadership improves... and the results kick in.