LITMIR.BIZ

       Snap 3

      Passion Is for the Bedroom and the Boardroom:

      Be Passionate!

       Passion is fuel. Fill ’er up!

      When you connect what you do, who you are, how you do what you do, and what you want, there is no end to where you can take your career!

      You need only look at the most successful people in the world to see that this is true. Think Mark Cuban, the late Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Oprah, Lady Gaga, Michael Jordan, Jimmy Fallon, and Bobby Flay. Whether a business tycoon, an innovator, an adventurer, a media mogul, an entertainer, a sports giant, a comedian, or a chef, each of these individuals is known for extreme, single-minded passion.

      Combining your passions with your experience is the ideal way to direct your career and fully engage in your work. That’s what Chris Shirley does every day as a global communications manager for one of the world’s largest banks. After ten years of working on Wall Street, Chris quit his job and began an intensive filmmaking program at NYU (with nothing more than a completed screenplay to recommend him).

      Chris quickly realized that writing, not directing, was his passion, and that his screenplay might actually work better as a novel. While his agent was flogging his novel, a friend asked him to help write a financial plan for his publishing company—spurring Chris to wonder if there was a way to combine his finance expertise and his love of writing. Five weeks later, after a referral from a friend, Chris was hired as a global communications manager and gets paid to write every day.

      Even if your passion isn’t exactly what you do every day, you can find creative ways to connect your passion to your career. If you’re passionate about the environment and work in accounting, you might develop a program to save the company money by introducing environmentally aware practices. If you’re passionate about healthy eating, you might work with your company cafeteria to come up with a healthy eating option every day, or initiate a health challenge program for members of your team—or even your company.

      In a recent workshop, William asked participants to brainstorm ways they could bring their passions to work. Although initially skeptical about bringing his passion for cooking to his job as a finance executive, one participant had a breakthrough: He immediately scheduled his first Breakfast Brainstorm, after his workshop table partner suggested that he could combine his brand attribute of “collaborative” with his passion for cooking by preparing a breakfast or lunch for his team meetings. Another participant started a company choir and holds for-fee events, using the proceeds to benefit local animal shelters.

      Your passion motivates, inspires, and guides you (and your teams) to extraordinary heights, propelling your career to the next level (even if your present career isn’t your calling). Spend some time brainstorming ways to inject your passion into everything you do at work. Fervor and energy are contagious!

       How can you ignite YOUR passion?

      DARE

      Bring your passion to work. Passion makes leaders, and passionate leaders are inspiring leaders! Use YOUR passion to inspire!

       My Sparks

      Record your ideas, sparked from Chapter 2.