To be the best at what you do, you need to stick at it long enough to develop the specialist skills to master it. If you’re working every day in a passionless state, the rest of your life, including your family, is affected, so what’s the real cost?
When you meet with a person full of passion, you will notice that what I say is always less important than how they say it. If you can’t get excited about what you sell, then at the very least get excited about how you sell it!
My old mentor Big Kev’s tag line was ‘I’m excited!’ At the conclusion of every infomercial he would spray these passionate words at the television screen. These words were not just heard from his lips?they jolted his entire body. That’s the type of passion and conviction you must demonstrate when you sell. If you don’t do that now, ask yourself why not.
Perhaps you’re in the wrong job. Are you frustrated by a lack of support? Perhaps you’re being bullied by team-mates. Not being valued? Do you want to be inspired, instead of managed? Or maybe you’re focusing on the wrong things, instead of grabbing life by the scruff and pursuing a career that is truly meaningful to you.
What you do in life says a hell of a lot more about you than anything you can ever say. By following a career that you are truly passionate about, by default you inspire others to do it too! Where you find passion, you will also find meaning. Passion is so important because it usually oozes out of every pore. Passionate people are never the passengers.
I love being around passionate people; these luminous individuals emit a highly flammable energy and seem to enjoy life and get more of out of everyday situations. We all know what happens once passion leaves the building. We usually leap head first out the window after it!
Passion is a life force, it can move mountains. Passion has the power to transcend and transform. It can pick you up if you’ve been knocked down. It will inspire you when no one else will. Passion will keep you up at night as you ponder the fruits it may bring you. And maybe just maybe, passion will find you, and when it does you’ll bloody know about it! Passion is beautiful. Passion is creative. Passion is intense. Passion is loving. Passion is full on! Passion is sensitive. Passion is contagious.
However, passion has a nasty little sister called reckless. She is impetuous by nature and acts purely on impulse. She is made of pure passion: the unbridled and unadulterated kind. She has the power to win and influence all in her way. She is intoxicating, sultry and seductive. Equally smart and sexy! You just can’t get enough.
But don’t be fooled: her allure is a wicked facade. Reckless is self-centered, indulgent and in constant need of instant gratification. She skilfully gets her own way, even if it means throwing you into harm’s way. She is selfish and can never be trusted. If you don’t tame passion you will soon meet reckless.
Many successful people have been seduced by reckless, jumping into hot deep pools of passion without testing the waters. Tame your passion and let it serve you rather than work against you. Sometimes you need to bring things back a peg or two and talk them through, and then proceed slowly and cautiously. No harm in that. Some say passion is the secret to success; I say that’s only in part true. Passion must be tamed because reckless is dying to meet you.
“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” Nelson Mandela
This is an excerpt from Trent’s latest book OUTLAW: Fight for Your Customers and Sell Without Fear.
Trent Leyshan is the founder of sales training company BOOM! Sales and the author of Outlaw and The Naked Salesman.
