Passion Wins

I've been a management consultant, run companies for nearly two decades, and worshiped at the altar of competitive advantage. But I might boil a lot advice down to:

Strategy and execution are absolutely essential.
But passion wins.

Passion wins because it's the foundation upon which all other pillars are built.

Passion ignites plans.
Passion drives action.
Passion pursues.
Passion perseveres.
Passion overcomes.
Passion wins.

Twenty years of learning and much of it distilled into two words.

In the last four years, we've completed more than 100 acquisitions. I recently spoke about the six common characteristics that these successful internet businesses share and indicated that the transformational ingredient for each business is passion. Each of these entrepreneurs won their spaces by applying more passion to their businesses than their competitors.

Passion does not substitute for other key ingredients, such as a clear strategic focus or a differentiated offering. But passion is what makes it happen.

I highly recommend a recent fabulous piece by John Hagel about passion in business.

John raises the issue about how to create or maintain passion in larger corporate settings. I think it starts at the top. Leaders must be risk-taking, idea-pushing, energy-enhancing, passion-propogating believers in the cause-- not just process leaders. If that sounds like a fine line between insanity and success, such is the nature of passion.

The key is to balance passion with process; see my post: how passion wins.

How Passion Wins

Passion wins. But only when passion is aligned to goals, to purpose, and to governance structures that create great teamwork.

Pure passion catalyzes and transforms. It inspires, innovates, and invents. Pure passion is a spark, a fire, sometimes an inferno.

But passion alone, without alignment mechanisms, without discipline, is often not productive. It careens, distracts, and ultimately burns itself (and others) out.

The triumph is to align passion to purpose to people.

This aligning is a process, and a demanding one. Passion fights process. Passion hates to be patient. Passion tramples teamwork.

True leaders align passions through process, without dousing the fire. Unfortunately, there is little training about how to balance. In fact, our educational systems tend to polarize. Most formal training tends to dampen creativity and passion. On the other hand, many managers are taught to coddle creatives/passionates as if subjecting them to rigorous process would irreparably damage their mystical skills.

How true leaders balance passion with process is high art. And a topic I will write more about.

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” -Ben Franklin

Also see my post: what is passion?

What is Passion?

Passions are strong emotions that motivate us.

These emotions are deep, authentic, and powerful. These emotions are what drive us to achieve, to excel. Think of anyone who has achieved some measure of greatness and you will find great passion.

Mastery is high achievement. And it flows when passions are pursued with discipline over time.

As long as we hold our passions, we invest time, energy, and resources in the progression and pursuit of goals. If we hold our passions long enough, we give ourselves the opportunity for mastery. Malcolm Gladwell writes about the 10,000 hour rule, a shorthand expression for the 10 years of devoted practice typically required for true mastery. He says, "what we call talent is mostly a desire to persist".

Passion is the door to mastery. Passion is the prerequisite for talent.

I've now written about why passion wins, how passion wins, and what passion is. That leaves the biggest questions ahead. Where do passions come from? How long do passions stay? These topics become more intangible, more philosophic, and more spiritual-- but I may make an attempt down the road.

Six Keys to a Great Internet Business

Only 1 in about 5,000 attempts at building websites results in a successful business (more on these stats in following posts). At our PubCon keynote I outlined the five primary factors that determine the winners:

1. Focus
2. Uniqueness
3. Monetizability
4. Content
5. Community

And the transcendent ingredient:
6. Passion

I'll begin to break these down:

Focus
Target one niche or application (at least to start). The more precise the better. Examples: not travel, but cruises. Not hobbies, but scrapbooking. Not students, but colleges (think of Facebok's start). Focus forces you to understand the target better and to build better solutions. Win a single type of audience, only then expand.

Uniqueness
At the onset, the business should either be unique or do something much better than everyone else. Over time, competition tries to replicate the success of others, but the best businesses preserve aspects of their uniqueness by continuing to innovate (like Amazon).

Monetizability
Follow the money trails, the commercial trails. Audience alone is sometimes not enough. Not all audiences monetize very well.

Content
Deliver the highest quality content to your target audience. It's the most efficient way to build brands.

Community
Try to build strong community around your site. Good content gets much better when a community interects with it.

Passion
Passion is the secret weapon. Beating the competition requires intense energy, perseverance, discipline, and ambition-- attributes that are driven by passion.

I'll have more to say about these ingredients, especially passion, in subsequent posts.


PubCon Las Vegas Keynote, Nov 12, 2009. Photo thanks to Dave Dugdale.