How To Use Passion to Drive Your Success

My consulting helps clients enhance customer acquisition and retention. A key trait in the best performing clients is that their people have passion that drives their success. They tell me, “I love what I do!” That passion that gets them up every morning is visible to the people with whom they do business resulting in more wins, more repeat purchases, and more lifelong customers.

More importantly, top performers don’t look for their dream job. They don’t look for what they love to do. Instead, they’re thankful to have the job with a great company and by seeing the ‘glass-half-full’, they learn to love what they do and naturally do it better.

I worked in the technology industry for almost 30 years that included months without a day off, stressful timelines, and the executive grilling that came with owning important businesses. Even so, I remember thinking and saying, “I love what I do!” I was passionate about the contribution I was making to my customers, employers, and industry. Passion overshadows the empty half of the glass.

I drove all over the Pacific Northwest selling checks to banks, savings & loans, and credit unions. I drove 80,000 miles per year, ate meals in my car, and stayed in run-down motels. Even so, I remember thinking and saying, “I love what I do!” Passion overshadows the empty half of the glass.

In my late teens and early twenties, I played guitar in multiple bands to pay for college and to make it as a composer in the music industry. It was a grind and I didn’t make it. Even so, I remember thinking and saying, “I love what I do!”

Passion overshadows the empty half of the glass.

Today I help clients improve customer acquisition and retention using The Five Abilities® business framework, that I created and wrote a book about. It’s like starting over again and I love what I do!

To be clear, I didn’t know I was going to love any of these things until I did them. I jumped in thankful that I had a job and looked at the glass half full. Each job enhanced my abilities which led to the next great job. Each job helped me see more clearly the God-given talents with which I was blessed. Each job increased my capacity to give back to the many people and communities who helped me through the years.

I love what I do because I’m thankful to be doing it. I see this trait repeated in successful people and those who are on the verge of great success. I also see the opposite where employees fret over all the ‘not-so-fun’ tasks. (e.g. prospecting, customer complaints, CRM, etc.) Those people lose sight of all they get to do to help make customer’s lives better. The things that help people do better in their jobs thus making them lifelong customers.

Three things that help you find the passion resulting in more personal and professional success:

1. Envision great customer results – From day one, learn about the great things your new peers have done to help people enhance their personal and professional success. Get examples that you can refer to every day when friends and family ask to know what you do. Soon you’ll have your own stories.
2. Find “glass-half-full” people to learn from – Hang with positive, upbeat people. This applies to the people at work and the people you hang with outside of work. I had a high school counselor, Helen Mason, who said, “When you want to know how you’re doing, look at the people around you. If you see great people, know that you’re one of them.” When you look for the “glass-half-full” you’ll find it.
3. Replace “BUT” with “AND” – Language matters and if you make a habit of speaking positively you’ll see and feel the things that give you passion about what you do. Speak negatively and you’ll see the things that help you hate what you do. Which would you rather hear?
   1. “You’re really doing well BUT, you’d make fewer mistakes by following the process.”
   2. “You’re really doing well AND, you’ll be even better once the process becomes habit.”

At The Five Abilities® our mission is to help clients acquire and retain more customers. Along the way we help people find the joy in working with customers. Our client employees find passion in what they do and therefore do it better.

©Rick Wong, The Five Abilities®