Clement Chee

Donald Trump said, “If you don’t have passion, you don’t have energy, and if you do not have energy, you have nothing.”

Passion. What a great subject in life. Even the most successful building tycoon on earth Donald Trump knows the importance of having passion in your life.

In case you do not know, let me share with you why passion plays a very big part when you want to attract success in life. Successful people do things out of passion and not money. They may have worked for money initially, but it was their passion that brought them to where they are today.

Donald Trump make a lot of money because his passion is in negotiations and building buildings. Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Blue Airlines is obsessed with airlines every bit of his life. Bill Gates thinks about operating systems and software all the time. This is why they are so successful.

So what is passion?

Passion is the irresistible and boundless enthusiasm for your belief and action.

When you have passion, you will see ever obstacle as a challenge. When you have passion, you will find every failure you face is an opportunity to learn. When you have passion, you will find a way to make it happen, ‘by hook or by crook’.

Let’s take a deeper look at PASSION and it is actually an acronym made up from a few characteristics.

Purpose. When you discover a purpose in your life, it will give you a passion. Anthony Robbins knows very well that his purpose is to help people to realize their potentials so that they can achieve what they want in life. Macdonalds knows that its franchise system works perfectly for as a business and this is why they are setting up Macdonalds all over the world to help business owner to succeed in their business. Do you know what your purpose is?

Attitude. This is really a big thing in a person’s life. Not everything in life goes your way exactly all the time. In fact, your plan will not work most of the time especially when you are just starting out to do something new. Zig Ziglar said this, “I am convinced that life is 10% of circumstances or what that happens to me and 90% of how I react or my attitude!”. Jack Canfield came out with a formula, [E]vent + [R]esponse = [O]utcome. It simply shows that things may not go according our ways but it is how we respond that makes the difference to the outcome.

Spirit of Sacrifice. Sacrifice is not something we all want to do, especially when it comes to things that are so valuable for us in life. In addition, you will only be able to see good fruits in your life after you have sacrificed. I always like to relate this to Boy-and-Girl Relationship (BGR) when I talk about sacrifice. Imagine when you love someone, you would travel all the way just to buy her the best gift you can afford, even you have to go through storms and valleys. I have seen people stayed up to late nights just to make videos for the girls they love. When it comes to work, once the clock ticks 5pm, you will feel so overwhelmed with the workload, not to mention about working up to late nights. It is not wrong to sacrifice for the person you love, but it is something that is worth for us to take a look at. After you have sacrificed for your work, you will see good fruits. Only after you have sacrificed.

Incentive. It took me a while to understand what this means. When we talk about incentive, what do you think about? Bonuses? Extra mileage claims? Or getting another conditioner for free when you buy a shampoo? The incentive here I am talking about is all about sincerity. Take buying a car as an example. When you buy a car, you will usually have at least half a year of free services, if not for a year. Why? It is because of their commitment to you, in exchange of your commitment to them. As you are committed to pay your hard earned bucks to them every month, they want to provide the best for you so that you can have more value than what you pay. Coming back to you, what is your incentive for the people around you? What is your incentive for your work? Would you go extra mile just to provide the best value for the people around you?

Ownership. When your boss is promoting your colleague to be the next department manager, have you ever wondered why? Most of the time, it is because they take ownership of the whole matter. They do things as if they are doing things for themselves. When the company makes a loss, he has a part to play. When a subordinate is not performing well, he has a responsibility to train him and motivate him. When you take ownership, you will produce good and excellent work for the people around you. It is always important to know that we do not live for ourselves but for others as well.

Never give up. A successful person is not someone who never fails, but someone who never quits. We all need to understand this because the moment we decide to give up, it will make the result permanent. Have you heard of Team Hoyt? It is a marathon team consist of a father and a paralyzed son who were committed to finish the marathon race. Throughout the journey, the father ran by pushing the wheelchair for the son, he was swimming by pulling a floating boat with his son on it and he was cycling with his son at the front. They did not win the race, but nevertheless, the finished the race. Their commitment to finish the race was so great that it is still being remembered until today. I don’t even know who won the race but seriously, it does not matter to me. One thing I know, even though Team Hoyt did not win, they made it to the final.