Passion here is not that romantic feeling you have towards someone. It is that powerful feeling of enthusiasm we all have about something. We are all passionate about something: sports, fashion, show-bizz, business, health, politics, leadership, etc. When such enthusiasm which is so strong, meets with hard mental work, success is eminent.
 
I often tell people, it is a waste of time and energy doing something you aren’t passionate about. Getting up early to go out and do work you are not passionate about is a waste. You had better sleep all day. Same for doing business in something you are not passionate about. But on the contrary, when your business is built around something you are passionate about, success is just one of the events that must happen.
 

One of the most successful companies that exist in the world today is Apple. The success of Apple is seriously grounded in the prowess of its founder, Steve Jobs. When Carmine Gallo wrote the article, ‘The Seven Success Principles of Steve Jobs’ he revealed that the No. 1 principle of Jobs’ success is ‘Doing What You Are Passionate About’. Steve Jobs said that ‘people with passion can change the world for better and that the passion he had for his business, made the difference.
 
If you have passion for computers, you will naturally excel in trading in computers and related accessories. If rearing of animals is a joy, you don’t need to go looking for a shed to start selling electronics. Get fully into the business of keeping farm animals and you shall be very successful. Some people like myself, love real estate. They love the idea of doing business with landed properties and houses, giving them for rents, improving on them and selling, etc. That is where our passion is and we won’t do better elsewhere.
In this post, I share with you six powerful reasons why passion is vital for business success. They are:
 

1.    Passion Makes You Face Obstacles Easily

The road to business success is not a smooth one. It is paved with all kinds of obstacles. Some of us call them stumbling blocks and others see them as challenges. Whatever we call them does not diminish their existence and potential to stop any business man. In fact, I know many businesses that folded us recently because of challenges.
 
It takes a person who is passionate about what he does, to remain in business despite all the odds. When you work hard all day and get nothing to show for your hard work, passion will tell you, ‘tomorrow is another day’. When you are passionate about what you do, you find joy and excitement in the thing you do than what you get out of it. This pushes you to success.
 

2.    Passion Makes You Cope With Criticisms

One of the inevitable things on the road to business success is much criticism. The world has become so critical today and we tend to even be the first critics of ourselves. Handling the day to day challenges that come with growing your business, along with criticisms, can be very difficult for any entrepreneur. But passion knows how to handle this.
 
When you are passionate about what you do, you are less inclined to criticisms. You are too involved and distracted by what you do, to notice what some other person thinks. And so passion puts you in a position where you face criticisms with much ease. The truth is that when people see how passionate you are about what you are doing, they give up with their criticisms and soon start believing in you. They eventually contribute towards the success of your business.
 

3.    Passion Makes Your Absorb Stress Easily

Someone has said, the day you chose to start doing work you are passionate about, that day you stopped working. This is very true. A simple example for me is writing to inspire people. I love sharing my ideas with as many people as care to share in them. And so writing is something I have so much passion for.
 
Right now I am writing this piece is almost 1 am. I got home at about 6:00 pm, tried to handle a few things and thought I needed to rest so that I can be up again by 6:00 am. But as soon as I thought of this piece I needed to complete, I decided to add some little more to it. Soon I realized I had lost my desire to sleep and just wanted to keep writing. I will probably finish by 1:30 am and still make sure I am up by 6:00 am. While someone things it is stressful, I enjoy it because it is something I am passionate about.
 
When you are passionate about the business you do, you will hardly ever feel stressed out by it and this will make you do a lot that will attract success.
 

4.    Passion Makes You Give Your All

Business success requires a lot from any business owner. It requires all you got: time, money, skills, experience, ideas, innovation, etc. You will not really excel in business when you do it like part time. Giving your all into a business is not possible when that business is about something that doesn’t get under your skin.
 
I have a dad who is so passionate about farming. He says, ‘if you want to kill me, take away farming from me’. I have never seen someone passionate over something as he is over farming. He goes to his farms even when he has nothing to do there but watch the crops grow. His farm is kilometres away from home but he is there every day and I have seen him on some Sundays, going there early in the morning. When the time comes to harvest, you see the reward of passion.
 
The simple fact is that passion gives rise to hard work that births success.
 

5.    Passion Makes You Rise Again

The road to business success is punctuated by so many marks of failures and ups and downs. What we call successful entrepreneurs today are people who have failed so many times but refused to settle for failure. The rose up each time they fell and were courageous to take another step forward. One thing that is responsible for this sort of stubborn commitment to what they do is passion. Passion is what gets them back to their feet after falling.
 
When your business is something you are passionate about, you always make fun out of failure and rise up again with greater determination to get back to work.
 

6.    Passion Makes You Strive For The Best

I have shared with you in some of my posts that one of the things any business owner who wants to excel greatly in business must do is strive to be the best in whatever you do. When you are the best in your area of business, you will win the market and be very successful.
 
Passion is one thing that will make you refuse to settle for the good and the better and choose the best. It will make you hate mediocrity and go for the best. When you are passionate about what you do, you will always be thinking about how to improve what you do and the end result will be excellence. Nothing will make you strive for the best than passion.
 
Chris Gardner the multi-millionaire stock broker says the secret to success is to “find something you love to do so much, you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over again.” He explains that the most inspiring leaders are those who don’t work at a job, but pursue a calling.
 

You cannot afford to waste your time on that business you are not passionate about. The most you will get out of it is mediocrity. Wake up and go after your passion. Build your business around it and see yourself reaching the zenith sooner than you imagine.
 
By Kadzem Claude