A Passion For Calmness

The word passion has made a fair presence in management literature in recent years. It is a must, say the gurus for any entrepreneur as he or she embarks on the journey into the unknown. It is a must say the Counselors to the young graduate  seeking a job. A passion to achieve , a passion to excel and a passion to succeed. The word does pump up the adrenalin for a while, for sure. There is hardly a  "pick me up" book or one on a successful business person that does not have this word on the cover.

I wonder whether  passion alone holds the key to success in any endeavor  How about another word "calmness"? Which one is more relevant , or are they both equally important? What do you do when as a "passionate" entrepreneur in the IT sector wakes up one more to find that his geek has jumped ship?Would his "passion" overcome the cold sweat of fear  or the surge of anger at being let down? Many a time the person tends to turn his back on the "traitor" and look for other solutions. The passion to succeed prevents the recourse to a calm assessment of the development. Perhaps there is a merit in  reviewing the situation calmly and attempt at a solution that retains the resource. Too often this route is missed as the negative emotions are suppressed under a "passionate" belief that there are other avenues to take. 

Or take a situation where a job  one was "passionately" seeking , did not materialize. Would a passion to succeed resolve the deep disappointment and frustration that sets  in the first few minutes of the realization of a failure? Or does it prevent an introspection of the reasons that led to the failure. That requires an equanimity, a calmness to analyze the failure and perhaps derive some useful pointers.

A calm introspection of an event is critical and in my view, more so than a passion. Passion has a tendency to overwhelm, to mask out all emotive feelings that deviates from the goal. That could be counter productive.There is a need to take passion cautiously and add a fair dollop of calmness to it !