Are You Running Your Store With Passion?
Posted on Tue, Dec 13, 2011
I’ve been reading the Steve Jobs’ biography and recently saw an interview with a reporter asking him about being successful in business. One of the key themes that is continuously repeated is how important it is to work and get involved in activities that you are passionate about. It struck a sensitive part of me because my positioning statement (the line that comes after your company name) is Retailing is my Passion.
I have two other sets of business cards that say Marketing is my Passion and Business is my Passion. That is as honest and straight forward and, according to me, as accurate as a statement can be. I love being in business, I love marketing any business and retailing has been my life. Having said that and looking back over my career, I realize that the things I have been most successful in are the things that I am the most passionate about.
I recently worked with the owner of a business in Canada who is as passionate a person as I have ever encountered. I related so well to her because I could see myself in her and see the successes and the dark side of passion that can cause pain, hurt, and regrets. I have been described as a person whose greatest asset is my passion and my greatest detriment is my passion.
At first, when this woman would have a meltdown, I thought she might have been unstable or just had the shortest attention span on record. She would, as I have, go from ecstasy to the deepest of depression over the simplest issues. Why is passion so good and why is passion so bad? When someone has passion about a topic or an activity, they don’t punch a clock, they don’t complain about what should or should not be done, they do whatever it takes to make it work. They look at every knock as a boost and they never look at things as failures but rather the steps that one takes in order to be a success.
Failure to them is not an option because they never look at failure as a negative. When we are passionate about something we become so highly focused that hours seem like minutes. I have a friend of mine who is a passionate poker player and can play poker for 10 to 15 hours straight and think nothing of it. If he has to go to the theater with his wife, he is constantly looking at his watch and a layer of sarcasm permeates every word out of his mouth. How should we treat passion within our lives?
The first and most important point is to not settle for any activity, job, or friend that you are not passionate about. The last two years that I owned a retail store were probably the most challenging time of my professional career. Was the business doing well? Yes, it was. Was the staff loyal, dedicated, and experienced? Absolutely they were. Out of 36 part-time employees, 20 of them worked there for more than 15 years. So what went wrong? What happened to my passion for my store? It was seduced by a greater passion for writing, speaking, traveling, and making a difference in the lives of people who I related to because of my background. The excitement of multiple sales was replaced by the challenge of writing speeches, sharing ideas, and performing literally around the world.
I guess some people could call it the alienation of my affection but the advice that I received was simple and to the point. If you don’t love it – get out of it! This is the same advice I gave to this retailer in Canada. She would go from extreme highs to extreme lows. My advice to her was to harness her passion and remember one quote that I say to myself at least once a week and often even more – “we are never as good as our greatest victory and never as bad as our worse failure.” Realize that our passion can open up doors and can be the direct route to success. The reason for that is that people want to associate with passionate people.
We want to do business with businesses that are passionate about their business and industry. We avoid doing business with those negative types who only want to focus on how bad things are, whey they cannot do something, why it will never work and live their lives like a person who keeps saying “poor me.” At least with Christopher Robbins’ donkey Eyor you know what you’re getting all the time. If you’re a passionate person you can be all over the board. The interesting part of the store owner in Canada was that she was fully aware of this irrational behavior, and yet had problems recognizing and controlling it. Her key to solving her problems became easy because she realized that sarcasm replaced enthusiasm.
What’s my advice? It’s not running away or avoiding these negative people, yet professional after professional will tell you to avoid dealing with people who have these tendencies and traits. You could do that, but you’re going to miss out on those moments of magic when that passion and enthusiasm permeates the air and makes us feel unstoppable. I will follow a leader who is passionate. Just as logic makes our customers shop – emotions make them buy. Be a real friend and tell your friend when the sarcasm occurs. You will be doing them a big favor… that is if they talk to you afterwards.
Have a great week.