Many, though in these benefits, there hide weaknesses, too. Let's look at the good of it, then shine a light on the bad.
- People invest in people.?If you're raising money to get your idea off the ground, looking to co-opt influential people into your cause, or have big names endorse you and advocate for your product, your passion is the catalyst. A venture capitalist might wade through your technical data, or he can LIKE your enthusiasm and casually toss over a few million for some points. Even customers will buy from you just because of how sold you are on it.
- Business is hard.?Things that should work won't. People less talented than you will get more opportunities. External forces you can never prepare for can completely wreck you in a blink of an eye. Most business is won through attrition - just refusing to give up and figuring out how to get UP for the umpteenth time, having been once again knocked on your rear end. Passion is the fuel that, when you're going through hell, allows you to keep going.
- It can make you happy.?If you love what you're doing, you win. It doesn't matter if you grow the biggest, make the most money, or win the highest rewards - you live in your purpose and put it out there every day. What more can you ask for?
Now it'd be great if passion was all upside, no downside. But it's not. Passion left unchecked can ruin you faster than apathy ever would.
- Divorce you from reality. Remember Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes? She was passionate and pulled many people into her orbit with that passion, and it was all a scam. Don't let passion blind you to the point you walk yourself right off the edge of a cliff.
- There are trees, too.?Passion is a high-level view - seeing the forest, not just the trees. But that doesn't mean you can eschew the details and the day-to-day. Some stuff in business is "chop wood, carry water." It's monotonous, tedious, and only a sadist would enjoy it. But it needs doing. Passionate folks sometimes become blind to this.
- It can make you empty. Passion and lust are at least first cousins. Some relationships make it out of the lust phase and into the love phase, but not most. The point is passion can't be the only thing, and after a while, it needs to be one of many things that keep your business engine running. You also have to learn how to be RIGHT with the world (business and personal) without passion. Easier said than done.
