The passion

It is all about the passion. From the blogs I read to the articles I read to the TV I watch. I am drawn to the people who have the BIG passion and it shows remarkably well.

A few people come to mind:
Seth Davis from Sports Illustrated. He has a personable writing style. I can hear that guy talking basketball when I read his articles as if I were watching the run-up to MarchMadness.

Miles O'Brien from Spaceflightnow.com and This week in space. And its nice to see that since being let go from CNN he is absoluetly immersed in NASA and space and community and people and wow his passion just shines. I think he got picked up on PBS! Even more passion to come.

How about some people I don't know but feel like I have a clue from the blogroll: Madison Richards posts are filled with that passion (though the blog updates come in spurts ;) ). Chuck Doswell also has a big passion for science and photography and calling it how he sees it. I can identify with their passion. And lately both of these people have shared life experience I wish I had heard years ago.

I just completed the Strengths Finder 2.0. the premise is simple. Have you been improving yourself by working on weaknesses or by working on your strengths? Seems silly to even ask that question. There is an implication that by not working on your weaknesses you are ignoring them. But you cant do both at the same time. You find your passion by working your strengths.

Its interesting to adopt the point of view that smart people succeed because they are smart. I postulate that smart people succeed because they are naturally good at working at their strengths. And when they aren't doing that they are probably exposing their weaknesses.

I also like Jaime Oliver, the naked chef. He said something profound: "When I dont follow my heart I screw up. When I do, its like magic".

So lets get back to what I ignored...the weakness. The weaknesses still need to be addressed and only life experience through your strengths can you learn how to minimize their importance by properly accounting for those weaknesses and developing strategies to counter them. You might not be able to close that hole but you can learn to avoid the traps they cause.