Passion vs Passion

Bring in the creative online industry, the word “passion” comes up all the time. If you’ve got no passion, then why are you doing what you are doing. Are you just wasting your life away at a place that you drag your feet to work everyday.

Passion is like a pre-requisite, a fuel, especially in a fast paced environment. Its not just the creative industry that needs passion, almost every company can thrive if its filled with people filled with passion of what they are doing.

I’ve interviewed people to join my team and they always tell me they are very passionate about the job, passionate about the net, the web, the industry, the lot. But when I asked them how passionate are they, most of the time I get the very cliché answer “I live, eat and breath the net.” *yawn* I believe there is more to it.

So I turned to people whom I know that HAVE passion and started asking a similar question, “How do you quantify passion?”. Some say it’s a feeling, some say you just know it, some say its qualitative and not quantitative.

So the problem I have now is how can I know if one person is more passionate then the other. How can I know if one company is more passionate than another?

Here are some quantifiable things I feel that may put real hard numbers behind the word passion.

  • Number of links being shared between colleagues.
  • Number of colleagues having their own hosting and domain.
  • Number of colleagues having their own website. (contributed by Ben Ho)
  • Number of pet projects or experimental projects.
  • Number of hours set aside purely for trying out new stuff.
  • Number of attendance at web events like websg, barcamp, etc. or event conferences like SXSW or AnEventApart, etc.

If you have more ideas do share and I’ll add to the list.

Note: this post is still a draft.

7 Replies to “Passion vs Passion”

  1. I think you’ve nailed it especially for a person in the creative industry. Whether or not they are hosting their own site and own their own domain is a good tell tale sign whether they’re really passionate.

    I would also like to add, although this is related to hosting and domain, it is also easy to tell whether the person is passionate or not by looking at the effort put into creating their own website, or whether they even have a website or not!

    Too many designers I have met do not have their own website or don’t really care at all. This shows how much they love exploring their craft.

  2. Passion is something that you can’t describe. Its not about living, eating and breathing it, but rather how you can bring it into your life and make it part of it.

  3. When you meet someone with the same strong passion as you, you’ll be able to feel it. If you can’t, then they’re not passionate enough.

    I like your list. For me, when I am looking for someone to work with, the things I look out for… his tweets, his blog posts (place he host his blog plays a part too), how connected he is and how active he is in the community he’s in.

  4. If there’s an opportunity to meet up face to face, you can usually tell by the look in their eyes when they talk about their work/interests. People with passion have their faces lit up perpetually when they talk about their stuff.

    If based on interaction on the web, then I’ll go by their writing/online voice. I have come across people who have tons of social media profiles and lotsa re-tweets but it seems like they are there for the sake of it. (The ‘we-do-it-because-that’s-how-to-get-our-name-out-there-so-we-can-just-do-it-for-a-living’)

    Truly passionate people do not get to choose what they do for a living. The passion chooses them. :)

  5. If you’re passionate, you would have something to show for it (works the same with way marriage). What you’re probably looking for here is self-motivation (less abstract and more quantifiable) – the ability to get off your butt and do something.

    A good question rather than “how passionate are you about the web?” might be “how has the web changed the way things work / what do you see the internet becoming in the next 10 years?” People who put enough thought, as opposed to people who have a Livejournal account (have web site) will stand out.

  6. Passionate people cannot help themselves. It’s an unfortunate compulsion.

    I would love to have less opinions on the web and design, but I can’t seem to to help bending the ear of whoever I happen to be near. Sorry to those subjected!

  7. When you have passion..

    You will have ideas, insights and opinions.

    You will care about what’s right and what’s wrong, and will go out of your way to make things better.

    You will want to work with others who are as passionate as you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.