How to get from A to Zee in a recession

With passion. That’s how.  Two things that I came across recently really made me think wow. That’s it, isn’t it. No matter what the circumstances in your life. If you have the passion for it, you will achieve your goals, and probably way beyond what you had in mind. We take our eye off that at our peril.

The first example of extraordinary passion that I want to mention in this post, is in Nigella Lawson’s book called Nigella Express. Nigella, for those of you not into the cookery channel, is a sexy female answer to all the male cookery hosts out there.

Reading the foreword in her best seller book she mentions that the book kind of wrote itself.  Really, how, you might want to ask. And that’s where one realises there is true passion in this celebrity cook. Every time she is in the kitchen cooking, for whatever reason whether for family, friends or just for herself, she annotates the recipe and takes photographs of the result.

That is an astonishing dedication to her craft. That means every time she is in the kitchen she is at work.  Every process she uses, every bit of ingredient that finds its way into her preparation, equipment used, time spent or resource used is recorded.

When you prepare yourself for your work, whether as an employee or as self-employed entrepreneur, do you put the same dedication into it? Obviously your work would involve a different kind of attention to detail. But do you spend the time?

If you are a legal adviser for instance do you drive in your car listening to recordings of case law. If you are a computer geek, do you spend your day networking with other specialists, discussing trends and new technologies. If you are a gardener do you scour the libraries for books, research articles, academic journals or visit gardens whenever you get the opportunity?

The people, including Nigella Lawson, that put this much effort and passion into their work radiate that passion. When they speak about their work they light up. You can’t keep them quiet, they spend all the time talking about their favourite topic often to the total irritation of their friends and families!

Now take these passionate people and imagine that you want to ask for advice or use them as your specialist consultant. Would you want a lawyer who is passionate about his topic, a gardener who loves his plants or a computer geek who radiates enthusiasm? Or would you put your faith into somebody who considers it purely a job.

The second instant that made me remember the importance of passion was an article in the Independent about ‘the woman in charge of Britain’s biggest advertising agency.’  Farah Ramzan Golant runs the show at Abbott Mead Vickers and counts such blue chip clients as General Electric, BT, Royal Mail, Sainsbury’s amongst her agency’s assets.

Throughout the article one characteristic jumps off the page and that is her passion for her job, her agency and her clients. That passion has allowed her to lead the agency from some very shaky times when she first took over, into a strong period of growth.

But that’s not the all of it.  What really made me sit up was her attitude to the strong possibility of hard times ahead for the advertising industry. Her response? Bring it on! She is seeing 2009 as an opportunity to pick up work when other agencies fold because the going gets too tough.

There you have it. The A to Zee. It’s actually the P for Passion rather that will allow you to weather hard times ahead. But you get my gist. If you liked this article you might want to sign up to my feed or fill in your details for the newsletter. No spam. I promise.