Passion Not Perfection

I'll take a passionate person over a perfect person every single day of the week and twice on Sunday's. What do I mean by perfect? I mean someone who either thinks they've made it or is comfortable with the success they've achieved thus far. The person who thinks they have all of the answers and isn't open to any sort of constructive criticism or help. You know the types of people I'm talking about.

The people I like more and who I think are more valuable are those overflowing with passion no matter what level of success they've achieved in their life to date. Some people think that you have to earn the right to be passionate which is a concept I've never been able to fully wrap my head around. They say that in order to be passionate and to show the passion you have to have accomplished something great first. Makes no sense. You need passion in order to achieve in the first place. And everyone starts from somewhere. Believe it or not, at times I have actually felt like this myself. I've gotten this sense of imposter syndrome or a feeling that because what I'm doing isn't huge that I can't openly express my passion about it.

Dumb right? Extremely.

It's a mental game that goes on inside of my head and thousands of others. You're scared to share ideas or thoughts because you don't think that you've done enough to earn the right to share.

"Why would anyone listen to me?" Is something I oftentimes used to ask myself.

But it's when I started to come around and turn a corner and started changing the story I was telling inside my own head that I became better. When I started telling myself that I do belong and that I do have the right to share my thoughts and ideas is when I became better. I started to let my passions flow more freely and when I did that, I started to see more and more doors opening up for me. I started to let my life be driven by my passions and threw all of the rest away. It was a hindrance to me and it was doing more harm than good.

Now, back to my original point. People who think they're "perfect" are worthless because perfect doesn't exist in this world. The second you stop hunting and chasing and educating yourself is the second you begin your decline. There's always someone coming up that is studying more than you, learning more than you, and they might even be hungrier than you. You might not see them today and you might not see them tomorrow but they're there and they're coming. Don't let yourself settle and don't let that fire inside of you burn out. Don't start to think you've accomplished anything because in the grand scheme of things you probably haven't accomplished shit. If you keep that attitude and you keep feeding that fire inside of you that is your passion then you'll never lose. You'll never go hungry and get passed up by the competition. For example, Elon Musk is a billionaire. Yet, money doesn't mean anything to him. His passion is to create and innovate and no amount of money in the world would stop that dude from doing just that. He feeds his passion fire every single day ensuring that that thing never goes out until he's dead and gone. And even then, his impact on the world will inspire people for generations to come. His passion fire won't even go out when he's dead and gone. That's a lasting impact.

Strive for that kind of impact. Don't sell yourself short and don't let anyone tell you you don't belong yet. Let your passion show in all that you do. Whether you're just starting out or you run a billion-dollar company. Feed that passion fire. Never slow down and never settle. There's always a new challenge and a new mountain to climb.

Get After It.