The Passion of Business

What is the most important ingredient for business success? Is it a great idea? Great leadership? Great implementation? All these traits are definitely needed but passion for the business makes it a great one.

The reality is that you tend to enjoy most what you are passionate about and what requires you to spend time on. Le petit Prince (the little prince), written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, is a book supposedly for children. It has sold more copies than “to Kill a Mockingbird”, “Gone with the Wind” and “Goodnight Moon” COMBINED. Le petit Prince lived on his own small planet and cared for a rose that he thought was unique. When he started travelling the world, he came upon a whole row of rosebushes, and was disappointed because he believed his rose was the only one in the whole universe. Suddenly, nothing was great or unique about his rose so he lied down in the grass and wept.

Then he met a fox that explains to the Prince that his rose is unique and special, because she is the one that he loves and is passionate about.

Many businesses fail because employees are not passionate about what they do. In his biography “Shift”, Carlos Ghosn the CEO of Nissan explains how during his first 100 days at the helm of Nissan, one of the things he needed to turnaround the failing brand was to instill passion and he did so by bringing back the “Z” model.

In summary, "it is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important."