The Case for a Different Set of Entrepreneurial Traits
I hear the term “passion” quite a bit these days. I hear people talk about themselves and others as “passionate” as if it is the trait to have. I read advice on how to find and pursue your passion. In the same way that they used to say “sex sells”, passion also sells.
But for all of this passion we’re buying and selling— I wonder sometimes; have we lost sight of something more important? It’s a word that is closely related to passion — in fact your just need to add three letters at the beginning of it. I’m talking about compassion.
Why do I believe we might have sacrificed compassion as we have adopted passion? Primarily, compassion involves patience. Those who are truly compassionate are extremely patient. But when we lose patience — with people, processes, or things, we lose compassion. It happens slowly at first, but once it begins, it becomes an avalanche.
Don’t believe me? Try an experiment.
Tomorrow, when you wake up, give meditation an honest go for 5–10 minutes. Really just sit and observe your thoughts, but do your best to keep yourself from grabbing on to them.
It’s helpful to think of thoughts and feelings as taxis driving by, and stopping to pick up fares. You don’t have to jump in them if you don’t want to. So try not jumping in. Stay where you are — just watching the taxis come and go.
Once you’re finished, venture outside into the world and go about your regular day. Drive in traffic, get a coffee during the coffee shop’s peak breakfast hour. Go into work and check your email. But all the while, pay attention to one thing in particular: how quickly you form expectations, and how much your feelings — both physical and psychological become hooked to those expectations.
Once you venture into the world, expectations fly fast and furious. They can and do become part of your everyday mental processes. In traffic, you expect people to move quickly, you expect lights to change. When they don’t you get frustrated. At the coffee shop, you expect some level of service, you expect people to move in line, and you expect hot coffee if that’s what you ordered. When those expectations aren’t met, you get frustrated.
Every day we form a thousand expectations, and every day, a thousand more are not met. So every day, we feel the building frustration of a thousand let-downs. Sure, there is always the pleasure of all of the expectations that are met, but when those don’t outweigh the pain of unmet ones — we feel uneasy and tense. We withdraw, or lash out. We become less patient, and thus less compassionate.
Each time we take on another goal, another project, and develop passion for it, we pin our more of our happiness to expectations being met, progress being made, and whittle away even more patience — even more compassion. We sacrifice compassion for passion. We work hard and play hard, but we also become hardened.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t pursue projects and goals passionately. What I am saying is that we need to temper our passion with compassion. We need to temper our expectations with patience. Things will routinely not turn out how we expect or desire. We need to not only get used to that, but learn to accept it — and roll with it.
The crazy thing is that in the long run, compassion may actually be more helpful to you than passion. Compassion requires patience, restraint, and open-mindedness. It requires that as many views and facts as possible be taken into consideration. Talk to any entrepreneur who has been in the game for longer than a few booms and busts, and they will tell you: those three traits are key in long-term success.
Passion is fine, but as this world keeps turning, let’s not overlook compassion. Aside from helping you to be a good person, it might just make you a great one, as well.
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