"Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last." — Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)Passion is defined as "a strong affection or enthusiasm for an object, concept, etc" but a more apt definition is "Passion is the energy that comes from bringing more of YOU into what you do." while satisfaction is defined as the pleasure obtained from such fulfilment of desire.
Why are these two factors important?
To me, they are the very essence of a good career.
Like what Sparks said, one without the other is terrible.
If there is passion but no satisfaction, in the short term, the person may be willing to do as there is a strong affection for it but in the long run if there is no feedback, the person might think it is wrong job fit. It means that no matter how much effort he or she put in, he or she is not contributing to the industry.
However, if there is satisfaction but no passion, the person may not last in the job. The person may be making contributions to the industry but it takes the person huge amount of effort on his or her part to move herself to make that contributions as he or she may not enthusiastic to do so.
If there is no passion and satisfaction, the the likelihood of suffering from job burnout is very high. The following research test a model on the role of passion for work in professional burnout. This model posits that obsessive passion produces conflict between work and other life activities because the person cannot let go of the work activity. Conversely, harmonious passion is expected to prevent conflict while positively contributing to work satisfaction. Finally, conflict is expected to contribute to burnout, whereas work satisfaction should prevent its occurrence. (Vallerand, R. J., Paquet, Y., Philippe, F. L., & Charest, J. (2010). On the role of passion for work in burnout: a process model. Journal of Personality, 78(1), 289-312. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20433620).
One will dread going to work and did not feel any sense of purpose except to earn money which I can assure you that sooner or later, you cant survive on it. Because there is no higher purpose or order that one can align the mind to. No affliation is a tough part with regards to career as one spend almost the whole day working on something they do not even like or feel contributing to something. If there is nothing one can contribute, how to talk about success?
Here is the true example of how passion and job satisfaction merge to get tremendous success in life.
Maxine Clark: How Personal Satisfaction and Passion Leads to Success (Build-a-Bear Workshop)One of the most admirable women entrepreneur [2] in recent years is Maxine Clark, founder of the highly successful Build-a-Bear Workshop. Her Build-a-Bear Workshop, first launched in St. Louis in 1997, has grown to a $474 million business 10 years later.
Ms. Clark has an extensive experience in retailing, with 19 years experience in various divisions of The May Department Stores. She was the President of Payless ShoeSource, Inc. from November 1992 until January 1996.
In an interview with BusinessWeek, she gave the reason for leaving her job to start her own business:
Despite the lucrative position as top honcho of Payless, Ms. Clark realized that money does not necessarily equal personal satisfaction. She was looking to build a unique shopping [3] experience in retailing and reconnect with customers.
The lightbulb went off for her when she went out shopping for Beanie Babies with a 10-year old friend. Unfortunately, the store was out of inventory when they visited. The remark of her young friend, “These are so easy — we could make them,” led to the idea for Build-a-Bear Workshop.
Ten years later, Ms. Clark has sold over 50 million teddy bears in her workshops. The Chief Executive Bear learned that following herpassion [4] really pays off.
I left Corporate America on a mission to bring the fun back to retailing and to give back to the industry that had been so good to me. I was 47 years old when I left Payless ShoeSource in 1996. At that time, my financial rewards in retailing were very high, but my psychic income account was nearly empty.
I was looking to re-create the excitement and magic I felt as a child when I visited certain stores. Going shopping was an event. You became part of the store, and it was special. The truth is, what it takes to engage and retain retail customers today is really not much different than it was in the past. Build-A-Bear Workshop is about what I call “good old-fashioned, it’s-about-the-customer retailing.”
How to find passion?
One simple approach that is at the heart of my process is to go beyond what you love and ask why you love it. Do some reverse engineering to identify the underlying characteristics that tend to be in place when you're on fire.
Gathering the resulting insights in one place gives you a passion-focused decision tool. Think of it as an internal compass that takes the heart-based passion decision and puts it in the realm that the analytical mind can understand as well.
It takes the guesswork out of the process and lets you make a more concrete evaluation. For example, you can look at a potential job and ask, “How well does this align with these underlying characteristics?” You can do the same with any choice you make. Simply ask the question, “Will this bring me closer to alignment with what energizes me, or farther away?”
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