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With a new year and decade just beginning let’s get the passion again.
Practically every team in professional sports has one or perhaps more players who were not high draft choices but have excelled. A prime example is quarterback Tom Brady who was drafted 199th in the 2000 NFL draft and has led New England to six Super Bowl titles.
How can draft experts and team executives be so wrong?
Easy. You can’t always gauge passion, desire, effort or heart.
As author T. S. Eliot put it, “It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind.”
You can detect passion in someone but trying to predict how far it will carry or what will result are more intangible. But without real passion, a job is just a place to go.
Passion is at the top of the list of the skills you need to excel at whether you’re in sports, sales or any other occupation. As volunteers in Rotary passion and perseverance especially apply. Passion is the “desire and drive” to motivate us, while perseverance is the “don’t give up, keep going” attitude.
We all have multiple reasons for joining Rotary; and one common reason may have been to benefit your career. Rotary’s commitment to vocational service is built on the highest ethical standards in business and professions. No matter our profession, we all contribute abundantly when we conduct our work with integrity and adhere to The Four-Way-Test. As we continue our work to grow Rotary, let us remember that vocational service remains a vital selling point to potential members.
Whether it’s your job or serving Rotary there is no substitute for passion. Love what you do and do what you love. Surround yourself with people who are passionate. You’ll catch their passion! You may not always feel passionate, and that’s when perseverance helps!
I’ve always admired the passion demonstrated by the late Steve Jobs, who said “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”
With passion, we’ll grow Rotary! Happy New Year District 5750 Rotarians; and remember, passion never goes out of fashion!Yours in Rotary,
Lance Singleton
District Governor 2019-2020
Rotary is built on connection. When Paul Harris came to Chicago as a young lawyer, he formed Rotary for one compelling reason: to help him connect to others in a new city. More than a century later, we have at our disposal countless ways to form friendships and networks, most of which Paul Harris never dreamed. Yet Rotary’s ability to connect us remains unique — and unrivaled.
