Erik Michielsen: What are your thoughts and what is your approach in finding and building upon
passions? Simon Sinek: Passion is not an actionable word.
It is correct that those who do what they are passionate about do better, but it is
not helpful advice. The question is where does passion come from? Passion is a result.
Passion is an energy. Passion is the feeling you have when you are engaged in something
you love. Passion is the feeling you have when you would probably do this for free and
you can't believe someone pays you for it. We mistake that passion is something we do
in our private lives but it shouldn't be done in our careers. I`m a firm believer in
you are who you are and anyone who says they are different at home than they are at work
then in one of those two places you are lying. The goal is to make everything you do at home
at work something you are excited to do. So how do you find the thing that you are excited
to do? It is easier than you think. What are the things you would do for free? What do
you do when nobody tells you to do them? How can you recreate that feeling and be paid
for it? I'm very involved in the art world. I love to go to museums and galleries and
I love to go see dances and performances because I want to see how others are interpreting
the world. That inspires me. New ideas, new thoughts, new ways of looking at the world
are things that interest me, privately, and I seek it out and pay money for it. So, does
that mean I have to have a career in the arts? No. That means I have to have a career where
new ideas are explored, where people are experimenting and trying things out and I have to explore
new ideas and try things out and I`m just as excited to go to work each day as I am
to go do something on a Saturday night. The idea of finding your passion is ironically
simple. You should be doing something you love sometime. What is the stuff that you
enjoy and what is the stuff that you love? Who are the people you love and what do they
all have in common?